Manly out and back

I had an awful nights sleep. Rather than toss and turn and keep Sal awake I decamped to the sofa, tossed and turned and kept myself awake. I thought I'd managed to get a bit of sun stroke. I woke up feeling ordinary but the suspected shin splint was fine. Time to walk the dog.



I took Rowlf to the Spit where he could have a swim and I could stand with my legs in the water. I'm not sure it makes much difference physically, but it sure is good for the soul. We got home and I threw down a couple of slices of bread, peanut butter and honey, gave Rowlf a wash (in other words we wrestled for 15minutes) and got ready to head out for a run.


The Spit to Manly walk is 9km and starts 1km from my home. Do that out and back and add a bit in Manly and I'm good. Easy. I gave the Nikes another breather as most of today would be tame trail.

I was keeping it very gentle today, just an idle trot. The weather was being kind to me and was a little overcast as I left - still humid, but no savage bite to the sun. I was also helped by pensioners. Hundreds of them seemed to be doing the walk today, groups of ambling oldies, many of whom did not seem to know or care about getting out of the way of people walking in the other direction. Frustrating though that was, it had the effect of moderating my pace so that by the time I got to Manly wharf and 10km I was feeling ok.

I hugged the shore until I found a dead end, decided today was not a day for exploring and headed to the beach to get a few extra metres. I was pleased enough with the distance and turned for home after slamming down a Gatorade.

At the wharf on the return I stopped for a chat with an oncoming jogger in a 6ft track singlet. Like me she had not secured a spot for this year, but unlike me she is doing the North Face 100 (km, not miles.) we talked shoes and event organization, wished each other well and set off in our different directions.


The return leg was probably a bit slower. I was being super polite and stopping to let most oncoming walkers past, glad to be taking small rests. I figured the energy saved was worth more to me than the annoyance of the stop-start progress and the bigger annoyance of far more than 50% of people not saying thanks. C'est la vie.

I finished at about 22 and bit km which was a little less than I anticipated but a little more than I needed. I knew I was going to struggle this weekend and I'm glad it's behind me. Pretty simple now; I just have to run to work and back twice.

The pics are from earlier trots to Manly. The Gallipoli Steps, the view from the highest point on the course and a random jogger who kept overtaking me - and me her - because I kept stopping to take pictures. And, of course, Rowlf.

So let me get this right next weekend I don't have to go out for a run? But what will I do? :-)