I am almost half way through a lovely holiday in Wengen (Switzerland) to coincide with Marie and my 30th wedding anniversary. On 27 August 1984 we were married at Ebenezer Methodist Chapel in Kirk Michael where family friends Rex Kissack and Ann Crowe conducted the service and played the organ. They and their spouses and just nine family members attended our reception at the Carmodil Cafe in Ballaugh Glen.
On our anniversary we had lunch at the summit of the Schilthorn where Roger Moore appeared as James Bond in Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Life changes quite quickly sometimes. My plan only a couple of years earlier had been to take part in the Olympics in the Summer of 1984 and not to get married!
After representing Great Britain as a race walker at 20km, 35km (twice) and 50km in 1981 and 1982, and the Isle of Man at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in 1982, I made the decision to change my training, move up another gear and have stab at the Olympics.
I failed for two reasons. When I started to work on my weaknesses instead of my strengths it became apparent that they were too great to overcome. My upper body strength is pathetic. Secondly, but it is linked to the first, the additional training brought to a head the damage I had done to my back at school messing with weights (unsupervised). Even during the period of my best results I had been sleeping on the floor to overcome the back pain.
I retired from race walking in November 1983 after consulting with a back specialist in Manchester. It was never a case that I could no longer take part in race walking, indeed I made a few appearances in the 10 years that followed, but rather that I would be ill advised to continue putting my back under such pressure and the words "wheelchair and old age" were used.
It was only a few weeks later that I met Marie and we chose to marry within eight months of meeting.
At that time I was treasurer of Boundary Harriers and I also took on the role of treasurer of the IOMAA before passing over both roles to stand as chairman of the IOMAA on a point of principle. I had many other roles including newsletter editor and coached a few athletes, or at least mentored them. Running was introduced merely to avoid getting unfit.
I never imagined that 30 years later I would be worried about missing a day of training tomorrow because of a cold (two years ago I also retired from marathon running because of a knee injury and concerns about my hip).
And so, if you are interested enough to read this, don't write off this blog yet.
I have encountered a problem accessing my home computer whilst on holiday and so at this stage I can't update the website.
When I first wrote the blog it was intended to provide context to the website. During the last 10 months I have principally used Facebook to announce updates and post extra news.
During the next few weeks I intend to publish a series of blog entries about issues I have observed in athletics during the past 30 years.
After that my plans may change as suddenly as they did in 1984. I may retire it or I might be writing here in 30 years time that I planned to!
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