Forgot the promises

I'm off work now until next Wednesday and plan to "relax" by taking an interest in this Parish Walk thingy that is going on.

So I'm not staying online late tonight as I am going to do my "Saturday" run tomorrow before spending most of the rest of the day preparing my coverage of the event - I have a whole new front page to set up apart from anything else.

So forget what I said about about going you more stats pre-race, I'm signing off here now after 289 posts in the past 7 months.

There will be a new blog linked into the new front page by tomorrow evening which will carry the race commentary and post race analysis.

Good bye.

Murray

PS I'm back already to say that there have been 1052 visitors to the site already today.

You can tell we are getting close

Visitors to the the parishwalk.com site this week:

Sunday - 389
Monday - 613
Tuesday -721

Belt you with stats

Despite spending more time than ever on websites in the past 6 months there are one or two things that I am not going to achieve.

I've only managed three featured walkers this year rather than the planned half dozen but the three features that I had lined up will hopefully be the first three next year.

Setting up a new photo site was forced on me with the collapse of the fotopic site and has consumed a huge amount of time. I've got 65.000 photos uploaded and hopefully will go live tomorrow.

I'll try not to disappoint the stat fans in the final few days. And probably a few grumpy old man comments to come too.

Google Earth Map

There is a new version of the Google Earth Map of the course including toilets and feeding stations at http://kevsrambles.brinkster.net/pw/parishwalkmap.htm

It has been compiled by Kevin Deakes.

Updates

I've just completed another version of the following files:

All entrants by name

All 2011 entrants

Entrants from previous years not entered in 2011

One week from now

...we will on record time.

Database updates

Thanks for the latest feedback. Here are the new versions of the following files:

All entrants since 1960 (excluding non finishers up to 1973):

http://www.parishwalk.com/2011/PW11all.pdf

The records of everyone who is entered for 2011:

http://www.parishwalk.com/2011/PW112011.pdf

And those that haven't entered this year:

http://www.parishwalk.com/2011/PW112011no.pdf

Is the latter category that I am particularly to keen to receive information about if you think, for example, I have given separate ID numbers to the same person.

Thanks.

Murray

Whatever happened to Manxwiki?

http://www.manxwiki.com/

James is up for the challenge

James Bassett is going to try and develop the Parish Walk page on wikipedia shortly.

Don't forget though the whole concept of Wikipedia is to work together so don't be afraid to add some extras.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parish_Walk

You can tell its getter close

328 people visited the PW website yesterday. There were 808 on the final day of entries but the number of visitors has gone down a bit since. Tuesday is generally the busiest day for some reason which contrasts with the manxathletics website where Monday is the peak day excluding event days.

Feeding stations

They are now listed here:

http://www.parishwalk.co.uk/Information.htm#Feeding

No poles permitted

http://www.parishwalk.co.uk/Information.htm#Poles

Additional information on the information page.

Road closures

The full list of road closures and restrictions were published in the Examiner this week.

They are also available online here. https://www.gov.im/residents/roadnotifications/Notification.aspx?id=2629

I'll add a link on the information page.

Beware if you use Google Chrome (as I do) for your web browser as you can't open the pdf file. Its fine with Internet Exploder (sic).

Another update to the information page

Entries closed at 23.59 on Sunday 15 May - you must enter online using a debit or credit card so if you do not have access to the internet (or no not have a credit or debit card) then please arrange for your friends or family to enter you as soon as possible.

Wikipedia

Parish Walk on Wikipedia

I've been tempted to have a go at this myself but don't have the time. Anyone going to have a go? 

This notice was published on the information page on 1 December 2010

VERY IMPORTANT: You must read (and be sure you understand) all of the rules and information on this page before you enter the 2011 Scottish Widows Parish Walk. If you do not agree with the rules and information you should not enter. Once you have entered there will be no refund of entry fees under any circumstances and your entry is not transferable to any other person. If you fail to comply with the rules and information you may be disqualified without warning from the 2011 and subsequent Scottish Widows Parish Walks. If you require clarity on any of the rules you should contact Elizabeth Corran (race secretary) at least one month before the entry deadline on 15 May 2011. The organisers reserve the right to cancel the event, vary or shorten the course or introduce any additional rules that are deemed by the organisers to be necessary for the safety and enjoyment of the walkers.

Registration 17.30 to 20.30

Thanks to James Bassett for spotting my error on the information page. Its sounds like I had problems with the 24 clock. Registration is open to 20.30 not 18.30. Its corrected now.

Jock's been to the bank

http://www.manx.net/news/2391/parish-walk-winner-jock-waddington-visits-barclays-wealth

Chips with everything

This is a good story but I haven't heard about the revolutionary chips to ensure that you maintain contact with the ground.

http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/sport/football/blackpool-fc/85_mile_walk_when_was_that_ever_a_good_idea_1_3477794

I wish someone had told me

Just noticed that had "loggied in" instead of "logged in" on every single page. I think I did this update about a week ago!

TT distracted me

I was going to write some notes about the PW website this lunchtime as I munched my sandwiches but instead I stayed glued to iomtt.com following the TT. That site has moved on so far in recent years and it makes me feel quite inadequate with my efforts.

A hate my computer tonight

I intended to finish this about an hour ago and more but computers and like humans, they start to get slow and inefficient when over used!

But here is the latest version of the big database:

http://www.parishwalk.com/2011/PW11all.pdf

And here is what I have been striving for and promised some weeks ago - all performances by this year entrants:

http://www.parishwalk.com/2011/PW112011.pdf

And the reverse filter, all those that taken part but have not entered this year. This is the one that I probably need most help on as the people are less likely to be looking at the website. There are many listed with slightly different names who I suspect are the same people:

http://www.parishwalk.com/2011/PW112011no.pdf

One good thing, particularly if you still use dialup is that the file sizes are more compact (but still large) than the previous versions with a different pdf file generator.

The computer is starting to hit the wall again - I think it is partly the photo backup process I'm running in the background.

Fingers crossed

I've just picked up one error from the first draft that had re-appeared. PLEASE be patient but still tell me if you spot any others. I did some quick fixes on the web page without updating the underlying database.

Entry analysis version 2 is live

Against my better judgement, I have gone ahead and formatted the results of my work this evening here:

http://www.parishwalk.co.uk/Lineup.html

Number reduced to 1753

The eagle eyed will have noticed that the number dropped by three due to an under aged competitor, a duplicate entry and one other.

213 former finishers

Since 1990 the previous finishers have been allocated the early numbers to give some prestige to the achievement. Of course there are now more finishers starting than there were starters in 1990 (if you see what I mean).

Its a difficult exercise though as about a dozen previous finishers did not flag themselves as such when entering. I included what I thought were the extra names but (as has happened in previous years) I included some people with the same name as previous finishers.

David Brew and David Gelling are not previous finishers. Thanks to Karen Kneale for all the work she did following up the discrepancies.

So there are 213 (as per the programme) not 215.

Now that I have all of the entries reconciled and matched to the numbers I think I will republish the feature again in the next day or two. I can hardly keep my eyes open at the moment.

Martin the second

Martin Jones had been classed as the same person as the one who walked to Peel in 1997. I'm moving him into the new entrant category so that makes the totals, 215, 740 and 801.

5 times finisher started in 2004

Apologies to five times finisher John Callow who told me last year that he was not the same person of that name who took part in 2001 and I have made the same mistake this time. His ID is 314 and not 52.

Didn't debut at 12!

Paul Callow (the one walking this year) tells me that he was only 12 in 1994 - the year I had him taking part for the first time. 2000 was his first year. I need to find out which of them walked in the other years. For now I have allocated a spare ID (1026) to the "other" Paul Callow.

1026	Callow	Paul	St Johns	1994	08:35:48
1362	Callow	Paul	German	2000	07:52:12
1362	Callow	Paul	German	2001	07:18:51
1362	Callow	Paul	German	2002	07:44:23
1362	Callow	Paul	Michael	2005	09:31:00
1363	Callow	Paul A	Jurby	2006	11:41:00
1364	Callow	Paul C	Rushen	2006	04:44:00

New Nick

Nick Halsall (who was once a promising junior cyclist but now a partner in PwC) has written to tell me that he is not the same person with that name who walked in 2008 and 2009.

That makes the breakdown:

215 previous finishers, 741 return walkers and 800 debutants.

Eyes down

Just going to start on the PW database.

Feeding stations

Marown School

Glendarragh Road (on Braaid crossroads end)

Clannagh Road (on New Castletown Rd end)

Grass at Santon church

Orrisdale Road (on St Marks Road end)

Ballasalla (Poachers Pocket)

Malew church

Cross Four Ways (on Rushen side)

Arbory church

Rushen Church

Sloc (at cronk ny earlylaa)

Round Table crossroads

Dalby village

Ballacallin hotel

Glen Maye exit (on Patrick side)

Junction of Patrick Rd and Glen Rushen Rd

Peel – Phillip Christian centre

Lower Ballakaighen on the Kirk Michael Road.

Missing blog posts

I've just found a few comments that I made on the day that entries closed, when I was in autodrive, that I didn't post (they were only in draft).

I'll "release" them now although they might confuse some people because they were written two and half weeks ago.

PS after doing so I changed my mind because they were so out of date - just left the one about the feeding stations.

X marks the spot

It looks pretty dangerous as the bus passes the walkers at Braddan Bridge in 2006.

But it would a lot worse tonight to be in that position when Guy Martin and Michael Dunlop brush the same pavement.

Thanks for feedback

I have a number of emails from people who are not the same person who previous walked with the same name and I will update my analysis as soon as I can. I'm sorry that I haven't replied to any of them yet.

This is all part of the exercise to improve the quality of the information during and after the walk. It has taken me 30 years to get this far and in Parish Walk terms I think I have just about reached Onchan. But many a walker struggles even when they get this far so please bear with me while I take those last steps to a database that, hopefully, can eventually be integrated with the official race information. I'll be at the war memorial with a smile by then.

Photo site

I am not sure how much I have communicated on this matter (I have certainly written a lot on the manxathletics.com site) but the site where I have been hosting most of my photos for the last 8 or 9 years, fotopic.net, went down earlier in the year.

I've not had the time or the energy to remove all the links on the photos page of the Parishwalk.com site.

I subscribed for a premium service at zenfolio.com back in January and started uploading most of my photo collection.

I planned to launch the site on 1 April partly as a nice round target date and partly as a decoy to my planned April fool.

I have now uploaded 58,000 photos including the Parish Walk and many other athletics photos and my other interest, Manx views. I still have several thousand left and some design work for the website. Whilst uploading them I have found that I wasn't as organised as I thought I was and had lots of work to do in this area too.

I've put back the launch twice to 1 May and then today but I'm still not ready. I will be before the Parish Walk.

There are several reasons for the new site.

Firstly I had to find a replacement for fotopic.

Secondly I think I can organise them better with a new site.

Thirdly the new site will have a shopping facility. I have never charged for my photos. It is my hobby and an extension of what I try to do with my websites by allowing people to enjoy the sport. But I do spend time emailing copies to people and answering questions about them. With the new facility you can still view them as much as you like without paying for them (and there will be full size copies) but you will have to pay to download a file without a watermark. You can also buy photos of all shapes and sizes or buy personalised gifts through photobox.co.uk

The charges will be modest and I will pay the subscription costs and all costs associated with running the site. The markup between the prices paid to Photobox and Zenfolio will be donated to charity.

Keep tuned

I make no apology for spending less time on this blog in recent weeks but I am going to turn back to the Parish Walk coverage in the next few days.

A fair amount of my spare time has actually been used planning things for the Parishwalk.com website to ensure that I can maximise coverage on the big day.

Programme online

I've just published the 2011 Scottish Widows Parish Walk programme:

http://www.parishwalk.com/2011/PW11prog.pdf

Thanks to Bridson & Horrox (the printers) for sending the file to me this morning.

Split three ways

I was burning the midnight oil last night (and have just finished) my annual project to split the entries between previous finishers, other returning walkers and first timers.

http://www.manxathletics.com/

Entries for the 2012 Scottish Widows Parish Walk

It seems strange not to be checking the latest entries after five and a half months of that daily procedure.

Had a laugh already today when I heard that someone had missed the deadline because they didn't know it was approaching.

There were 165 days or nearly 4,000 hours to complete a fairly simple task.

Only 200 days until the 2012 entries open at midnight on 1 December 2011. Put that date in your diary/phone/calender/Outlook/wallchart or whatever system you use for reminders.

The dates have been published this year (on a regular basis) by Manx Radio, 3FM, BBC, Energy FM, the Courier, the Examiner, the Manx Independent, Manx Tails (and more) as well as there being a countdown clock on the website and the dates repeated in many places. The sponsors and organisers have used both editorial and adverts to promote the best ever advertised event on the history of Manx sport. The TT may still be the biggest event but the dates are not advertised like they are for the Parish Walk.

The record number of finishers is 183 in 2009

The number each year is:

1974	3
1975	5
1976	4
1977	1
1978	8
1979	5
1980	7
1981	9
1982	8
1983	10
1984	7
1985	15
1986	14
1987	13
1988	6
1989	12
1990	6
1991	9
1992	16
1993	12
1994	12
1995	11
1996	19
1997	24
1998	35
1999	21
2000	36
2001	44
2002	63
2003	64
2004	100
2005	98
2006	163
2007	153
2008	121
2009	187
2010	133

Double takes

There are two people which each of thee following names entered:

Brian Kneale

Chris Callow

Colin Moore

David Smith

Gareth Jones

Ida Cihlarova

These are the ones that I am most likely to get confused about.