I've got another pair of these somewhere

I'm usually dressed down for work but dressing down took a new meaning today. Keen to leave myself plenty of time for de-icing I went to my wardrobe and grabbed a couple of shoes. Imagine my shock when I went to tie my lace at lunchtime and saw what I had done!

I'm inundated with emails again at the moment. Apart from anything its the busy time of the year for holiday bookings. Tomorrow evening I am setting up the new booking system supported by Isle of Man Tourism so I won't be going to Ramsey. I won't be wearing my other pair of  shoes tomorrow either!

Farming and agriculture

The speaker at an event I attended tonight told us that the Isle of Man used to rely in its three legs - agriculture, tourism and farming!

He also told us the BAD news that since state pensions had been introduced life expectancy had risen from 64 to 85.

Next he said that we should make our 2012 resolutions to be more positive about the Isle of Man - at the age of 56 I think is rather GOOD news that I am likely to live to 85 and not 64!

Can't go back to 93

It was in 93 that I first made the trip to the Lancashire Cross Country Championships and the only salvation from my dreadful run yesterday was that I did not go back to 93.

Going off too fast, I pulled up at the end of the first lap before rejoining and struggling around but giving my all over the final stages to avoid loosing my 92nd position! It is only 4 years ago that I finished 30th.

An enjoyable day as always even if I had not read the notes to see that we were flying to Manchester this year and not Liverpool. Andy Fox did a wonderful  job of organising the trip.

The event is a great stepping stone for local athletes and quite a few shone. Although Andy, Gianni Epifani and I have been on nearly all of the trips, the rest of the party has changed many times over the years. Those travelling yesterday made me feel as proud of the Manx as any other and I did lots of talking.

Now to clean that muddy gear.

More Lancs statistics

I'm going to try and find time this evening to update my statistics on the Lancashire Cross Country. I'll be up at 5 am tomorrow morning to travel to the event for the 18th time in 20 years. My own 13 finishes have been:

Year	Venue		Position
1993	Blackburn		31
1996	Lancaster		25
1997	Leyland		?
1999	Blackburn		37
2000	Lancaster		36
2001	Burnley		26
2002	Blackburn		29
2004	Blackburn		27
2005	Blackburn		30
2007	Blackburn		52
2009	Blackburn		30
2010	Blackburn		46
2012	Blackburn		66

I didn't travel in 1994 or 1995.
There was no event in 1998.
I was injured in 2003 and went on crutches.
I was injured in 2006 and retired at the first corner.
I only took photos in 2008 - after a bad run in 2007 I said I had retired from cross country.
I only took photos in 2011 as I was so unfit.

Not fit this year either but made the most of what and have eased down from a low mileage!

Personal worst here we come!

To be sorted

I spent about an hour and half tonight doing more face tagging of photos, mainly from the New Year's Day Fell Race. A never ending job. It is supposed to get a lot quicker the bigger the database but there were so many new faces to teach the software to recognise.

I then moved onto a file of photos named "to be sorted". There were a few nice surprises, such as the one above from a walk with Peel in October, and a few I had been looking for. They were mainly from my pocket camera.

I've been good with ebay recently and not bid for a camera for well over a year but I was following a video camera over the past couple of days intending to enter the bidding at the very last minute. Whilst I was sorting the "to be sorted" I sort of missed the cut off for the video sale. Sorted for now. But there is another one in a couple of days!

Tree surgery

I thought I was well prepared when I set off for the Supercards St Johns Fell Race on New Year's Day. I had my wellies, waterproof trousers, warm coat and hat.

Whilst sitting very close to the river splash on the descent with cameras in hand, I start to wonder what I had done to upset some people. Several people registered direct hits on me as I was soaked. Not only did I have to continually wipe the lenses of the cameras to have any hope of any photos/film but, because I foolishly tucked my trousers into my boots, my feet were drenched too.

I went back to the car park and couldn't remove my right wellie. I walked over to the Cain family and asked for help to be treated unceremoniously by Jordan tugging and Phil and Ann holding me still! They couldn't get it off so they called upon the nearby Alan Corlett, a tree surgeon, to assist. Thankfully he didn't use a chainsaw but there were no delicate movements just me being lifted up as Alan tugged it off.

Now if anyone wanted some revenge on me, that would have been the moment if they had a camera!

Half full....or half empty?

After enjoying the company of Ben for the past 10 days, and having visitors in our adjoining property for the past four weeks, we have been enjoying our own company tonight...apart from Alfie the dog.

The glass has been in various states of capacity tonight just as on Christmas Day when Ben captured me through my wine glass.

I have been beavering away today at a few background jobs including more face tagging (Boxing Day photos) but without much to publish.

And in answer to my own question? So far as my athletics career is concerned, 2013 starts with me reaching the dregs at the bottom of the glass. With regard to website publishing,  the glass will need plenty of refills but I'm starting believing that it is more than half full.

Very best wishes to everyone for 2013. It won't all be good for everyone but I hope that we can hide from the real world by enjoying our sport. If you can make a sentence to include  "Isle of Man", "best place to live", "athletics", "fun" and "achievement"  you will know where my thoughts lie.