Former Island Games cyclist Martin Hall completed a unique personal challenge involving two laps of the Parish Walk route in less than 36 hours over the weekend.

Last year he completed the 85-mile route on his bike during the hours of darkness, but fell short after a further 67 miles on foot at Maughold and ended up in hospital with kidney failure.

Determined to complete the double challenge, he trained even more for this year’s attempt and walked a lot steadier, managing to complete it at around 6.30am on Sunday in a time of 22hr 29min 15sec (71st overall) his third finish.

It was no picnic, heavy overnight rain on Friday into Saturday morning made the cycle a stiff challenge in itself.

He and a group of friends set off around 8pm on Friday in what was optimistically described as ‘a little rain’, but the odd shower turned out to be a lot more with extremely heavy rain around midnight, punctures, a couple of riders with mild hypothermia, fog, a broken bike (for Martin on the Sloc) and the odd dignified-but-painful spill.

Ultimately, two of his original group of 12 (John Coppell and Trevor Kirkwood) got him home to Glenfaba for three hours kip.

Only a few hours later in totally contrasting conditions, the Parish Walk began on a warm Saturday morning at 8 o’clock without so much as a breeze.

Martin’s friend, Rich Sille, set a good steady pace early of eight hours to Peel as a warm-up. From there it was a case of going it alone with one focus - finishing.

‘You just recalibrate, shrink your goals, and keep moving,’ said Martin, who recently turned 50. ‘Not the finish line, not even the next town, just the next hill or village. Small wins stacked like dry stone walls.

‘The blisters pop inside your shoes and you find out quickly whether you’re the kind of person who stops or the kind who extracts a layer and keeps walking into the cold dark toward Maughold, the exact place that put you in hospital last year.

‘A stranger named Fawn Cregeen appeared at the exact location that broke me in 2025. Five hours of chat, solidarity and talking absolute nonsense through the night followed. Sometimes support isn’t planned, sometimes it just shows up.

‘The sun rose over cold valley villages. Miles ticked down at 17-minute pace, where something that looks close is still 90 minutes of honest work away.

‘Douglas promenade stayed locked at the back of my mind, a thought too precious to look at directly until it was actually there shortly after 6am on Sunday.

‘It’s all about pushing the mind and the body to build some resilience.

‘A few days from now my body will be fine, but a friend, a TT star, took a big spill at Union Mills and faces a much longer road back.

‘If you’re mildly impressed, mildly baffled, or entirely convinced this was the act of a glorious idiot, do one small thing - donate to Jamie Cringle’s recovery fund: gofundme.com/f/pvaaa-help-get-jamie-back-on-his-feet

‘Thank you to everyone who assisted me with my challenge and everyone who’s helped or is helping with Jamie’s.’