The winner of the 2024 Parish Walk has been discharged from Nobles Hospital after he took ill shortly after crossing the finish line.
Dean Morgan is now back home and says he is doing ‘fine’.
Now discharged, Dean says he can start to ‘process’ his success on Saturday (June 22) and ‘words can’t describe how happy’ he is and what it means to retain the title.
Dean said: “It means so to much me to join the list of former greats and adding the double with back to back wins.”
Parish Walk
Morgan says that the race was a tale of two stories, and explained how a race can change.
He explained that just before Maughold his race was sticking to plan and he was on for sub 15 hour walk, but then the foot pain he was experiencing from about 15 miles into the race started to kick in again.
The pain was followed by the ‘worst sickness’ he had ever experienced.
Dean says he pushed and worked so hard for three quarters of the race and built quite a healthy lead but from Maughold onwards realised very quickly that he had to get to the finish in one piece no matter what the time was.
Anything can happen
Dean added: “I had lots of rough slow miles coming home but I was always confident I had done enough to win the race at that point but just sometimes you never know as in the parish with 20 miles to go anything can happen.”
The 2024 winner has applauded joint second placings, Callum Gawne and Paul Atherton:
“I applaud Callum Gawne and Paul Atherton for showing great courage still pushing on late for a strong finish to crawl back 12 mins.
“It was also great to watch the videos and hear the stories of them crossing the line together in joint 2nd. It was a lovely touch on both parts so well done.
“I know how hard Callum has worked so he fully deserves the result and pretty sure we will see his name on the trophy in the near future. Paul’s consistency over the last 4 yrs has been very impressive I must say also.”
Dean thanked the event organiser, marshals, sponsors, judges and supporters. He said that the atmosphere was ‘phenomenal’ on Saturday.
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