Snowed In

Once again another relatively unproductive week, so not very much to report unfortunately, apart from the snow. We had quite a lot of it fall on Sunday night and into Monday morning, and even now there is still some lingering in the shade round the back of the house. That has made even walking around town quite treacherous because every night the snow keeps freezing again and you really have to watch your step on the cobbles and the hills.

Last Saturday we did manage to get a football match played, before the cold weather took hold. I played 90 minutes against the 6th team from the same college as me - a local derby you might say. We managed to win, but not very convincingly, so I was given a fair runaround and was glad of the final whistle. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were wiped out with evening committments but we trained on Wednesday, although all the grass pitches were waterlogged so the session was limited to 5-a-side on the netball courts in college. There is supposed to be another game tomorrow, this time against the team 2nd in the league, which will be tough if it goes ahead but the forecast is for -4 degrees overnight and the sports staff are notoriously protective of the pitches so I'm not holding out too much hope that it will get played.

I'm off to Preston tomorrow night until Sunday evening so I won't get chance to get any walking done over the weekend. The plan is to hopefully get out either Wednesday or Thursday next week, even if for just 45 minutes, just to get going again.

I'll be sorry to miss the Winter League at Andreas on Sunday. I had hoped to be home this weekend for an 18th birthday, which would have been ideal to coincide with the walk, but it hasn't worked out because of the Preston trip so I'll have to wait until Easter and the final round before I get another go at a 10k race.

I've recently read on manxathletics.com that the Fire Stations Challenge will be taking place this year...for a while there was some doubt as to whether it would happen at all. The date is Sunday 26th April (the day I am supposed to be back in Durham to start the summer term) so it's not looking likely that I will be able to do it, which is a big shame as I enjoyed very much last year even with the sleet and snow in the morning.

Apparently the route has been revised so that instead of the previous 50-mile course from Port Erin via the 7 fire stations to Douglas, the walk now starts in Peel and follows the Parish course to Ramsey, which is 30 miles because it includes the detour to Jurby, Bride and Andreas. Obviously it won't be a '7 station' challenge any more but I reckon the organisers have got it spot-on for the reasons they have mentioned: 1) the quieter roads in the North and 2) the proximity of the Parish Walk. There wasn't a great number of people who even attempted to complete the whole course last year, although I suppose a valid argument is that for those who want to do 50 miles, the option should be there - especially when you consider it's not even 3/4 distance of what they will be doing in June. I'm sure that it will be a great event though and valuable training time for everyone, regardless of their targets for the Parish Walk.

There will apparently be more info coming up soon on www.iomfire.com but if you fancy the walk, it might be worth keeping tabs on the forums on the Manx Athletics site for the official word:

http://pub38.bravenet.com/forum/3219660836

Have a good weekend, especially if there is still some snow on the Slieaus.