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Last week, I had written about the sudden, unexplainable, 28 per cent increase in entries to UJ-M2S-09 and had likened this to a phenomenon called the Hundredth Monkey.

I had come across the term many years ago in a book by Lyall Watson. Apparently, researchers were conducting a study of some monkeys and observed that one monkey learned to wash sweet potatoes before eating them.

Very slowly this behaviour was copied by other monkeys in the group.

However, researchers noted that once a critical number of monkeys began employing this behaviour - the so-called hundredth monkey - this new learned behaviour instantly spread across the water to monkeys on nearby islands.

I recall running in my first Mdina-Spinola way back in 1983 which had only 17 runners.

In those days there were no running stores in Malta. You could not find Nike, or other major brands of running shoes, on sale anywhere in Malta.

There was no running clothing on sale either.

If I could reprint a photograph of the start-line that day you would see all runners wearing either old t-shirts or venerable, frayed running vests. In those days, running shoes were lovingly cared for and carefully repaired with a product called Shoe Goo to prolong their lifespan.

As you might expect (and seems strange now), you almost never saw runners or joggers in the street. And if you did see one, you knew him (note I said 'him', there were definitely no female road runners around). You knew him because there were so few of us and we all knew each other.

Slowly, over the years, with the promotion of the marathon each year, we have reached the point where there are now roughly 500 Maltese runners in the half/full marathon each year.

That means there are that many runners who take part in an event of 21km in length. Add onto that figure a number of other joggers who,

a) would never dream of running that far but do take part in 5-10k fun runs; or

b) are jogging for health and never take part in races.

This number of non-marathon runners probably far exceeds the 500 who do run the half marathon.

In line with the rise in joggers, entries to M2S gradually increased over the years. I still recall the first time we had over 100 finishers, then the first time we had 200, but the increases were gradual, not dramatic like a few weeks ago.

I used to think that if we could get the Malta Marathon to 1,000 runners then we would have reached the tipping point; that hundredth monkey.

Joggers in the limelight

My reasoning was that with 1,000 runners (and 50 per cent of them being Maltese) then most Maltese would then know someone who jogged.

If you spread the 17 runners from 1983 over the whole country, it is understandable that they were rarely seen. However, with as many as 1,000 if you include everyone who jogs, then just about everyone should know someone who runs.

If you don't know someone, at least you see them on a regular basis. Jogging, at that point, instead of being strange behaviour then becomes a normal facet of that society. We'd have reached the hundredth monkey, and at that point the behaviour would spread on its own. And rapidly, in ways that cannot be predicted.

The recent M2S suggests we may have reached that point, which was great for M2S, but cannot possibly happen for the Malta marathon, half marathon or walkathon.

Here's why; M2S is a very relaxed affair, register on the day, get your medal at the finish-line.

This year we had designed a new medal, and had ordered what we had assumed was enough for two years. The only reason that M2S was not an unmitigated disaster when almost 300 people showed up at the start-line was the fact that we had ordered 400 medals (enough for two years) and had enough for everyone. We were lucky.

Consider the recent President's Run.

Up to one week before the event, there were approximately 1,500 applicants. In a dramatic tsunami of applications in the final week that number swelled to over 6,000.

The organisers had their work cut-out to get running numbers for the latecomers, and deserve praise that the whole thing went off smoothly.

But, and here's the rub, in the half marathon, everyone quite rightly expects and deserves a medal on crossing the finish line in Sliema. There is no way we can have a plentiful enough store of medals on hand for however many people show up.

None of us predicted the 296 finishers in M2S. Most assuredly, you would have been thought insane to predict 6,000 participants in the President's Run.

So, as we must, the marathon organisers have ordered a limited quantity of medals.

The figure is based on last year's entrants plus a reasonable increase. We simply cannot cater for a massive influx of participants as happened in the two events mentioned above.

The bald truth is that when we reach that figure, we will no longer be able to accept further entries.

We already have over 50 per cent entries, almost all of them foreigners.

Do not delay. Do not wait till the last minute in case something (illness or injury) happens. It would be a shame if, after all this training, you find yourself unable to take part on the day due to the entries being closed.

Take care out there and enjoy your training.

johnwalsh42195@yahoo.it