And......they're off

Entries for the End 2 End walk and the End to End mountain bike challenge opened at the same time at midnight on Tuesday. For seven or eight seconds, it was a tight run race, however, the E2E bike challenge has just edged slightly ahead with 1379 entries so far and they are on course for another record entry for 2012!

Now that the eating and drinking frenzy that is commonly called 'Christmas' is well and truly behind us and the daylight is starting to lengthen in the evenings, many people are encouraged to get out and about and to start their training in earnest.
If you haven't already, now is the time to get started.
Many of you will be focused on the Parish Walk, however, there are several shorter walks in the next couple of months to whet your appetite:

1. Sun 5th Feb - Winter walking league (1, 2, 5, 10K)  10:00 at the NSC perimeter roadway. Sign on from 09:30
2. Sat 3rd March - Manx Open meeting (1 Mile, 2, 5, 10, 20K) at the NSC perimeter roadway. Various start times (see web site)
3. Thu 15th Mar - Spring Handicap (5K)  at the NSC perimeter roadway. Veterans (over 35) only.
4. Sun 22nd Apr - Sara Killey Memorial Walk (31 miles/50K) Peel to Ramsey. Entry form here.

Everyone will be made very welcome at each of these events regardless of your abilities. They are organised by Manx Harriers (1 & 2), IoM Veteran Athletes' Club (3) and IoM Fire Service (4).
So....get training!

The day before tomorrow

Entries open tomorrow (actually at midnight tonight - Jan 31st) and I'm taking side bets on who will be the first this year!
Interest in this event grows year on year so the organising committee decided prior to the 2011 event to open the entries earlier in the year rather than the usual July date. The decision for this was that there was no real reason to wait until July other than that date was after the Parish. "Why not open entries much earlier?", we thought, and let the entries trickle in over the following months. It worked well last year so we have done the same again for 2012.
Traai di liooar (Manx for 'time enough') will inevitably kick in though as it tends to do and there'll be a last minute rush in 7½ months' time just before entries close!
I've got to thank Adrian Cowin who hosts and looks after the E2E Walk web site on our behalf. He has done a lot of work on updating the contents and layout for this year and has sorted out this blog to enable me to add updates.