Photos tomorrow

I keep changing my mind about the scale of my coverage of the Isle of Man Mountain Ultra (that still doesn't roll off the tongue like the Manx Mountain Marathon) but my current thinking is to climb North Barrule only partially and get the Ramsey backdrop but leaving me with more time to go up a summit a bit further on.

Once again, thanks to Manx Telecom, I will have the use of their dongle so I hope to publish some photos from around the course. Given the weight of my elderly laptop it does put me off climbing to the North Barrule Summit.

I've been on my own for the past couple of nights as Marie has been away with her work. I've been lead astray a couple of times during her absence - but only by her dog!

I'd like to say that I am itching for her to come home tonight but I am not very fond the word "itch" at the moment as my itching is driving me mad, especially at nights.

Best of luck to all competitors but especially Nigel Armstrong who had such tough luck last year when be was in even better shape than this year but had a nasty fall coming down from Greeba Mountain. On the afternoon of the race last year he called around at my house and he climbed the stairs to where I was working on the website. Looking back it was quite funny because my dodgy knee had been aggravated climbing North Barrule and we were both extremely slow descending the stairs.Last Saturday I sat in concert seats for more than an hour without knee pain for the first time in more than a year. But Nigel is so fit I bet he could still go down the stairs faster than me - even after winning the Mountain Ultra.