Clerical Medical Parish Walk – 23 June 07

1330 entered and more than 1100 started the 85 mile Clerical Medical Parish Walk around the Isle of Man. In this British classic, walkers must visit every Parish church on that island – indeed competitors have to touch the gate of each church as they pass. Once again, Robbie Callister was the winner.

http://www.parishwalk.com/

The following fine report by Isle of Man Newspapers Sports Editor John Watterton sums things up nicely Callister controls Parish Walk to secure fifth win Robbie Callister was in control of the 2007 Clerical Medical Parish Walk from the second his rival and friend
Sean Hands retired at the top of Ballakillowey on the lower levels of the Sloc. Every time the Castletown man has led at the top of the Sloc (or Peel too for that matter), he has never lost a Parish and he duly rattled up his fifth success in seven years with the seventh fastest time ever. Such is his consistency and speed, Callister has recorded four of the fastest seven finishing times in the history of the event. The purists would say that Robbie’s
style is not that of an out-and-out race walker, though this year it looked a little more refined, but it sure is effective.

Now one short of John Cannell’s all-time record of six wins, Callister has one burning ambition left ? to win a hat-trick of Parish Walks. His initial bid was scuppered in 2003 when Peter Kaneen, one of the Island’s race walking elite, beat him to the prize, while the second likely three-in-a-row came to an end last year when Hands
produced that blistering, memorable record-breaking performance. Whether Callister will have the pace in his legs at 54 to finally achieve that feat in 2009 (assuming he also wins next year) is open to debate, but he shows no sign of letting up. He is the current-day king of the Parish Walk.

Most of the leading contenders left the NSC start in convoy. All eyes were on Callister, Hands, Sue Biggart, Ray Pitts, Michael George, Roy Crellin and one or two more, but it was Jane Gibson ? who had slipped through the net as far as having a graded number as a previous finisher of the event ? who set the early pace. Down as Kathryn Kennaugh (her middle and maiden names), the former leading short distance walker certainly had the
radio commentators bamboozled as she headed away from Braddan Church towards Union Mills. The fairer sex were certainly quick off the mark and Sue Biggart was first to reach Marown (her own parish church) closely followed by her training partner Ray Pitts.
The first of the roads restricted to race traffic, the Glen Darragh Road between Glen Vine and the Braaid, and the Oatlands Road between Santon Straight and the Old Castletown Road, enabled the race pattern to be set. By Santon Church (11.5-miles) Callister and Hands were out in front, registering their time on the Manx Telecom wristband timing system at 1hr 54min, followed three quarters of a minute later by southsider Andrew Titley and northerner David ‘Lon’ Chambers. Sue Biggart had slipped to eighth, with Jane Mooney 10th and Jane Kennaugh
12th – remarkably close to their finishing positions 20 or so hours later.

Eight miles farther on at Rushen, Callister and Hands were still out in front and seemingly set for another close battle as had been largely predicted. They clocked in at 11.20 and 30 seconds, just three hours 20 minutes after setting off from Douglas, now enjoying a 90s lead over new third place man Michael George who was steaming along nicely, closely pursued by Pitts, with ex-Marine Thomas Melvin joining Titley on the road in fifth spot.

Within 20 minutes, the race had turned on its head and Callister was ploughing a lone furrow up the Sloc without his mate and sometime training partner Hands.
‘My calves and my hamstrings were tightening a little, but to be honest my heart wasn’t really in it this year otherwise I would have battled through that,’ said the 2007 hero. ‘In short I’ve been a bit lazy over the winter and not prepared for this as well as I should have done.’

Both great sportsmen, Callister offered to slacken the pace to enable his companion to get over his initial bad patch and hopefully continue, but Hands insisted he carried on without him.
Now all alone on the road, Callister arrived in Peel a little before 1.39pm in a race time of 5:38.44, 6m 44s down on the record schedule established by Hands 12 months earlier. There was a slight scare for the four-times winner as he negotiated the Town Hall steps, a touch of cramp in the back of his left hamstring causing him to ease up as
he walked away up Derby Road and down Church Street (past the chippy without being tempted to invest).

Second on the road, 3m 44s in arrears was Douglas hotelier Michael George, looking strong, if a little warm, followed by Ray Pitts at a similar margin, then a gap of more than 15 minutes before Sue Biggart and Thomas Melvin exited the town – both having overhauled Steve Partington who made a pre-arranged stop. He left four minutes later in tandem with Eammon Harkin.
Callister reached Kirk Michael at 2.48pm with an extended six-minute advantage over George, while the leader hit the halfway point at Ballaugh in 7hr 20min 10sec , still within nine minutes of last year’s record pace.

Positions remained largely unchanged up the northwest coastline, with the exception that Melvin moved ahead of Biggart and Harkin in front of Partington. At Bride, the most northerly point of the 85-mile route, Callister had extended his lead to 7m 17s over George, with Pitts at a further eight minutes in third. Dozens applauded and cheered the leaders (indeed all the competitors who passed that way) at Andreas where not one but two roadside barbecues and random drinks stations had been set up 100 yards apart in Le Tour style.
But the party appeared to be over for George a couple of miles down the road at Kerroogarroo where he was visibly slowing. The gap between him and leader Callister had shot up to 12 minutes and Pitts was reeling in the struggling Douglas man by the yard. George inevitably lost second place to Pitts at St Jude’s and frankly looked in all kinds of difficulties.

At Maughold, the social club members were out in force, downing more G&Ts and burgers than any of the competitors would dare to attempt. By now, Callister, Pitts and co were well on their way to the next church at Lonan and while the record was not looking on, it was still possible that both men could be in line for a personal best at least.
The main accolades were once again reserved for that man Robbie Callister who looked and appeared as fresh as a daisy at the finish.
‘It’s a shame Sean (Hands] went out so early on. I thought we were on for another close battle up until then and I was all set for Sean to take it again really. It was a long, hard race and the conditions were very mixed. I started fast with Sean and maintained the pace to Bride, but I knew Michael George had slowed so I slackened my pace and consolidated my lead. The standard of race walking in the Isle of Man is amazing. There were some great
performances out there – next year will be even harder.’

And to finalise proceedings, here are the first 20 places from this famous annual 85 Miles race.
1 Robbie Callister 15:36:47
2 Ray Pitts 15:51:42
3 Michael George 15:57:00
4 Eammon Harkin 16:40:24
5 Thomas Melvin 16:46:53
6 Jock Waddington 16:48:18
7 Sue Biggart 16:49:46
8 Steve Partington 17:13:50
9 Terry Moffat 17:21:38
10 Jane Mooney 17:26:36
11 Martijn Biesmans 17:29:41
12 Alison Brand 17:31:18
12 Kathryn Kennaugh 17:31:18
14 Catherine Lowey 17:37:34
15 Michael Shipsides 17:40:28
16 Andrew Titley 17:49:56
17 Dave Cain 17:55:09
18 Mark Hempsall 17:58:06
19 Kevin Marshall 18:10:06
20 Julian Thomas 18:10:35