So different to last week

I started a gruelling training session at the National Sports Centre at 6 am today and the roadway was completely dry. It could not have been more different to the same time last week when I went there for a few laps before the Parish Walk to find the road still flooded.

I've only missed a handful of the Ramsey Park Runs since they were first held in 2001 but last night was one of them. It was the only night that we could meet my brother and his family before they return home after a 9 night holiday in the Isle of Man. For Mike, that included taking thousands of photos at the Manx Telecom Parish Walk; for his son-in-law David, that included walking half of the course.

I've just managed to publish the results of Laa Columb Killey (thanks Adrian) before heading off to clean our holiday cottage - had to pay a cleaner last week so as not to miss the walk. I'll only be back briefly later this afternoon.

Despite reminding others to watch Keith Gerrard in the European Championships tonight, I shall be out tonight with a couple of visitors from work and my local colleagues. Right now they may be wearing some of my clothes as they arrived yesterday afternoon but their baggage didn't! So I had a hectic hour taking them around Douglas shops, our house for coats and shoes and leaving them at their hotel before going south again for our family dinner at the Hop Garden.

Blues all day

As was expected, the funeral service for Martin Caley was a sad occasion yesterday. And as so often happens, you learn things about people  when they pass away that you did not know when they were alive. Five degrees is quite staggering. And to get a first class maths degree on the Open University "for fun" says it all. Over a 1000 books on an incredibly diverse range of subjects.

On the previous blog post I asked if someone would like to add more names to the photo at the NSC which included Martin and Steve Taylor has responded:

Girl in red pants - Trisha Crellin

Girl in blue jacket - Tracey Crellin

Over John Cannell's right shoulder - Tommy Kelly

Over John Cannell's left shoulder in yellow jacket - Andy Garrett

Next to Jim Anderson - Melanie McDermott

Next to Denis Lace - Steve Taylor and next to him Robbie Lambie

So it took Jools Holland's rhythm & blues orchestra to take the blues away and what a night. Two hours of wholesome sound.

It was just a shame that I missed Laa Columb Killey yet again but thanks to Tom Cringle for sending me Sarah's photos. I published one last night and another just now.

I've extended my coverage of the Manx Telecom Parish Walk on the other channel because I have so much to do yet. Its going to be a struggle though as we have social engagements nearly every day until a week on Sunday. 

The European Championships seem to be hidden away this year, the BBC only has coverage on the red button, but I must watch some this weekend, particularly to see Manxman Keith Gerrard in the 10,000 metres. Probably too late to watch the Olympic Trials now but I read last night in Athletics Weekly that the air was blue when Dwaine Chambers was interviewed.

Its been a while

Just in case anyone doesn't know, the reason I have not been blogging here is because of the time I have committed to the www.parishwalk.com site in the past couple of weeks - and I have been writing another blog there since last Friday. http://manxtelecomparishwalk.blogspot.com/

Some other events have passed me by. I've not watched any of the UK championships and I'm going to have to give a few of the local events a miss in the next couple of weeks.

I returned to the www.manxathletics.com last night and for part of tonight though to complete the tribute to Martin Caley following receipt of an envelope containing photos and hand written notes from Phil Cain.

Its still bugging me that I can't find certain photos of Martin in my own collection but at least here is one with him in the distance. He has his red jacket on and he has his camera in hand. I think it was taken around 1983 or 1984 before the first version of the clubhouse was put in place.

One of the groups of people watching is John Cannell, Tony Varley, Dave Ronan and Jim Anderson.

Nearest to the camera is Frank Williams while I am crouched whilst lapscoring. Gladys Callow is also in red while two of the people wearing hats are Dennis Lace and Johnny Quine, both now deceased.

Who else do you recognise?

Don't want to see the back of Adam Russell

Here is a side view of Adam Russell in the 2011 Snaefell Race. I've got a good reason to see the back of him after the stunt he pulled on me on Saturday.

I was helping him compile his Parish Walk programme for local radio station 3FM. I went to the studio in Victoria Street armed with all my statistics and before he switched on the microphone I checked with him about the type of question he was to ask me so that I could have the stats at the ready.

Then he pulled a fast one. "Name the first three in this year's race and their times?" he asked me. "Starting with third".

"Vinny Lynch in 15.10" I said assuming that conditions would be reasonable and that Vinny would make a further improvement. As far as possible I try to get other people to make the predictions so the heat, that had been so lacking when only an hour earlier I had been running up and down the nearby promenade in the pouring rain, was well and truly on.

Wanting to show faith in so many walkers that I knew I realised that this could only backfire if I predicted record times so in the time it takes to count to ten the times had stopped flowing from  my mouth. "Richard Gerrard will finish second and Michael George will win. But I'm not prepared to guess the time" I said.

Escaping from the second floor of what was once Martins Bank and where I last went above the ground floor to visit my Uncle John to open a bank account after it became Barclays, you would think I would be glad to see the back of Adam after failing to find a place in the top three for Robbie Callister, where I think he will be, never mind demoting the poll favourite to second and leaving the perennial over achiever Vinny Lynch trailing.

But I'm not. I've seen enough of it already.

Take the 10km at the Easter Festival for a start. I passed him at two miles only to see his back floating past me with a mile to go. The following week at St Johns he goes off too fast, I catch him up only for me to have to watch the back of him again for the last 10%.

We head for London. For 26.1 miles of the course I am ahead of him. We turn into the Mall and guess who goes past?

Since then we've raced again at St Johns and twice in Ramsey. Always I end up with a view of his behind.

I didn't like his question but I would rather such an affront than allowing him to continue as a past master.

5 years on

Since watching my first London Marathon in 1983 the event has meant so much to me. It has every range of competitor from Olympic champions to "Joe Jogger" not to mention the pantomime horses.

What is also had in the early years was a lot of younger athletes and running sub 2.30 was good but not special. People were coming from nowhere and with a couple of years running beating 3 hours.

Five years ago I told the story about a group of my friends who did exactly that.

http://www.manxathletics.com/2007features/London1983.htm

And five years later one of them is no longer with us. 

I'm grateful to Robbie Lambie for writing the obituary to Martin Caley who passed away in the early hours of yesterday morning. 

Reading Robbie's tribute has left me without any further energy to continue working on the Parish Walk site which was my main focus tonight. 

I've spent ages during the past 30 hours or so trying to locate a photo of our winning team from the 1982 Millennium Way Relay - an event that Martin re-took the lead on the third leg. 

10km track report and results

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/sport/isle-of-man-sport/personal-bests-by-ollie-and-gail-in-10k-1-4651017

Clear view?

I'm hoping to cover the Bradda Fell Race tomorrow. I hope that the view is clearer than when I made the video below in 2007 - the first of the action videos on my channel.

Someone asked then what the connection was between Dylan and the Bradda Fell Race and some wit replied that Dylan had broken off from his UK tour to run there in the 60s. Not true of course but it started a tradition of matching the soundtrack for this race to a Dylan song every year. This one has had more than 1500 hits.