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17:58:06 and 18th overall, I am still totally shell shocked. I am absolutely delighted and will not go on without a few thanks to people. Firstly to Liz & Gordon Corran. I approached Liz a few weeks ago and asked her opinion about race strategy and how best I approach it. I said my real aim was to walk at appx 4.5 mph and look for a finish time of around 18:53 hours, Liz thought that sounded fair as she knew I had trained a lot harder than that speed for a long while. Her main suggestion was TO START THE PARISH SLOWLY something I will have etched in my brain forever. She then said, along with Gordon, see how the legs feel at Peel and then see if you want to up the speed a little there. That was the plan and I must admit I did struggle in the early stages letting so many people pass me but in the end I turned a blind eye to it and kept myself busy working out the times and distances done and to go in my head making sure I kept to my schedule. When I arrived at Peel the first person I saw was Gordon and he said hi and at the same moment glanced straight at his watch, looked back to me and nodded approvingly; I never looked back! I found the race was still hard, it is still an 85 mile endurance event but dare I say it I really found that I enjoyed it. What I still find incredible is the amount of encouragement that you receive not only from the great crowds that turn out from around the entire route but also from fellow walkers. My best memories this year came from the shouts and claps from the Andreas BBQ tent and the very kind little girl up north somewhere who gave me one of her home made iced fairy cakes, really delicious and it couldn't of come at a better time, thank you.

I am going to interject this with 3 songs tonight and here is the first of them, sort of walking related but more apt for this post parish blog!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91euxMQ0Zyg

My next thanks go to my support crew am and pm shift. My brother John Hempsall accompanied by my nephew Jacob who got very good at peeling my tangerines at the speed I was expecting them! They did the first section to Patrick where they changed with 2 friends of mine, Steve Hands and Kellie Haworth who had the misfortune of drawing the short end of the stick and doing the looooong shift! Steve and Kellie were great, always on hand for anything and always giving strong words of encouragement. I truly believe the better back up crews make the better walkers. So to both of my back ups a HUGE thanks to you all.

Next song,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdB7AOrBfPg  This one has to be dedicated to anyone with blisters at the moment, you will get what I mean.

My next thanks have to go to my long suffering, gorgeous wife and kids. It goes without saying that without their massive support and patience I would not have walked anywhere. I feel very lucky to have so many people around me who are prepared to give up so much so that I can try and do the training and everything else that is involved with this event. Thankyou. xxx

As for the rest of the race I have to admit I did just plough on. My legs felt really strong, I was in a nice groove and enjoying the feeling of still walking and being able to pass people. This now comes down to a couple of very important things; 1) Training, training and training  2) Not starting too quickly. The recipe is simple but it is hard to get right. I feel this year I got it right, last year I didn't, big difference in final result! Saying that though I will be honest here and say that at the very end of the race I did have a turn for the worse.

As I got to Royal Avenue Alan Cowin turned up to offer some encouragement, I felt great that Al turned up because he had only just got of a flight a few hours before so ty Al. Al did say at this rate I may break the 18 hour mark!!! I had not looked at my watch since Lezayre. I had absolutely no idea about time or pace at this stage because as I had said to Steve earlier I didn't care about all that, I just wanted to get to the end of the prom as fast as I could. Now As Al had said that I arrived on the Prom. and looked and saw that I had appx. 12 minutes to get the end, I have never walked faster anywhere in my life, I went flat out as fast as I could and fortunately I made it with even a minute to spare!

When I crossed the line I was in seventh heaven it was only then I realised I had cracked the 18 hour mark and beaten my old time by such a big amount. At that moment I did what I had promised myself I would do if I finished, 10 weeks prior to that moment, I had a beer. Well, lets be honest here, I had appx. 5 sips and stopped. I then went into the massage "room" said I don't feel to hot and promptly passed out! I asked Ben Scott later how much I had drunk from the bottle as he moved it away from me and he said there was still beer in the neck of the bottle! At this point I must point out that drinking any amount of alcohol after such a long event when the body is so dehydrated anyway is a very dangerous thing to do, and on hindsight is something I would never do again (but it did taste so GOOOD)!

So with that said a big thanks to Ben and Jenny who helped look after me, the ambulance crew and the staff at A & E. At one stage my blood pressure had dropped dangerously low, Kellie had said something like 44/40 and they were quite concerned, but very fortunately I did respond quite quickly to all the saline and glucose drips and after a night in Ward 6 I left the next day just after lunch. So a MASSIVE ty to all the Staff at Nobles especially S/N's Lisa Hall, Shellaine Lee and Brenda Voisey and I am sorry I didn't get any of the A & E names but ty to them all. Post thoughts on this are a massive part of what I am doing now. I have had a "de-brief" with Steve and we couldn't see where we could have got more fluids or sugars in. Steve got to a point where from Peel I was meeting up with him each mile to take bits on, then as the race went on his stops ultimately became every 400 yards or so. I can only think that I may change the proportions I used and make everything a lot more sugary next time, ugh I can't wait! I will also try other brands of things so hopefully this wont ever happen again.

As for my plans now. I am going to take a couple of weeks away from training. I will look forward to hopefully doing the Winter Walking league and the End to End this year. Next year I am going to take a break from the Parish Walk and help support my wife who wants to walk to Peel for her first time and then, I will drive to support Steve who will have a bash at it. I would like to do the WWL and the ETE again next year and work on some good speed work over the next year or so. I would then love to come back to the Parish Walk and have a crack at a 16 hour lap. Something that would be extremely hard to do and as Dermot O Toole pointed out in an instant when I said this to him, only 7 men have ever done that before. Who knows if I will or I wont, it is my plan now but plans can change- hey it wasn't too long ago that I said I would never walk the Parish Walk again! ;-)

As this is my last entry I have to say I hope that you have enjoyed reading my updates and following my ups and downs along the way. Whether you agree or disagree with things I have said or done, my hope is that I have said something that may of helped or been of some benefit to someone, somewhere. If that  is the case then I am happy. I will leave my blog on line for as long as I am able to and look forward to hopefully reading some more blogs next year. To my fellow bloggers Dave and Steve. I have really enjoyed reading about all your build ups and in moments when I struggled to think of anything to write, a quick read through some of yours really gave a lot of inspiration, ty. I think that is about it except for one more thing, my last song. This is a simple one. I dedicate this song to everyone past and present who has ever walked in the Parish Walk... no matter how far, one step or the whole thing. I hope you like it and I look forward to racing again soon.................. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn1w3kLoOuA 

The video is not so hot to this but it does remind me of what is up and coming! This is my favourite song I have posted and it is the second time I have posted it but I love it, I hope you enjoy this one again http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRU9J3PxxxA

It is kind of sad in a way that this will be my last pre race post but it has come at a good time because to be perfectly honest I have almost completely run out of things to write about! (I said almost for those who know me!). This evening saw me down the NSC signing on and saying hello to a lot of familiar faces. I must admit I am in agreement with something Dave Mackie had written a while back when he said that he wanted it all, the race with all of its atmosphere etc Signing on again bought back so many memories from last year good and bad. Seeing all the people lining up and the bustle and hive of activity just started the nerves going a little bit and with it an air of excitement of what is to unfold.

I for one cannot wait. Time for a bit of fun... my predictions. These nuggets are my personal opinion only and I do not mean to offend anyone (bear in mind I am relatively new around here so I will most likely be no where near anyway). Sorry Sue but you are first, I hope I am right but hopefully a new womens record. The mens race is a little tougher because there are so many possibilities here, but here goes. 1st Robbie 2nd Steve 3rd Michael/Ray/Sean I cannot split these 3. Anyone else any ideas? I think Murray has a thread going on the forum with predictions for places, worth a guess for fun.

Finally I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has anything to do with the organising, running and implementing of this great event and the many, many months of work that goes on behind the scenes to actually make this event happen year after year, without you this all wouldn't be possible so thank you. Another thankyou to Murray for actually letting me write a blog in the first place, I have enjoyed reading Daves and Steves very much indeed and I think it was a very good idea to do, so with that said I hope it continues next year and I would look forward to reading about someone elses experiences with their respective build ups etc.

So for now its off to bed and try to get a good nights sleep without lancing myself with my new wristband, I knew I should have signed in on the Friday!!! Good luck to everyone.

Firstly apologies to one and all for my lack of posting, I was away to a wedding in Malta and only got back today. Secondly, what am I going to say??? My fellow bloggers have pretty much said all that I was going to sum up with in some very good pieces. In particular Steve Partington and his advice about food and drink. Some great advice there Steve.

Firstly I will start with my song/video and I will probably wind these up now on account I have no idea whatsoever as to what I could put on next, so I hope you have enjoyed them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pEnEcF-8ro

Secondly, my penultimate weeks worth of training. Well, to be honest I knew from a while back I was going to be in Malta, minimum temperature was 22.9 at night with a daily high around the 31c mark so whatever I was going to be doing was going to be light and easy whatever. My first morning I managed to haul myself out of slumber heaven at 0530 and managed an easy hours run before it got too hot. This I must point out now was the first and last time I did any walking or running outside. I am just going to list my activities and yes I am counting them all; snorkelling, bannana boat, jet skis, swimming, circuit training in the gym, 2 workouts and a couple of tennis lessons. I must also thank here one of the Maltese National Tennis coaches who so very patiently cast his expert eye over my 2 lessons, Rob Tarpey. Rob was very keen to hear all about the Parish Walk etc etc. I get the feeling that although I may be a tennis convert for the future, I feel my entusiasm didn't spill over to him and he may not be gracing our shores to have a go so to speak! So all in all a lot of nothing in terms of training to what the last few weeks have been like which is exactly how I had hoped it would be. In fact I am really up for the challenge now, legs feel great all seems to be in place more or less, just the last minute nerves creeping in every now and then. I cannot wait.

 This week I am not doing a thing except eating my daily quota of carbs. Work has backed up while I was away so at least I will be very busy up until friday night so I can try not to think about the race too much. I have also spent a lot of time deliberating and "mentally arguing" with myself as how to actually walk the Parish this year. I have come to this conclusion. I have put in a lot of training in the last year on the back of my effort last year. I do not want to blow it in the first third of the race. I will start nice and easy and see how I feel as/if I get to Peel and how the days weather is progressing. If I feel good here I push, if I don't I wont. That said I am trying my very best to follow a pace and time schedule that will hopefully get me to my target time of under 20 hours, anything less would be great but it is not a priority and something I must not get wrong. I guess another case of one foot in front of the other with fingers crossed! At this point in my life I am still relatively new to the sport of competitive walking and I have an awful lot more to learn still. I do hope to continue walking this year again with my sights set on the Winter Walking League and the End To End and who knows The Parish Walk 2008!!! I feel that at these upcoming races it is more of a chance to work on being competitive and getting stuck in the thick of things, but not yet. The Parish Walk is still an extremely tough endurance race and something not to take lightly. It has to be treated with the respect it deserves.

Finally, this weekend marks 10 weeks of no alcohol. I have just managed to go the entire Malta trip with none. I do not mind admitting I am not finding it too hard to do but if I get to the Prom. this year then it is safe to say there may be a couple or 3 sunk. I will be honest here and say that I have been up since 4am this morning and I hope that this is making some sort of sense to you, so with that I will close now but I hope to be able to do another entry before the race itself, if I do not manage it I will post one more time with news of how I went on race day. So for now good luck to one and all and I wish everyone a safe and enjoyable Parish Walk 2007. 

First clip this week is a weird one but clever, you will see what I mean, I guess we all know how the "guy" feels!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CQ5AKaEi3U

Hope you can see the association! My song of the week goes to;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4ditCW2TiA  If anyone has an idea for the next song just e-mail it in, I am running out of ideas here..............!

This week saw training go well again. Out the other side no apparent injuries and now starting to get excited and nervous. My training was up on last week as I took a couple of days off for good behaviour from my Peel jolly, although up on last week, still down from my peak of 62 miles the week before. Total at the moment stands at  30.20 miles with another 5 to 10 total to do before Sunday. So without speeds or times my week went something like this,

Monday 5.15 miles, Tuesday 10.52 miles, Wed. 14.51 miles, Thur. day off, Today will do a steady 5 miles at Parish pace, Saturday will be NSC and a swim with the kids so no walking and Sun. will be my last speed session and I am thinking a timed 10k with an odd hill or 2 ,not around Saddlestone! 

As you can see still some miles in there but nothing like what I have been doing. I am almost feeling guilty about the decrease in training in terms of workload etc. Don't get me wrong, I am not totally insane but I do feel like I am almost under training... which I hasten to point out is one of the principals to tapering at this stage, whether it is a walking or running programme. At this stage in anyones training it is too late to get any real gains in terms of strength, speed, stamina or endurance. In fact, more harm than good can come from trying to cram in things at the last moment. What's done is done, it doesn't matter now. If you feel anything is missing from your training don't just wish it there, make a note of it somewhere and then, when you come to train for the next race whatever it may be, work on that particular point first. As I wrote many posts ago, learn from your mistakes, you can still gain positives from negatives- I hope this makes sense?!

On a personal note I would like to say that I am now approaching my 8th week with not even a single glass of wine to my account, I don't think I have ever gone through a TT without touching a drop, but at this stage I am really pleased that I have managed to keep to the strategy and I now have an even bigger incentive to get to that finish line. One of the main reasons I have stopped all alcohol from 10 weeks prior to the race was weight. I am 6 foot 3 give or take. I have spent most of my days doing weight training in some form or another. When I entered the Parish last year I had lost about 6 lbs in weight from the walking I had done prior to the race. I entered the race a t appx. 14 stone 10lbs that was a healthy weight considering my bodyfat was 11 %. Most of my training has been with people who are around 10 to 12 stone and are quick. I knew that if I wanted to make a real go at improving then I had to try and drop a few more pounds. My goal was to drop a stone and go into the race at appx. 13 stone 10lb, well I have managed it and a bit more- weight now 13 stone 6 with bodyfat at 9%. Anyone reading this amateur or professional will know how hard it is to have the discipline to do something like this especially as those who know me know that I have a relatively clean diet anyway. Some may be reading this and wonder why I am being so open and personal. Simple, I set out to do this blog as honestly and openly as I could to give anyone reading it an idea of what sort of things are involved with the type of preperations etc with an event like this. I now only hope that all this hard work to this point has been worth it.

Next week is going to be simple. A gym session, and 3x 1 hour walks with an easy 10 to 15 mile cycle. Nothing else. I am continuing to wipe the feet with surgical spirit and just putting the final bits and pieces together for my expedition!!! So for now not much else, key thoughts still have to be avoiding anyone with germs and trying to stay injury free. As for the race itself, I know that I have done as much as I can and I just hope it has been enough. que sera, sera!

I can't help it, I am guessing most like some cheesy rock, with being the start of June thought this was apt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASisLT5XHtg

This next clip is not strictly along the lines of what I have been posting, there are some interesting walking techniques but just ignore the really daft interview at the end of it... or is it a real tip!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZahrBQBJ3I

So here we are, 22 Days or 514 hours to the start of Parish Walk 2007. I cannot believe it we are in June already and so close to race day. I feel excited and nervous, glad of all the miles through the Winter months but believe it or not I am still nervous about how the walk will actually pan out. I feel that at this point in time I am as about as ready for this as I will ever be, I will have to be, there is no point in worrying about things like training, food, blisters, shoes, clothing or anything else that springs directly to mind, what is or isn't done, is done now (if that makes sense). I am only hoping that my race preparations have been thorough enough and I will just have to have that belief in myself on race day to drive me straight from the start to the finish (ok via appx. 85 miles).

Wih that said my week has gone very well. I am adding a new discipline to my race preps. for this year, it is called Bike Dodge... I guess you all can understand that one. I must admit that as the week has progressed I have tended to follow some very good advice from Steve Partington and keep to "traffic free" areas and places like the NSC to train.

My week started with a 2 day rest following my Peel "jolly", although I did play football on Monday night fortunately no injuries or problems from the day before. Wednesday was an easy 5.20 miles at a really nice easy pace just to stretch the legs out again. Thursday was a speed session with Robbie down at the NSC. Total mileage ended up being 10.23 miles, appx. 8 from walking as I jogged to and from the session to warm up and cool down. I cannot thank Robbie enough for all his time and advice. I find speaking to Robbie and people like him absolutely fascinating. The main thing I pick up on his sheer enthusiasm and love for walking, it is infectious. I would like to wish him every success and to have a good race, good luck. Today, friday, I did an easier 10.60 miles, I would have liked to have done some more but I ran out of time. So that was that, a total of 26.03 miles. I feel almost guilty that I have tapered back so much this week, but as I had so much mileage last week I did need to ease back quite considerably to allow myself enough recovery time. 

Next weeks training will be a 3 or 4 walks and or a cross training session in the gym, the way the roads are at the moment I may do a couple of gym sessions but I am going to wait and see how I feel before I commit myself to anything at this stage. Fingers crossed that all goes well for the remaining weeks now and that we can all start to really look forward to what I am sure will be another great Parish Walk.  

• First of all, here is the link for the song of the week http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np-vhj-gN0A And I guess most of you knew that was coming!

Secondly I am very happy to report back from my hardest week of training I have ever done. No injuries, no blisters and no problems. Monday to today inclusive a grand total of 102.77 miles walked. YES, I did it, I am over the moon. My week went something like this;

• Mon. 21st May, 2 walks, one with a client 1.55 and then my long one of 27.54 miles. Again, times and speeds are not important here I am really trying to stay focused to the distance and just time walking now.
• Tue. 22nd May, 14.20 miles, this walk took in more hills than the walk yesterday.
• Wed. 23rd May, 3 walks. One with a client on the prom - 1.92 miles, one of 5.14 and one last one of 5.80 miles. I had no time for a long walk so had to string 3 walks in for the distance I wanted. Total 12.86.
• Thurs. 24th May, 2h 35 mins on Hills!!! A total of exactly 14 miles. This was a day from hell. I met Al and we did my hill route around Saddlestone. As you know by now we start at the STOP sign at the bottom of the road and do hill repeats on each hill. As there are 5 seperate roads/hills we did each hill 4 times. We were both very tired at the end of it!
• Fri & Saturday no training, rest days.
• Sunday woke up with 70.20 miles under my belt and was determined to get to the magical 100 mile mark. I got up at 04.50h and Al met me at my house for 05.30h. We set off down Saddle Road, made our way to the QB took a left and did the Parish Walk proper to Peel touching all the church gates, 32.57 miles in total (small cooldown after). Our reasons for setting away so early, first I wanted to spend some time with my children so we went earlier, secondly weather reports were quite poor for the afternoon so we decided this start time would suite both of us (you think I am mad? Al was linesman for a cup game in the afternoon after our walk)!

Today I am writing this and I feel great. No aches or pains, nothing. It is like I didn't do the walk yesterday! I cannot believe that I would be writing this following such a hard session. I can only assume that all the months of hard training have finally paid of. I remember the vast majority of the damage I did last year was on the first 25 miles, so for me to have done the Peel walk so well is a massive boost for me now. In January when I originally wrote my training program out I was aware of the amount of walking I had set myself to do. I am glad it is now over and it has been very hard to do, especially on cold and wet winter nights when the draw of a nice brew and the warmth of a fire are beckonning. Now its time to taper my training down and start to plan the final details for the big day. This week will go something like this.

• Monday playing football for Braddan Legends against The Wrinklies!
• Tue. No training.
• Wed. An hours walk on the fun run route, very easy and no pace, just to get the legs going again.
• Thursday, hopefully a speed session for an hour or so with the great Robbie at the NSC.
• Friday a medium paced 2 hour walk. Sat. & Sun. no training.

As you can see I will be lucky to do 25 miles this week so for me it will be a perfect post Peel week. The week after next I intend to add in some cross training at the gym coupled with some cycling. Depending on how all this goes my aim for 3 weeks time are a couple of easy swim sessions and a small walk. Then it will be Carb. loading week!!! Bring on Da Pasta! Again nearer the time I will go a little more in depth about why I am doing things.

So that was my week. As you can imagine I have had a lot of time to think about all sorts of things whilst out walking. My main concerns have been about the many different ways there are to doing structured training programs for events like this one. A fascinating topic with I feel no definning answer. The reason I say this is simple, we are all individual and what may work for one person may not work as well for another. A good example may be myself. My training has all been based on what I consider to be mainly my weaknesses in the race last year. The structure of my program has been from tried and approved training techniques used by coaches world wide. Ie speed sessions, endurance sessions, strength sessions, fartlek and hill repeats of one sort or another. This all put together will hopefully, all being well, give me  the improvement I hope to get in the race this year. That said, a really hot day and my 22 and a half hours from last year may turn out to be a really good time! I am not too worried now. I feel I have done the training and am still having to hope for the right conditions and everything to gel on the day. If I have a really bad race and don't finish this year I will be upset but it wont be from lack of trying. I am going to give it 110%. 

I feel like I have had an insight into the rigourous type of training routines the top men and women in this sport have to go through year round to achieve the remarkable success and times they continue to get. I have to be honest here but I doubt I could put myself through this type of regime again. It has been so hard to do and I have nothing but respect for the top people in this sport. It is a passion and dedication that they seem to live by, for me I feel it is more like a book I can pick up and put down again when I am finished with. I hope it all comes together on the day, and if it doesn't?.....Well, there is always next year!!!   

Last weeks walking went as planned  and with no real problems. For a change I am not going to list times and distances this week, the only important thing was the total mileage covered was 60 walking. My news from last week was that I was in Southampton and I played at Southampton football club on the Thursday in a charity football match.

What an incredible experience. A guided tour of the club on arrival, meet our ex professionals (in our case Jason Dodd and Gordon Watson) who would be playing alongside us, quick sports massage from the physios (you now know what I am like as regards sports massage) then onto the pitch for a warm up and then the game. I realise that most reading this may not be interested in the details of the game so I will skip through this part. The relevant bit is that I played as hard as I could and had a great running session. I must of played ok because a player from each side was chosen as man of the match, I was lucky enough to have got the "away" sides vote and was presented with the match ball all signed etc. All was great until Friday morning.

Friday morning went to move and to cut a long story short, I couldn't move!!! Back, calves and hamstrings all seized. Without any second thought I was on the phone straight away.Managed to get a sports massage in with a very nice girl called Jenny Lawson who works out of the Tennis Club at the Hampshire Rose Bowl (Cricket Club). Boy what a good job she did. Saturday a little sore but Sunday a marked improvement. I can recommend her to anyone in need of a sports massage in that part of the world. In fact I am now confident that I can go into my last "hard" week of Parish training whereas last Friday and Saturday I had serious doubts. Again, I knew I would be a little stiff the next day but had no idea that a change in training at this late stage would have such a big physical impact. It was something I had organised a while back so had sort of taken it into consideration where my training was concerned.

So this is it, with only 33 days to go I am entering my final week of hard walking before I start to taper it down next week. From today (being Monday 21st May) to Sunday inclusive I hope to complete 100 miles with 32 of those coming from walking the Parish proper to Peel on Sunday. I am nervous about the mileage and just hope that things like blisters etc are not a problem. At this stage if I get any kind of negative from my training I will stop doing whatever I am at the time and just call it a day for that session. Again, I feel I am too near to the event to take any chances and with the amount of mileage under my belt at the moment I feel so much better prepared than at the same point in time last year. So fingers crossed and time to hit the roads again.

As I only got back from the UK yesterday I have not had time to look for any walking related songs so I hope to have some in for the next entry.

• Another week wrapped up and it's still full steam ahead. Before I write any more I would like to thank every one for all the emails with song suggestions. The first out of the hat tonight comes from Jude & Ean and in fairness I am surprised my fellow blogger being such an ardent reds fan himself, did not suggest this one... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC2Yqp5KRNg&mode=related&search I think the fans sing it better!Last one this week, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ECyTGZjOJc , again these are only a bit of fun so if you have any more suggestions please email them through.

Only 6 weekends to go. Pressure seems to be slowly building all the time but the fact that my training is still on course and I have managed to still be injury free is pleasing. My week went like this;

• Monday 7th May. 24.5 miles From Lezayre Church following the Parish route all the way back into Douglas, finnishing at my house. I made a point of walking upto Lonan Church and St.Peters but missed out the Prom. I did this one in 4 hours and 53 mins averaging a nice and steady 5.0 mph. I was over the moon! After finding Maughold so hard last year I can actually say I enjoyed it. It is funny but it sort of reminds me when I think back to my childhood and remember the biggest hill around our old house, it was massive, in fact comparable to any mountain! Unfortunately when I went back to visit the old neighbourhood that mountain had "shrunk" into a moderate slope and didn't seem so fierce. I can now understand when Steve Partington et all mention how much they like this part of the course. Don't get me wrong I realise I have scaled it with fresh legs and come race day things will be a whole lot different, but I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders in terms of unnecessary worry. I just hope that at this point in the race, if I make it this far, my legs still have some sort of sensory perception left in them! I found the hardest part of this route was the climb through Ballajora (hope that is correct spelling), again not so bad on fresh legs but I will be mindful that it is still there. I would like to add just one more point here. I came home and my wife asked me how the walk had gone? I said fine but strangely had no recollection of doing any of it before! I remember Lezayre Church, a camera crew on a hill somewhere and the rock cliffs on the road side somewhere further on. Aside from this my memory is quite clear from Lonan to the finish line, from Lezayre to here mostly a complete blank, I know it was dark but at the same time that was a very hard part of the walk for me last year, I have to wonder if this has happened to many other walkers? I may take pictures this year to remind me!

As far as my original training plan went I have pretty much managed to accomplish all that I had set out to do from the start. My only part of the Parish walk not done is the Peel to Lezayre section. From memory I enjoyed the walk from Peel to Ballaugh but there after I can only remember long straight roads to Lezayre, so, for now I will just wait until race day to tackle those again.

• Tuesday 8th May.Now a funny thing happened walking today. A new 10k P.B.! I set of from Carrefour Gym and made my way to the anchor at the swing bridge in Douglas. My route was an easy pace "stretch the legs" out after Monday, walk along the Old Castletown Road, onto Marine Drive, back down onto the Quay and back to the anchor, 6.18 miles in total. As I started walking I felt no ill effects whatsoever from the Lezayre walk, in fact my legs felt very strong so I switched into race walking mode and set off. I know it is hilly so can't be taken as a true P.B. but I did walk the 10k in 55.30 and finnished the entire route 56.57. Back to the gym and finnish with a back and core workout. No leg work today!
• Wednesday 9th May. An easy tempo 16.07 miles. No specific route I just walked where I pleased at no real great pace. This one fact made a change for me. I have never just gone out walking, I have always planned my walks carefully being mindful of the time, so to do this and get back more or less on time was enjoyable.
• Thursday 10th Jan. Hill sessions in Saddlestone! This week 17 of them!!! I truly am close to madness through boredom doing this now, even so still effective and hard work. I started this week on my own as Alan Cowin was one of the officials in the Cowell Cup final (football). Started at the stop sign at the entrance and did 3 repeats on each hill from the far side upto Saddlestone Hill itself, this and the first hill I did 4 repeats on. Al joined me after the match with 6 hills to do. I looked down at my watch and had to show Al. I had done 10 miles in 1,35.35. I know again it was hilly so it doesn't count as any type of P.B. but I did think if only I had this pace on a flat route! This walk covered in total 12.10 miles and I did this in 1,56.47 with an average of 6.2 mph.
• Friday 11th May. To this point I had covered all the walking mileage I had wanted to cover this week so I did an easy run of 4.65 miles with a client and I did a cycle later on by myself. I didn't even record the time or distance, I just wanted to enjoy an easy session.

Total mileage last week walking is 58, running an additional 4.65 and add to that the cycling of which I have no idea of the distance. I feel good still physically but I am now counting down the days and just wish it was a little sooner. For me the next 2 weeks are the hardest in terms of walking distances but I am really looking forward to the tapering off stage of my program. I have a Sports Massage planned for tommorow evening and am really looking forward to that. As far as everything else goes it is all still on track. My self imposed alcohol ban is now 4 weeks in and is not really as hard as I thought it may be, I do now admit that if I do make it to the finish again, I will be crossing the line with a nice cold can of Stella! If I am in a bad way again, this may not happen!

So as far as next week goes it is pretty much the same as this week but with the addition of a few more miles. My main goal and priority now has to be to try and stay injury free. Any sign of any type of injury or problem developing, I will have no hesitation whatsoever to stop wherever I am and get a lift from a friend or catch a cab home. To be this close now with so much training done and ruin my chances of getting to the start line in one piece is a gamble too big to take. So for now it's fingers crossed and press on into next week.

Some are a little more obscure than the obvious, I will not be posting Walk Like An Egyptian, for some reason I think it may bring bad luck or tempt something else more un savoury! Check these out,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTwDijA6NZ4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR1Ln-ctn5E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2RAPHOTGvc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC-D4bPPepY

My own personal choice song for the Parish Walk 2007 that has kept me going through most of my training is this next one by Green Day, great song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxfpMGLMZ7Y if you can suggest anything else then post away, I will try to post at least one more each blog entry from now on in. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COMsKPeWAsw

Not sure if this will work, not sure if I am even allowed to do this, any objections please let me know and I will remove. Otherwise I will try to put on odd songs that are themed towards walking or such. Any suggestions let me know and I will put them up.