Manly Dam

Left-leaning, as always

The photographer has done a great job to get a feel for the light at 6:45 this AM. You can tell summer is past! In fact, it was so dark when I was coming up Pittwater Rd (I think - it changes its name about 10 times) that I missed the turnoff twice, heading North and then again going South when I realised my error. Apparently Many Dam isn't a sufficiently interesting place to warrant a decent - that is, large, reflective, well-lit - sign. Well, I guess that makes it all the better for the locals, because it's a fantastic spot. I'm a bit surprised I've never been here before; I did, however, recognise a couple of spots in the Garigal National Park loop from previous runs on this side of the harbour.

I should find some stock footage - I had planned to take the phone for picture taking purposes, but I left it out of the bag (hence also the navigational problems) - but I'm sure Google can do the honours. I don't have enough of a naturalist's eye to describe the vegetation; predominantly the typical Sydney sclerophyll, with a

Best knee forward

mixture of both the wet and the dry varieties. There was one section in Garigal where we ran through the wind-stunted ridge-top brush that I'm particularly fond of. I think it's the sudden light, and sensation of space after the passageway of a lot of the trails. Plus, the sound is very different in those open spaces, the city's sounds are more accessible so you have the awareness of being in the bush in the city.

I also got that bush in the city feeling crawling under a bloody great pipe, twice, just rampaging its way through the bush from suburban outpost to suburban outpost. I guess it's water.

Speaking of water, people say the nursery rhyme Jack & Jill isn't plausible, because who would go up a hill to find water? Well, all the worst puddles and wettest section of the track today were high up, so you can put that in the Funk & Wagnalls! I've observed this phenomenon elsewhere, also.

One good thing about trails is that they enforce a relatively slow pace on you. Of course they extract a massive toll on the uphill and downhill muscles, but there's always enough flatland muscle left for an eye-catching sprint to the line. I could hear these two guys behind me, and I was NOT planning to let them pass me at the finish. Two people had already out-descended me on the last big hill after I'd run past them on the ascent, so I was not in a charitable mood!

Woodstock is my new running club - this was the maiden run in club colours.

 I've linked the Garmin report (it's better than the one from Wentworth Falls, but still not perfect. The watch shuts down on hills because the horizontal movement isn't significant - particularly on uphill legs.

Course map and run details

It certainly didn't feel as brutally up-and-down as Wentworth Falls, but while there were no massive ascent/descent sections, there wasn't that much flat stuff either. Just a constant variety. I'm getting better at descending, without a doubt, for all the times I got passed today. I remember the first trail run I did northside (NOSH) I walked down the declines. Now, if possible, I bound, thinking - sometimes - of the Swallows and Amazons "galumphing" down the fells. In a bid for literary credibility I will mention that I also occasionally think about Japhy Ryder in Dharma Bums insisting that you can only run down mountains. It's true that your body does an extraordinary job of processing all the information, much faster than you can consciously think about it - up to a point at least you can really let yourself go, so long as you concentrate. I struggle a bit with my eyes - when it's cold, as in the early AM, they water uncontrollably which doesn't help the focus; and when I heat up, I sweat (profusely, as you will notice above) and again, that doesn't help the focus. But still, I was pleased with the technical side of the running today - very satisfactory.