Terence Reaches a Peak, Though His Fashion Sense Goes Downhill

At the moment, the local athletics scene is enjoying a surge in popularity with large participation numbers across quite a few of the disciplines.

A couple of weeks ago there was a record of 256 for the Microgaming Cross Country first round at Ballanette and last Saturday the Aston sponsored Winter Hill League resumed with a huge line up of 114 adults and juniors. The hill races are a bit of an introduction to fell running, not being as long or tough, on courses which are marked out rather than being a test of navigational skills. Therefore, you don't require the map, compass, full body clothing and whistle etc. to be allowed to set off as you would for a full fell run.

Saturday saw our son and in all probability your waiter at some stage, Terence, running for the first time since 2010. A little time in the gym being all the preparation he'd had.

Here he is, attempting to grasp victory in the 'Worst Dressed Competition' but incredibly one or two were even worse. Pic by Steve Partington

The distance was 4km (2.5 miles) which of course with the nature and contours of the terrain is much harder than it sounds. That having been said, our local fell running superstar, Lloyd Taggart won, breaking the course record in only 15min 10secs, though the much younger and upcoming, Ben Corkill was only 15 seconds in arrears. Jackie Taggart (wife of the above) also broke the woman's record in 18:17.

LLoyd Taggart Pic by Steve Partington

Ben Corkill Pic by Steve Partington

Jackie Lee Pic by Murray Lambden

Our Terence? He's naturally pretty fit and though I harboured fears that he may fall flat on his face both figuratively and literally, as he was only wearing a pair of road running trainers, he came a highly respectable 33rd place only just over 4 minutes behind the leader.

Results: http://static.squarespace.com/static/50c834e5e4b0a53fd189c25c/t/544e644ee4b05929edbc556a/1414423630788/WHL1%202014.pdf

The great thing about these events is that you get to see places that you rarely visit, in this case, Cringle Plantation and Reservoir which is yet another area which has been adapted for Mountain biking, too. In fact the following day, there was an 'Off Road Triathlon' at the same venue.

Of course I was wearing about 15 layers, armed with flasks of hot coffee, expecting to be frozen and blown off the hill, only to find it to be sheltered and almost tropical in temperature for the time of year which explains my state of half dress in the photograph.

Over the course of the year, Manx Fell runners organise a series of races, culminating with the prestigious Manx Mountain Ultra (formerly Manx Mountain Marathon, which sees the athletes climbing all the Island's major peaks from North to South.

The local club is very friendly and should you wish to participate in any of their organised running up and falling off mountains, see the link below:

www.manxfellrunners.org

The Welbeck Wally with The Welly

Now anyone with even a passing interest in the England football team will remember Steve MacLaren, the Wally with the Brolly who stood in his suit watching his team drown, with more of a parasol to shelter under. Well now he has competition, 'The Welbeck Wally with the Wellies .'

I knew the forecast was decidedly dodgy but I had to do at least 15k walking training yesterday to keep up with my schedule, so I set off at about 4:15pm luckily during a break in the weather.

However, my good fortune didn't last very long because by the time I reached the bridge at West Quay, it had already started to rain. By the time I hit the Old Castletown Road, this had developed into a cloud burst and approaching Port Soderick Village, I was wading through ankle deep water.

It would have been almost possible to surf down the hill towards the railway station!

Although it relented somewhat by the time I hit the coast, by the time I returned home, I was just a dripping mess.

I jumped in the shower because I only had about half an hour before I was due to judge the walking race at Isle of Man Veterans Athletics Club Autumn Handicap.

The one certain thing was that I was going to be dressed for the occasion, so there I was, looking like the Michelin man, wearing tights, leggings, two pairs of socks 15 jumpers and a waterproof jacket. But my Wellington boots were nowhere to be seen.

With a rare flash of inspiration, I realised they had been in Irene's car for the last six months from when she and my son Terence had borrowed them to visit my chum Richard Creer at Ballabunt Farm.

The blood had only just returned to my feet, following my earlier drenching, so there was no way I going to let them get wet again. I grabbed the spare key and drove to her gym where I located her car and quickly grabbed the footwear as I was now running in my usual edge of late zone.

After stopping in the Quarterbridge car park, I took my shoes off and slid the right foot straight into the boot but the left one wouldn't go on. Therefore, I stood and stamped before realising I had picked up one of Irene's, my poor toes were totally squashed! The twylight exposing the state of my diminishing eyesight.

And you've guessed it! The rain had ceased and didn't return until our race had long since finished and the runners were lining up!

Had we been filming our attempts to remove the offending welly, I'm sure we could have sent it into one of the TV programmes and let my stupidity finally earn us some money but in the end all we had from it were sore sides from laughing and a rather bemused cat.

The runners cop a soaking