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Our little group of Lawrence, David, Thomas and myself had a pretty good go at the first two legs to Manly, running all the beach sections of the course which was quite a struggle given the high tide. Between Mona Vale and Warriewood Beaches we took the detour over the headland as the waves were already all the way up to the cliffs. I had the benefit of running the first leg without anything to carry because I had originally planned to go to Narrabeen only, with my wife waiting for me there. However, once there, I was still feeling pretty good (and was quite motivated by the good spirits of the other guys), so I decided to keep going towards Manly. We waded across the outlet of the Dee Why lagoon, which was very refreshing, and ran the rest of Dee Why beach barefoot. Thomas liked this technique so much that he did the same at Curl Curl. When we passed Shelly Beach at Manly and were turning towards the Ferry Terminal, someone wondered why the obviously sadistic course designer had forgotten to include the bit going all around North Head... We completed the second leg at about 12:40 and had some lunch there. Thomas finished there and the rest of us kept going, Lawrence with his sights set on Bondi, and Dave and I aiming for The Spit. We got there around 2:40, and Dave finished, while Lawrence kept going with me in tow. After passing Balmoral and climbing towards Chowder Head, I rather suddenly hit the famous brick wall and decided that I had tempted fate enough and should better call it a day, finishing at Bradley's Head Road in Mosman after a bit over 50 km at around 3:30, leaving the heroic Lawrence to steam on towards the city and beyond.

I had a great day and enjoyed the course tremendously, thanks to both the beauty of the scenery and the company of the other runners.

Thanks for organising this fine run.
I'll see you next time!