A massive combined effort made Castletown’s first community relay a huge success.
A total of 50 walkers took part in the event, completing 50 rounds of the two-mile course, which looped from the town square to the bypass and back, totalling 100 miles within 24 hours.
Shopkeepers, residents, commissioners, school children, members of Castletown Ale Drinkers’ Society and Southern 100 organising committee plus well-known local sporting characters such as Dave Wilkinson, Ron Ronan and Steve Moynihan, all walked a leg of the challenge which took place from 2pm on Saturday to 2pm on Sunday, August 15-16.
Walkers were co-ordinated throughout by Angela Katz, Stella Watterson, Barbara Doyle and Rosemarie Crellin
Incredibly, they collectively managed to complete the 100-mile distance in a combined overall time of 23 hours 58 minutes and 52 seconds (just 68 seconds inside the 24-hour limit).
The community relay was held in conjunction with the Tower Insurance-sponsored 100-mile Challenge, which followed the same course. It attracted 96 experienced long-distance race walkers from across the British Isles, the Continent, USA, South Africa and Australia, who tackled the full 100 miles. A total of 48 of them completed the challenge, 32 becoming first-time ‘centurions’, in completing 100 miles within 24 hours.
Organiser Robbie Callister, a five-times Parish Walk winner, said staging the event was ‘a big challenge,’ adding: ‘We had to get road closures for half of the road, and put down 480 cones round the course, plus all the signage. It was quite a big set up, and took quite a lot of planning. We had an hour [after roads closed and re-opened] to get everything up and down again.’
He said this will definitely not be an annual thing. ‘There was a heck of a lot of work,’ he said.
Could it be held biannually? ‘We will have to see if everyone is willing to knuckle down,’ he said. ‘We are a small committee so we need to get more people on board. I was amazed at the number of people who stayed up all night to watch.’