THE Isle of Man Half Marathon provided a half century of runs this year - and what a good run it was too.

After the Friday night race in South Wales, I had driven to Birmingham to catch a flight to Ronaldsway Airport on the south of the island. When we got off the plane the weather was awful. It was that horrible sticky drizzle which clings to your skin. I had hoped to spend the rest of the day sightseeing, but in the circumstances that seemed a pretty futile thing to do.

The Harlow 10 had been a tough race the week before, as had the Mynyddislwyn Mile on Friday evening. I can't say I enjoyed either race with any great satisfaction, and was looking to the Isle of Man half as a confidence boost ahead of a tough schedule of races over the next few weeks.

I wasn't disappointed.

By the time of the start of the race at 9.30am, the wet weather was much the same as the day before, but no-one was complaining, especially the marathon runners who had set off half an hour earlier on the same route - only they had two laps to complete.

The first four miles out of Ramsey where the race is based was pretty hilly. There was compensation from the views looking out over the cliffs and to the sandy beaches. I was running at a good 7min 10sec pace and feeling okay.

I tried hard to latch onto a group of runners on a couple of occasions, but this tactic never worked. Once when I finally caught to group, their pace then slowed, so I pushed on.

The hills finished once we had reached the village of Bride and four miles and turned inland. There the route became flatter, the countryside spectacular with wild grassland and steep hills, some of the peaks shrouded in cloud. But that cloud soon parted and the sun came out for the second half of the race.

The village of Andreas represented the seven mile mark and it was here that I started to pick off some of the marathon runners. I didn't envy them one little bit. Towards the end I passed a blind runner called Paul Watts from North London who was being accompanied by a partner. That is one hell of a brave thing to do.

I was happy with my running and my pace. I've run faster, but I was comforable.

At the village of St Judes I hit the 10-mile mark in 75 minutes - five minutes faster than my time at Harlow. That was great news and with a gentle run in to Ramsey I tried hard to keep my form.

The race finished at Ballacloan Stadium, the home of Ramsey Football Club, where a good sized crowd in the one stand provided a warm welcome to each of the finishers who had come from all over the UK, Ireland and Europe.

I finished 40th in a time of 1hour 38minutes, which was immensely satisfying and helped to eliminate any seeds of doubt I had nurtured.