Be careful what you wish for.

Sorry about the lack of posts these past few days but for various reasons, I have not had as much time for posting or training for that matter as I would have liked! The planned walk last Tuesday and Wednesday went by the wayside however I had set aside some time last Thursday to do a last bit of training and reccying for the Manx Mountain Marathon. I had decided to set out and do the half marathon route from St Johns to Port Erin.

Thursday morning came along and with it the heavens had opened but by sheer luck, the mist was obscuring the rain. Sally came with me for for a bit of company the first 4 miles or so before running back to the car on the roads. Sally has competed in quite a few fell runs in the past and she always wished one day that we would go running around the hills together but a few years ago, her fell running days coincided with my intensive couch potatoe training regime and so it never happened. Now she is being more careful what she wishes for!

So off I went with visibility of about 20 meters thinking, if I can find my way in this mist, there should be no problems on the day. It was actually surprisingly easy to find the route following two simple rules. One, when ascending a hill - keep going up hill till you can go no further up hill and Two, anything that looks vaguely like a path masquerading as a stream will be a path. Rule two can be applied to both up hill and down hill sections and even bizarrely, on the flat. I finally got to Port Erin in quite a good time for me in just under 3 hours and felt OK apart from I think I will lose my left big toe nail after it rubbed on my fell shoes - that'll be one less to lose on the Parish!

I did take the opportunity to take some photos of the views. This is looking south from the top of South Barrule.

This is looking North from the top of South Barrule.

And this is me enjoying the view...

Yesterday, I took part in the final round of the 10km Winter Walking league and after managing to improve my personal bests in each round, I finished the series by walking my slowest race of the series. So it was back to the drawing board today to get my self motivated again for a final 3 month push on training and what better way than to listen to Roger Black tell us how he prepared and motivated himself to become (amongst his many achievements) an Olympic Medalist. This was an excellent presentation followed by a question and answer session from some of the local celebrities. I was so motivated by the end, I talked myself out of a trip to MacDonald's for lunch and I am now back on track to be an elite international athlete.