Ed's Adventure Diary

My Travel Treasure was on my second day in the beautiful seaside suburb of Manly, Sydney. It is true for a boy from Melbourne - and one who should maintain a rivalry on behalf of his home city with Sydney just like New Yorkans do with LA or Torontonians do with Vancouver - I was meant to be a bit bemused about being in this harbourside suburb. Yet (and with the understanding the prior sentence was written in much jest), if you don't love Manly you don't love traveling.

As a keen runner with a week free from work - and thus no need to worry myself about slowing down and taking it easy on the miles because there's an early start the next day - I took off along the Esplanade (the seaside walk/running path) that abuts the harbour beach - and got to running. As someone who also swims and loves the beach running along in the heat left me overwhelmed save for the knowledge the water was just inches away if things got altogether too unbearable. With this, I got going on the miles and came across the Manly tribute to Australian Olympians that like the Hollywood Walk of Fame showed inserted plates of famous names. I was fortunate to feel good pace in my legs as I kicked along for most of the run, but was slowing as I approached this spot. Thanks to seeing names like Murray Rose and Dawn Fraser - and reflecting upon the legendary things they did in competition - I felt a second wind and took off down the road, out of sight of the beach - and up into the hills to run on for a good many more miles. This said, my speed was not nearly of an elite standard:)