One my old mates here....

I made a lot of friends in the walking world back in the 80s but one of the best was Denis Jackson. He was fiercely competitive and always so unassuming.

I made my GB debut on the track at Brighton alongside Denis and the stadium announcer kindly announced that we were the future of British 50km walking. I'm afraid my future was short but Denis stayed around much longer and always did better than anyone would predict.

You can now find the finish of his European 50km performance on YouTube.

I'm hoping to meet up with Denis in a couple of months but I see his nephew reasonable often - he my co-website publisher Paul Jackson.

The long run tonight

I'm starting a website session tonight, mainly on the parishwalk.com site, in a good mood having listened to a couple of the Eagles talking to Simon Mayo on Radio 2. They are promoting their new DVD "History of the Eagles" and I really hope that I can get to see them one last time.

What's unusual about the Eagles (compared to most other 70s bands) is that all four of the long serving members, and even the three ex-members, are all still alive! Yet, a few years ago Joe Walsh appeared on the  BBC's One Show on the same day as they were talking about pensions. Bear in mind all the drug and alcohol abuse they put themselves through, he was asked had he made provisions for his pension to which he replied: "I didn't think I would be alive this long."

I used Joe Walsh's solo hit "Rocky Mountain High" on my one my Snaefell Fell Race videos a few years ago but it was blocked. One thing was for sure, it wasn't written about fell running.

Adam chases his story

Adam Russell recorded  a negative split last week as he rushed to get his interviews for the Marathon Manx radio programmes. I caught him in the above photo as he is about to produce his microphone e to interview the runner ahead who claims to be setting a world record!

Seriously, he has kindly allowed me to keep copies of his two programmes.

You can find them on the London Marathon page or

Listen here:   Episode 1   Episode 2

Just found out

The third and final version of the 2013 fixture list was published on 13 November. I published my version on the same day including a round of the Dave Phillips Road Races on 3 May. I have just found out today that this has been changed to 10 May. Its still on the IOMAA site as 3 May so be careful.

London Marathon in less than 6 days

Some years it has taken me months to get around to watching the TV coverage but I whizzed through the 330 minutes tonight. I was worth it just for one quote from Paula Radcliffe which went something like:

"Its much easier to run the second half of a marathon faster than the first."

I know what she meant of course. If you go too fast in the first half you are going to be slowing all the way to the finish. But not many people are fit enough to cruise the first half and then speed up.Especially if you put your spikes on as Colin Jackson said they were doing at the start!

In some ways I wish I had not known the result because it really was a great race. And as the commentators said, in fairness to Mo Farah, he did not appear to hog the limelight.

I liked Steve Cram's comment too about how he usually advises people to follow the example of the elite with regard to pace judgement. Of course Steve ran alongside our very own Paul Curphey on one occasion looking for tips.

Kipsang and Mutai taking advice on pace judgement from Paul Curphey

Not in overall results

Scott Overall failed to finish the London Marathon (was he a pacemaker?) but another runner appears to have made the overall results by default. Have a look at his split times - he was with the leaders at 20km  (having not registered a time before then)  but then continues at six and a half hour pace but still beats 4 hours. The word CHEAT is on my tongue.

On the way to the start

Here are Ed Gumbley, Paul Sykes, Nigel Armstrong, Paul Curphey and Mike Garrett on the way to the start of the marathon.

Its an almost impossible job finding out who from the Isle of Man is running each year but do please spread the word for next year that I compile the data.

I found out today that there were two more Manx runners but it was too late to include them in the press this week. And I have run out of time to do the new features I planned tonight after republishing all of the stats.

Those impossible jobs

I started the evening with an impossible job - writing a news paper report on the marathon in 400 words. So many things I would have liked to have said.

I finished the evening on an impossible job. I was looking for one particular person in my photo collection, found that they weren't face tagged and have just spent an hour and a half face tagging more events. That one will never end!

Here is the video

A small selection

Most of my photos of the marathon have yet to see the light of day yet. Here are a selection. The last one is from the DLR just out of Westferry Station looking down towards my third photo position.

5 sub 3 this year

There were 8 sub three hour performances in London last year but just 5 this year. But that's still the second best during the period of my records (2002). Here are all the sub 3 hour runs:

Jess Petersson	2012	02:34:56
Ed Gumbley	2010	02:35:14
Ed Gumbley	2013	02:37:44
Murray Lambden	2005	02:43:06
Nigel Armstrong	2006	02:44:32
Murray Lambden	2009	02:45:59
Jess Petersson	2003	02:46:10
Paul Curphey	2002	02:46:19
Peter Hughes	2002	02:48:00
Paul Curphey	2003	02:48:34
Murray Lambden	2010	02:49:54
Max Bezance	2008	02:50:00
Mike Garrett	2013	02:50:06
Tim Knott	2013	02:50:34
Paul Curphey	2004	02:51:01
Mark Clague	2008	02:53:15
Nigel Armstrong	2007	02:53:19
Nigel Armstrong	2008	02:53:19
Nigel Armstrong	2005	02:53:20
Mike Garrett	2004	02:53:43
Nigel Armstrong	2011	02:53:47
Christian Varley	2009	02:54:31
Mike Garrett	2012	02:54:55
Jim MacGregor	2012	02:55:31
Paul Curphey	2005	02:55:40
Tim Knott	2012	02:55:40
Gianni Epifani	2012	02:55:47
Adam Russell	2013	02:56:08
Nigel Armstrong	2012	02:56:26
Adam Russell	2012	02:56:29
Darren Sharpe	2007	02:57:01
Mike Garrett	2007	02:57:07
Mark Clague	2010	02:57:12
Murray Lambden	2012	02:57:45
Peter Hughes	2003	02:57:49
Rob Sellors	2011	02:58:00
Murray Lambden	2007	02:58:19
Mark Clague	2011	02:58:22
Nigel Armstrong	2004	02:58:24
Nigel Armstrong	2013	02:58:37
Murray Lambden	2002	02:59:32

Video bits and pieces

I set off for the marathon with five guys that were all to be wearing Manx Harriers vests so it was not surprising that my eyes were focused on them. I therefore failed to spot the other runners at sub three hour pace, that is Tim Knott, Rebecca Wallace and Adam Russell.

I've managed to include two short clips of Tim in the little video compilation here and Adam appears briefly once, but I still can't find Rebecca.  I couldn't have had the video running when she went past just after 20 miles even though I must have started it again just after as I tell Nigel that she is just ahead of him.

That's about all I have on video.

Its a hard life

We've been listening to Adam's Manx Radio programme.

Tim's arm in the news again

Tim Knott had to raise his arm and shout at me to get my attention yesterday. I only managed to get a photo of him disappearing into the distance but I have now managed to get a clip from my video.

Tim has made commendable progress since his debut in 2009:

2009	03:16:25
2010	03:02:04
2012	02:55:40
2013	02:50:54

In 2009 he fell and broke his arm. Good job he didn't have to wave it to get my attention that year.

Ed & Mike set the pace again

It was a close thing. Mike set a cracking pace whilst Ed built up a big reserve and kept a consistent speed. Mike was later reduced to a snail's pace before a couple of late surges. But Ed once again came out top for his ability to just keep a relentless pace.

I'm describing the post race breakfast!

We had a guest at the end of the table too. Nigel Maddocks has been in London to watch the marathon and hopes to run it next year.

More food

Off to breakfast now!

Thanks guys

For the past twenty years my athletics has focused on running in the London Marathon, if not the current year then the year after. Today was the first time in that period that I knew I wouldn't be running again so I had my ups and downs.

The ups were from 20 miles onwards, through to laughing at the guys at our hotel struggling to move to another Nigel inspired night out at Jamie's Italian. A good day.

Breakfast briefing

Sweet race day

I've just been for a 15 minute run around by the Tate & Lyle factory. I had to be careful not to slip on the icy patches in places. Then I got in the shower and realised that I had a little sunburn on my forehead from yesterday. Its that kind of weather this weekend but, although its easy for me to say when I'm not running, I think its the best race weather there has ever been!

I'm going to meet the other guys for breakfast now. Think I'll be eating more than them!

No flexibility for late arrivals

Last year we saw someone pleading with officials to be allowed to register after the 5 pm deadline. But with 37,000 entrants there can only be one answer - "no".

I was on a DLR train today arriving at Custom House Station (the one to use for registration at Excel) at 4.50 and the guard was wishing people on the train good luck for the marathon. I followed a few very late in who just made it. Then the finish arrived as per the video.

I wonder if others did try and register late?

First 24 hours in London

I planned to leave the house at 6 am yesterday morning and as I got into the car the pips for 6 came on the radio. That set the scene for a perfect day.

By 6.24 I had picked up Mike Garrett, dropped him at the airport, parked my car back at the office and jogged back. By 8.40 we were in London and bagged left at the hotel at 9;15.

By staying at the Ramada Hotel between London City Airport and Excel meant that it was only five minutes to registration for the runners but registration was not even open at that time.

When we did go, I ceremonially ripped up my registration to avoid the temptation and then went for a wander with Paul Curphey and Paul Sykes. We met Sarah Astin who was working at the exhibition and then found Ollie Lockley working on a cash till. But the best luck was getting the timing right to see two of the world's best marathon runners being interviewed. And I got some pretty decent photos.

Had a jog with Nigel Armstrong and Mike and took camera with me for action shots. Good sized buffet meal last night.

Had a run for an hour this morning up around Olympic site and breakfast awaits in two minutes. Must go. Photo of Ed  Gumbley and Mike last night.

The good side of marathons

Like most other people I have thought a lot this week about the terrible events of Boston. I've not yet found the words that are suitable to make a comment.

So I'm concentrating on the good part of the marathon. The nerves, the eating, the drinking, the sleeping, the forecasting and that's before the race starts!

I'm on the "red eye" to London City in the morning. If you are around at the airport and see me anywhere in London, do give me a shout. Just three cameras packed!

China is broken

I usually start my training at 7 am but the weather was foul today and I was feeling hard of going out the door. To make matters worse, my diet has also lapsed recently and I had a bit too much of the "A" element last night.

As I deferred the inevitable soaking I switched on the TV. BBC's flagship station had sent, at great expense, a team of staff to China. But they were not there to investigate the role that China has played in causing the possibility of a nuclear war with their support of North Korea over the years.

Instead they spent nearly ten minutes talking about how the best car driver overtook his slower team mate at the last race. Worse still, there is still such a condemnation by the commentators that he should do so.

With even more money invested in Formula One (and more hours to fill), I am sure that Sky spent at least as much time criticising the principle that the best person should win. I watched some of Sky's coverage of the Chinese Grand Prix this afternoon and the commentary was enough to make you throw up when at the start: "Harder to read than Chaucer but with a bigger plot than an Agatha Christie murder."

I might have been slow on my run this morning but with my grumpy old man hat on I had time to "pen" my preview of the London Marathon. I'm already wound up about that one that someone should be paid not to finish.

Whatever happened the idea that the best man, or woman, wins?  That's a hard question to ask when your football team loses!

Under the radar

I've had a bit of sleep deprivation over the past couple of nights. I was up early yesterday morning as I wanted to run before taking Marie for an early morning plane. Last night it was late by the time I finished the video of the Ramsey Park runs and I was up before 5.30 to run, walk Marie's dog and get to the cottage to start the cleaning by 8.30.

I say dog because unlike that damn puppy mentioned in that never changing advert on Manx Radio, Marie's puppy has grown up. Not that I should be knocking Manx Radio tonight of all nights, as with Marie away and just a puppy, I mean, dog in the house I have Mike Reynold's show blasting out. Great stuff.

But I am only standing now because I ended up crashing out when I got back from the cottage this afternoon. So it's only been in the last couple of hours that I came out from under the radar and got up to speed on the computer.

Even then it was not very exciting. Have just been doing more face tagging of photos. I have covered so many events recently that the number of untagged faces is creeping up towards 200,000.

I've removed a couple of things from the front page and added a two of Stan's photos.

Its the first of two weekends when Marie and I are going our separate ways. I'm not very often allowed to take photos of her when we are out walking but, as she is away, she won't know if I publish one of my favourites when we followed a right of way through a cornfield in Shropshire last summer.

Hopefully something else that will slip under the radar.

Declaring an interest

Five times Olympic athlete Chris Maddocks has launched his own website - you can buy copies of his book through the links or, if you know any of the athletes or his friends you can enjoy the photos. I have to declare an interest here and I have long enjoyed my friendship with Chris. Even though he published this photo of me with Robbie and Ben (in 2009 - the only time we all raced in a half marathon). A few hours later I shaved the beard off - someone later told me it made me look like Harold Shipman.

The inline frame has not worked too well - the website address is http://www.chrismaddocks.co.uk/index.html

Last time in Downing Street

I've had having some family discussions tonight about the late Margaret Thatcher. Nothing like her to divide opinions.

I was in London the day after the 1983 General Election in the days when you could still get into Downing Street (I took the photo above as we waited for the Iron Lady to appear) - something that the Labour Party failed to do. Its not just Downing Street that is less accessible these days but the press too.

I was with Dougie Corkill in 1983 and Dougie was a supporter of the SDP  (the Social Democrat Party) and  when we set sat in a bar in Fleet Street we listened to some journalists drowning their sorrows. They were not happy that Mrs Thatcher had returned to power and blamed the SDP for splitting the opposition.

When DC (Dougie Corkill) met PC in Downing Street

Trying to get on with an old friend

There were lots of questions answered at the Manx Telecom Parish Walk Talk last night in addition to the interviews I featured on the video which lasted for almost 29 minutes as it was.

One of them concerned the difficulty of climbing hills. "Treat them like an old friend" said Allan Callow, my old friend.

I was out running a short time ago on one of my regular courses which includes a climb from the promenade to St Ninians. I would expect to greet an old friend with some warmth and utter some pleasant words. I'm afraid that, even treating that slog as old friend, my usual grunts and swearing under my breath were the best I could offer this old friend.

I never feel like going and reuniting with such old friends first thing in the morning but always feel better for it afterwards. The same thoughts emerge about work, that seminar after work and all the emails that people are waiting for answers to this evening.

Elizabeth Corran, Steve Taylor and Allan Callow at the Walk Talk

Walk talk

I came away with more than an hour of video tonight.

I didn't even get to the end but I stopped on a nice quote when I got to 26:51.

I've had to take action to upgrade my YouTube account.

Pity I couldn't persuade my brain to accept less sleep.Its going to take a couple of hours for the video to upload.

Networking

One of those sayings that I don't like is to say that you are "networking" when you are mixing and chatting to people.

For me, networking involves a server and a number of connected computers. In the case of my home network, its called peer to peer (because there is no server and all connected devices have equal status).

If we must use the saying networking then the last few days, despite the isolation of cleaning the holiday cottage until nearly midnight on Friday, has taken me to the KMPG Relay, to Ramsey with Robbie, being interviewed for a programme about the London Marathon to be broadcast on Manx Radio, to the Peel Centenary Centre and to Port St Mary and Port Erin this morning.

The latter definitely involved networking - after all it was pier to pier.

Photo - Manannan passing Bradda Head.

No photos from this Camra

I ran past the Masonic Hall in Douglas yesterday morning and noticed that they had a marque in the grounds to supplement the hall in readiness for the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) beer festival which started in Douglas yesterday and lasts for three days.

I have a CAMRA mirror on the wall of my home office which was given to me by friends at North Stffs Polytechnic for my 21st birthday. I supported the campaign rather too much that day and after a hectic lunchtime session in the Norfolk Pub in Stoke and made several calls for Hughie in the afternoon.

The Norfolk Pub had just closed when I re-visited Stoke in November. When I returned to the Isle of Man in 1979 I remember visiting the Tholt-y-Will pub a few times - they used to have music there in the evenings at the weekend. Now, that closed long before the Nolfolk. I can't find out how long ago but I suspect its between 10 and 15 years, maybe even longer. So it has been amusing to read the daily reports from the Departure of Infrastructure making reference to the Tholt-y-Will pub!

No time for Camra today and only just time to use the camera. I'm working at our holiday cottage this evening so can't make the run at St Johns but I am hoping to take a few photos at or near the start of the KPMG relay.

230 runners are taking part in the relay - almost as many as will be at the real ale festival!

Castletown return

We've been visiting my sister and family tonight. They are staying in a holiday home in Castletown this week.

Luckily, because I left work early for a dental appointment, I had a little time, albeit a rush, to kill a couple more tasks on the websites.

I listed the Walk Talk (next Tuesday at the Manx Museum) on the Parish Walk site and started my list of London Marathon competitors. I received two more names by email whilst we were out. Keep them coming.

Only two weeks before the bananas come out! Photo of Paul Curphey and Nigel Armstrong London 2012.

Something to chill to

I've had a pretty dull night tonight attending to emails and closing off my Easter Festival coverage. I needed something to laugh at. I suppose that this one follows the theme of my blog last night. When its announced that a church is to close, everyone claims to go every week. See what Rowan Atkinson thought in 1982.

The Pickering award

I've had a few comments about the Pickering trophy although mainly because they didn't know it existed! I've sure I have published it before but here is another trip down memory lane. This is what I had to say in October 1990:

Mr Bell, Mr Pickering, honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen thank you for attending our dinner tonight.

Before I go any further I think that we should show our appreciation to Mr Bell (then Minister for Tourism & Leisure) and to his Chief Executive Mr Toohey, who is also our guest tonight, for getting the Isle of Man a National sports Centre (applause, hopefully).

The athletes have long wanted a track, the public have by and large supported the need for one but it takes political will to convert that need into tartan track and sports fields.

Thank you.

And please convey the Association’s thanks to your other staff members, particularly Mike Ball. Their enthusiasm has extended way beyond a civil servant's duties.

There were calls for the track before the Berlin wall was built, and just as the events in Germany have moved so quickly recently, it is so hard to believe that the track will be laid and open just a year from Tynwald giving the go ahead.

The ball is now clearly in our court to all pull together to justify the building of the National Sports Centre.

Since the Isle of Man first organised the Island games on home soil in 1985 our teams have been enormously successful. In Guernsey and the Faroes our athletes, and in that term I include swimmers and cyclists etc, have carried all before them.

Yet despite these successes the important thing is to get there. It is a pleasure to see Mrs Holt, Chairman of Ronaldsway Aircraft Company, here tonight because her family have been more important than any other factor in making sure that our teams have made it to the games. Her family and her company have played a unique part in the development of our sport.

Their role in the Manx economy has been massive too, just as more recently has been the role of the finance sector. How nice it is to see them supporting us here tonight as well.

The banks are particularly well supported by Barclays, Lloyds, National Westminster and our good friends at the Isle of Man Bank.

GAM Administration played a crucial role in our fundraising in 1989 and they are represented here tonight together with three other finance sector representatives Nationwide Anglia Overseas, Warburg Asset Management, and Royal Life Insurance International.

Manx Telecom and Manx Airlines throughout their short histories have a fine tradition of supporting Manx Sport and it is therefore no surprise that they have come to our aid. Finally, from the world of shipping we welcome Wallem Shipmanagement. John Dorey, their managing director who is with us tonight is obviously expecting to have a good time. His company is also sponsoring the relay walk around the TT course tomorrow and they have entered their own team. But I notice that he has chosen to walk the last stage.

Before I introduce our guest speaker, I would like to thank Robbie Radcliffe and our new Treasurer, David Butterworth for their efforts in organising tonight's dinner. They are two men who look beyond club borders and are dedicated to putting the needs of the athlete first. They are not unique but we need more like them.

We also need more athletes like the gentlemen from the Manx Athletic Club over there. It’s great to see you and I know that you can see the jigsaw that is fitting together. The athlete is paramount in our sport but the best athlete cannot hope to be successful without a supportive government, outstanding sponsors, dedicated officials and sacrificial families.

Ron Pickering is an authority on sport. A former National coach for athletics, he is well known as the anchorman of the highly rated BBC athletics commentary team. We all love to find fault with the front man, David Coleman, as he generates more excitement than any sports commentator, and some of us like to listen to Paul Dickenson with his more serious descriptions of events on the field and Brendan Forster exclaiming the virtues of Steve Cram, his mate from the North East. But it is this man, Ron Pickering, who holds the team together.

Only Ron is capable of bridging the gap between track and field. There are many armchair critics here tonight and we all love to find fault. Recently a letter in an athletics magazine tore strips off the commentary on the TV. But Dr Phil Thomas concluded: "only Ron Pickering with his occasional errors and frank admissions that he had made them, came out with any credit". Those of us who have read the athletics press over the years will know that praise of that level from that man is surely equal to a knighthood!

He has always spoken his mind on drug abuse but is careful not to accuse all Eastern Europeans of being cheats. That is the easy way out. He has merely asked the question "why have standards fallen so drastically in certain events". He is president of arguably top track and field club, Haringay, a club so strong that at one time it was easier to make the Olympic finals of the 110 metre hurdles than to be selected for the A event for the club. The club has boasted such members as Seb Coe as well as the aforementioned Tony Jarrett and Jon Ridgeon, and field internationals such as Dalton Grant and John Herbert. My belief is that the club is a fine example of sport pulling people together in a deprived multi racial part of London.

Recently Ron has organised the largest club sponsorship with East Midlands Electricity, and last year he came to the aid of the International Athletes Club. Their president, David Bedford, was prepared to re-mortgage his house to raise the funds necessary to fund the club’s grand prix meeting. Ron organised an eleventh hour deal with Compaq Computers to avoid this necessity.

I must make one correction to the press stories at the time however. The deal was hailed as Compaq’s first ever sponsorship of athletics. In fact the Isle of Man is not as far behind as some people may imagine for Compaq had sponsored our Island games team in the Faroes some 12 months earlier and the team members carried the Compaq logo on their vests.

Ron is a partner in the Pickering Tolkinson team who advised the government on the site for our sports centre. He has visited the Island many times before and remembered to say hello to the fairies today.

His family have shared the limelight over the years. His wife is a former Olympic champion over 400 metres hurdles ( not sure if I had this right) and has overcome the greatest hurdle of all in the last two years, the cancer that tried to take her life. Their son Shaun is a multi talented British international is regularly throws hammer, shot and discuss.

Ladies and gentlemen - Mr Ron Pickering

Not just a joke

Its more than 22 years since I had the pleasure of entertaining the late Ron Pickering (with Robbie Radcliffe) for a day and then sitting next to him and introducing him to a dinner audience. I learned a lot from him not least that even professional speakers get nervous before they start.

He was re-booked to return to the Isle of Man within a year but he passed away in the interim. His wife travelled to the Isle of Man the following year to present a trophy to the Manx athlete who produced the best performance in the Island Games. I really hope that that trophy is still being awarded.

Jean Pickering won the European long jump championships in 1954 and was also a top sprinter and hurdler. But she became best known for establishing the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund which is estimated to have disbursed around a million pounds to young British athletes including some from the Isle of Man.

Sadly Jean Pickering passed away last week and there has been a flood of tributes for her in the media.

One of the skills Ron demonstrated so well was the use of humour to enforce a serious point. Back at the Palace Hotel in 1990 he had us falling off our chairs telling David Coleman stories before lecturing us on the ethics of sport. I often  think of him when I see "professional fouls" in football.

I wonder what he would think of a runner being paid more to run comfortably within his race pace and dropping out at half distance in a marathon than many of the world's top marathon runners will receive for finishing..I suspect that, unlike some of the current commentators who are fearful of saying what they think, he would have given an eloquent reply to a question on the subject.

For my April Fool this year I used the reverse tactic to Ron's dinner speaking. The facts I published about the Isle of Man Government's cutbacks are very real. Hopefully I grabbed your attention before leading you down the garden path, or should it be garden track, with my story about reducing the track at the National Sports Centre to three lanes.

But the cutbacks are going to be real. I predicted on my blog (it didn't require a particularly high IQ to fathom it out!) on the day the changes to the VAT agreement were announced that wherever the cutbacks occurred everyone would argue they should be somewhere else.

The sports budget lies within the Department of Community, Culture and Leisure and within that department the largest spend is on the heavily loss making bus services. We had a visit on Saturday from a friend who is the former head of the transport services. He oversaw a modernisation of the fleet and an improvement in service levels at a time when bus services were being drastically reduced in the UK.

That service provides the basis for the current frequency of buses and we cannot afford to maintain it. I was out running at 7 am this morning; I was walking the dog around Douglas an hour later and by 10 am I was walking with Marie in Laxey. On all three outings I saw buses with  no passengers at all. I never needed to use both hands to count the passengers.

No doubt if the Sunday and public holiday services were reduced or withdrawn there would be hundreds of people saying that they were on the buses that I saw. I think I can see ways of savings a few of those two million pounds required this year but when the cuts come I will visit an optician. For I am sure I will be told that the buses were all full.