Manly Dam - 21(18)

Manly Dam - map and statistics

I started off pretty slowly - I'm not sure exactly where the cameraman jumped out from, but I think maybe about 5 or so km into the race. Anyway, the particular slowness in this shot is caused by a combination of nervousness about descending generally combined with a nervousness about the right knee, which has been playing up. Stairs have to be the right shape to attack; they either have to be narrow so you don't need to stride, or they have to be wide enough to fit in a full stride, which is about 1.3 meters at speed. These were neither, hence the "no neck" look.

The landscape is pretty typical for Manly Dam / Garigal National Park. It isn't all like this; there are some more open areas, and some near rainforest areas as well, but in the main it's this sclerophyll. Likewise, there's a mixture of fire trail, tarmac and pre-fab pathway, but the bulk of the run is on more-or-less technical single track.

Last year I ran it in sub-1:50, I think, so I was a little disappointed in the time, but it was very wet, and I didn't attack the course so maybe 1:57 wasn't unreasonable (last time I beat the 40-49 age group home). It's a great course though, and I really enjoyed the run. It's well organised - free coffee! and I've signed up to do it all again in February.