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Liam and KC become 9th and 14th fastest walkers in Parish history

Fri, 30 Jun 2017

Liam approaching his home town of Ramsey on his way to becoming the youngest winner of the event since Lee Cain in 1996
Liam approaching his home town of Ramsey on his way to becoming the youngest winner of the event since Lee Cain in 1996

Liam Parker’s winning time of 15:36:59 is the 23rd fastest-ever circuit of the Parish Walk and puts him in 9th place in the all-time fastest walker list. Having taken 39 minutes and 14 seconds off his previous personal best of 16:16:13 (which he set last year), Liam has leapfrogged a number of great walkers in the overall standings including previous winners John Cannell, Richard Brown, Albert Johnson and Graham Young.

Karen Chiarello, or ‘KC’ as she is better known, has not only become the fastest lady to complete the Parish Walk but she has also jumped from 18th to 14th fastest in the overall rankings, having improved her PB by 6 minutes and 19 seconds compared with 12 months ago. KC, along with Janice Quirk in 2009 and Sandra Brown in 1998, now shares the distinction of having achieved the best finishing position by a lady (all three having finished second overall in those respective years).

Liam has consistently progressed year-on-year since he first walked to Peel in the under-21s race in 2010, when he finished third in a time of 7 hours and 49 seconds. The following year he won that race in an excellent time of 6:17:13.

2012 was the first year Liam could go beyond Peel, and since then he has finished every year and always in a faster time. On average, Liam has improved his personal best by 51 minutes and 23 seconds each year. Perhaps unsurprisingly his best improvement came on his second finish in 2013 when he improved by nearly 2 hours from his first finish of 19:53:55, to 17:58:35. Here is his Parish Walk record:

Year Church Time
2010 German (Peel) 07:00:49
2011 German (Peel) 06:17:13
2012 Finish 19:53:55
2013 Finish 17:58:35
2014 Finish 17:33:35
2015 Finish 16:34:44
2016 Finish 16:16:13
2017 Finish 15:36:59

KC’s Parish Walk career began in 2009 when she walked to Ballaugh. After a 4-year break, she returned to the event in 2013 to claim her first finish, in a time of 19:42:45. After reaching Bride the following year, KC really began to take her walking seriously in the early part of 2015 and she trained harder than she ever had before. This hard work was reflected in an excellent time of 17:01:31 which secured an 11th place finish and second in the ladies’ race, just over 20 minutes behind winner Janette Morgan.


KC on familiar training territory at the end of the Orrisdale Road, approximately 12 miles into the event. KC and her husband Robert live on the course close by.

In 2016, KC came within just 3 seconds of breaking 16 hours for the first time, and also narrowly missed out on the ladies’ record of 15:58:35 set by Janice Quirk during her superb walk in 2009. This year however, KC bettered both of those standards and can now proudly lay claim to being the Parish Walk’s fastest lady. Here is her Parish Walk record:

Year Church Time
2009 Ballaugh 09:11:53
2013 Finish 19:42:45
2014 Bride 10:26:15
2015 Finish 17:01:31
2016 Finish 16:00:03
2017 Finish 15:53:44

Liam and KC now both feature prominently in the list of top 20 fastest ever walkers:

Rank Name Fastest finish Year of fastest finish Finishes (wins)
1 Richard Gerrard 14:40:08 2015 9 (4)
2 Vinny Lynch 14:42:32 2012 6 (1)
3 Michael George 14:44:49 2013 9 (1)
4 Sean Hands 14:47:36 2006 5 (1)
5 Jock Waddington 15:01:48 2011 10 (4)
6 Robbie Callister 15:16:03 2006 15 (5)
7 Derek Harrison 15:20:51 1979 8 (5)
8 Peter Kaneen 15:26:07 2003 4 (2)
9 Liam Parker 15:36:59 2017 6 (1)
10 David Walker 15:39:16 2015 6
11 Graham Young 15:43:12 1971 3 (2)
12 Richard Spenceley 15:47:32 2011 6
13 Ray Pitts 15:51:42 2007 8
14 Karen Chiarello 15:53:44 2017 4
15 Albert Johnson 15:54:51 1967 1 (1)
16 Janice Quirk 15:58:35 2009 5
17 John Cannell 15:59:33 1982 8 (6)
18 Richard Brown 15:59:44 1998 1 (1)
19 Richard Wild 16:03:36 2014 2
20 Terry Moffat 16:03:41 2015 10

I had intended to update the list of highest number of finishes but unfortunately I haven’t been able to find it in the short time available. This will now be a job for later in the summer.

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