'Friendship drew me to running event for more than 50 years'

A man who has taken part in the Isle of Man Easter Festival of Running for more than 50 years despite injury said his efforts are to "renew friendships."

The event, which started in 1963, will see a record 770 people take part across three days.

The races include a 10km (6 mile) run in Port Erin on Friday evening, a 5km (3 mile) Peel Hill race on Saturday afternoon, and a 5km race on Douglas promenade on Sunday.

Ian Allenby, from London, first travelled to the island for the festival with Sheffield University in 1974. He said: "It's really about renewing friendship and the camaraderie that pulls me back to the island each year.

"I started as a teenager, and I'm now in my 70s," he said, adding that he hadn't expected to still be coming to the event for this long.

In 1978, Allenby would run up to 70 miles (113km) a week to try to gain selection to the team for his local club, which had been promoted to the top division of the British Athletics League.

Despite picking up an ankle injury in early 1978, Allenby had his best results at the Easter festival of running on the island, which included coming 29th out of 125 competitors.

Although ultimately his injury impacted his ability to run, Allenby continued to walk the event over the years.

"I carried on attending the festival, taking part in the races until I was 40 and then I decided that having come last in the hill race for three consecutive years, to stop taking part and help out with marshalling.

"But for the last couple of years I have done some of the races again, although I still come last in the hill race," he said.

Allenby travels to the island with Leeds University as he is involved in the cross country team, which this year will see a group of 90 travel to the island for the event.

The festival is popular amongst British university running clubs, with teams visiting regularly from Leeds, Manchester, St Andrew's, UCL, Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and York.

"The main changes I have noticed to the festival over the last 50 years are the increase in female participants and that there are now far fewer pubs to visit on the route back from Peel to Douglas after the hill races on the Saturday," he added.

This year will be his 44th time returning for the event.

Chris Quine, race director for the festival said: "We try to make it a fun and vibrant atmosphere, there are lots of visitors coming from universities in the UK who bring a lot of colour and life to the event."

The festival will see the Lower Promenade in Port Erin closed to vehicles from 16:00 until 21:00 on Friday, and East Quay in Peel closed on Saturday afternoon.

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