John Cannell featured by the BBC

Six times winner John Cannell has been featured on the local BBC website.

Follow this link to read the story:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/isleofman/content/articles/2009/06/19/johncannell_feature.shtml

Its hard to write a blog with your eyes closed

I have actually managed to fall asleep whilst working on my computer before now but I have reached one of those points where I can't manage all the things I planned to do tonight.

As usual for the day before the event, I shall be off work tomorrow preparing for the website but I have twice as many hours to fill as exist.

I'll be blogging on and off through the day.

With two laptops and a desktop at my disposal tomorrow, what I really need to is master the act of using more than one at once like I do with my video and still camera.

Easier to see other people's mistakes than your own

Whilst spotting an error in the Parish Walk stats printed elsewhere, I realised that I had made a mistake myself in a recent blog when I said that David Collister was heading for his 25th finish instead of his 26th.

I am lucky though - online you can correct your mistakes.

Now you see it, now you don't

The eagle eyed among you will have seen that a preview of the Parish Walk appeared briefly on iomtoday this morning. It has now gone.

I contacted sports editor John Watterson about a small part of the report and he quickly had the whole article removed as it was not due for publication until tomorrow when the Manx Independent is published.

Mobile reporting ready to go

I am writing this on my laptop this morning using a mobile connection supplied by Manx Telecom.

I am also picking up one of two laptops to be supplied by Colebourns tonight. This will allow me to increase the numbe of photos and videos I can upload at any one time.

It really is great to have the technology. I used to have to return home to upload photos and wouldn't even dream of having videos.

What happened to the first ever Clerical Medical numbers

Before the days of a dedicated committee to organise the Parish Walk, the late Arthur Jones used to do the vast majority of the organisation.

I was asked to find a sponsor however and made a number of committments to CMI that I thought I had best carry out myself. I made myself unpopular by sticking rigidly to a one week closing date but for the first time all entrants received the entry pack through the post on the Monday morning, two days after the close of entries.

But I have to admit that I took on too much and I was knackered by the time event started and even (very dangerously) nodded off at the wheel.

The evening I brought the first ever set of professionally manufactured numbers home (the previous ones were hand made by Arthur out of old lino) I dumped the box in the hallway together with the computer equipment from Skanco.

Time for a cup of tea.

When I went back into the hall I found that Ben had found a new toy and the numbers were scattered all over the hall! They had been in number order too!

David Collister added to old features page

It was only when compiling the mini-feature below that I realised that I had not added the links to the feature I did on David Collister the week before the event last year to the old features page.

That has now been rectified.

You can also link directly from here:

http://www.parishwalk.co.uk/2008prerace/Current%20Features.htm

There are now 14 featured walkers and you can see the next one on 1 December.

The features are not intended to be a list of the fastest to the slowest or most finishers to least, but rather a cross section of the people for who the Parish Walk is a major part of their year.

David Collister heads for number 26

One of the things that struck me when analysising David Collister's remarkable 25 consecutive finishes is the way that despite his consistency he has fallen down the field as the number of finishers has increased.

In 1995 he was 8th with 21:04:32. In 2007 he was 22 seconds faster for 80th place!

Here is the full ist of finishers again:

25:08:26
1984
7

23:20:28
1985
15

23:27:25
1986
14

21:48:58
1987
12

22:42:25
1988
6

22:43:13
1989
10

21:53:11
1990
5

21:07:21
1991
7

20:22:38
1992
7

20:39:40
1993
6

21:44:44
1994
10

21:04:32
1995
8

21:29:35
1996
12

21:25:34
1997
16

21:51:17
1998
28

21:09:49
1999
14

20:42:54
2000
21

19:56:25
2001
14

20:58:25
2002
20

21:34:34
2003
28

20:21:14
2004
29

20:31:46
2005
42

21:05:43
2006
81

21:24:10
2007
80

21:46:53
2008
73

The Clerical Medical Parish Walk magazine 2009

This is another big step in the status of the Parish Walk.

John Constandinou, the new editor of the Race Walking Record, is producing a special edition for the event. As far as I am aware, this has never been done before for any event in the history of the publication.

And its only costing £2.50 or you can even have five copies (spread them among your friends) for £10.

Find out all about it and order your copies here:


Order a special publication

One of the best parts of this, although John only had a few weeks to organise it, is that by using Michael George as a link to the organising committee he has ensured that the publication has the blessing of the event and he has worked hard to strengthen the links with the event sponsors.

On occasions organisations have suggested producing special products that would undermine the massive investment by Clerical Medical and Manx Telecom.

The message is, if you want to be associated with the event for commercial reasons you must contact the organisers in good time, preferably now for 2010.

BBC to feature walker

I've just been supplying statistics and an old photo of a well known Parish Walker for a feature on the BBC website. Watch this space. Or more precisely, watch the BBC local website in the next day or two.

Final feature goes live

Edmund Shillabeer is the final walker to be featured and the feature is now live.

Bizarre statistic

Here is something that only a statistician would pick up on.

Colin Moore, well known by Peel Football Club supporters for his statistics sent me this one a few months ago - even I would not pick up on this!

On the list of all time fastest times:

between 58 and 62 (Willie Corkill to Joe Brown) - all won (over a span of 38 years 1963-2001)

between 69 and 72 (Chris Flint to brother Martin) - all won (over a span of 38 years 1961-1999)

Final featured walker article drafted

Tonight I have spent all evening compiling an article on the 7th and final featured walker of the year.

I had so much material for the feature that I had put off the difficult part of choosing and editing the content for three months. I certainly didn't want to say that it would definitely happen but now that it is drafted I am pleased that I did.

Hopefully it will be reviewed and published in the next 24 hours.

Update your entry

I've just added the missing shortcut on the front page to:



https://www.sportident.co.uk/entries/login/login.php

Lots of users

339 different people accessed the website yesterday compared to 224 on the Sunday before the walk last year.

Usage peaked at 7,510 users on the Saturday race day last year.

Record holder to provide information

Clerical Medical Parish Walk record holder Sean Hands, pictured above on his way to that record in 2006, is to be on hand at the finish on Saturday evening / Sunday morning to provide a help facility for supporters.

He will be using one of the Colebourn sponsored laptops to to access the Manx Telecom timing system provided by SportIdent.

A second laptop will provide rolling statistics onto a large screen.

Final update page

I have this morning added a final update page to the website which will carry final reminders during the week:

http://www.parishwalk.co.uk/Updates.htm

I've started with the plans for Rushen Church which I posted on the www. manxathetics.com site six weeks ago.

Dru Hamm returns to the Parish Walk

There is a good story about Dru at:

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Brave-Dru-defies-doctors-to.5358535.jp

I've also got a good personal story about Dru's determination which I shall try and bring you this week.

A lull but please be patient

I have an awful lot of things to squeeze on the site (and one or two things to do apart from websites) so bear with me.

This week has not been made any easier by the events at http://www.manxathletics.com/

Split times for that never ending section from Jurby to Bride

Sean Hands
01:22:46
2008

Jock Waddington
01:22:50
2008

Jock Waddington
01:25:12
2007

Robbie Callister
01:25:28
2007

Ray Pitts
01:25:29
2007

Michael George
01:25:48
2007

Robbie Callister
01:25:52
2008

Andrew Titley
01:26:53
2008

Dave Mackey
01:27:39
2008

Thomas Melvin
01:27:48
2007

Terry Moffat
01:28:17
2007

Maurice Bellando
01:28:41
2008

Sue Biggart
01:28:47
2008

Janice Quirk
01:28:47
2008

Michael George
01:29:27
2008

Michael Shipsides
01:29:48
2008

Terry Moffat
01:29:49
2008

Sue Biggart
01:30:12
2007

Martijn Biesmans
01:30:43
2008

Eammon Harkin
01:30:44
2007

Martijn Biesmans
01:31:08
2007

Alan Cowin
01:31:12
2008

Andrew Titley
01:32:18
2007

Jane Mooney
01:32:20
2007

David Chambers
01:33:28
2008

Mark Hempsall
01:33:33
2007

Kathryn Kennaugh
01:33:36
2007

Catherine Lowey
01:34:01
2007

Maureen Moffatt
01:34:13
2008

Kevin Marshall
01:34:24
2007

Alison Brand
01:34:28
2007

Julian Thomas
01:34:54
2007

Tony Okell
01:35:00
2008

Gordon Corran
01:35:07
2008

Alan McCulloch
01:35:23
2008

Stan Sille
01:35:39
2007

Steve Partington
01:35:43
2007

Michael Shipsides
01:35:49
2007

Janice Quirk
01:36:17
2007

David Churcher
01:37:16
2007

Marie Jackson
01:37:24
2008

Vinny Lynch
01:37:40
2008

Ernie Radcliffe
01:37:58
2008

Juan Readshaw
01:38:07
2008

Rosemarie Crellin
01:38:20
2008

Darren Mealin
01:38:22
2008

Mike Gellion
01:38:30
2008

Phil Marshall
01:38:34
2008

John Shimmin
01:39:12
2008

David Cain
01:39:15
2008

Mike Gellion
01:39:17
2007

Dave Cain
01:39:18
2007

Julian Thomas
01:39:19
2008

Michael Bonney
01:39:33
2008

Stephen Harvey
01:39:42
2008