Manly to Bondi 50 Miler!

The Idea

I have felt like 2020 is both a year where time is frozen and a year asking me for more. I am constantly torn between wanting to push myself to do so much and wanting to lay on the couch all day. Some days I am motivated, others I am not. But overall, I have been saying yes to some crazy things…like covering 50 miles in one day.

Back in January Kyle and I were out to brunch and he was talking about the new Bondi to Manly path that was officially open. He looked up the distance (roughly 50 miles) and said out loud, “wouldn’t it be cool to do that in one day?” I laughed. Kyle did you just realize you said you want to be an ultra marathoner?! We chatted about it more and decided we would attempt it around June this year.

Well, this year did not go as planned. We dealt with some things in May/June that had both of us hardly sleeping or taking care of ourselves. So, June was out. I had mentioned this to Julia and she said she wanted to join us on the trek and said how about August 1st?

Kyle and I figured sure, why not? We added it to the calendar without a lot of lead time. And I decided I wanted to raise some money for two amazing organizations to make the miles a little more meaningful. We started our GoFundMe on Sunday, planning to fundraise for the 5 days leading up to our trek. (I know this all felt a little last minute. But that’s what I wanted. We had to just go for it and not think about it too much).

I was blown away by the generosity of our friends and family. We raised over $1500 for The Loveland Foundation and the Indigenous Marathon Foundation. It helped us get really excited. We would not want to quit knowing the support we had for this very unofficial event. There wouldn’t be any spectators, no medal, no finish line. We were just going to go out and casually cover an ultra distance.

We knew there would be elevation. Sydney makes it pretty hard to avoid in general. But we did not practice pieces of the course. We kind of wanted to be surprised.

We also decided to do the route in reverse since we live in Bondi and figured it would be better to end at home rather than need to get in a car for a 40 minute drive after that kind of day.

Thankfully Julia’s fiance agreed to drive the three of us out to Manly at 4:30 in the morning. It was time to go for it.

The Day

We arrived in Manly just after 5 a.m. and began our adventure. Headlamps were on and we were in the dark. We had about an hour before the sun started to rise. This area once we were away from the beach was pretty technical, so we were walking.

Our plan was to run once the sun was up. Kyle had agreed to run about 10 miles of the distance. After the sun came up we ran for probably a total of 20 minutes and Kyle said, “nope, walking it is.” We had already covered a decent amount of elevation and he knew if he was going to make it all day, he had to walk. And Julia and I weren’t going to leave him behind.

We truly had a beautiful day. Winter in Sydney has actually been my favorite. There’s still a lack of daylight hours, but we were in shorts and perfectly comfortable once the sun came up.

We ate as we went. We all packed some sandwiches, protein bars, pretzels, gels, etc. We tried to just space out the eating and savor our water. Our only planned aid station was around mile 32 where we had two friends waiting for us with Gatorade, snacks and water refills. When we got to them Kyle changed his socks (broke the sitting rule) and we stood and talked with them for about 10 minutes.

We lucked out with bathrooms along the way for most of the route, so after another quick stop, we were off again and feeling refreshed. Kyle had his podcasts on and Julia and I were chatting. We knew he was hurting, but we tried to just keep him moving.

Julia and I kept going. The sun was setting now, around 5:15 p.m. And we knew we were in for the hardest few hours yet. We both had been feeling good up until this point, but we couldn’t run anymore either now. Plus in the dark, we didn’t really want to risk falling or getting lost. We kept walking.

After mile 40 the miles were passing SO SLOWLY. Julia wanted me to yell “THIS SUCKS” at the top of my lungs with her and I didn’t because I didn’t have the energy lol. But our feet just hurt so bad at this point.

To distract us, I basically talked for 3 hours about every friend I have ever had. It was nice to reminisce and tell her about so many great people. She took turns with some stories and we tried not to focus on what we were doing. It helped.

Around mile 47 I had my crying breakdown. I thought about everyone who had donated for those last few mile markers, how much I miss them, how difficult this year has been. It all hit me. I told Julia, “I am crying, but I am fine.” We stopped for a hug and then kept moving. She had her crying moment shortly after. WE WERE A MESS. But we never stopped. We didn’t sit. We kept moving.

I was thankful Julia was navigating because I couldn’t even focus at this point. I was hungry, thirsty, tired, sore. So ready to be done.

As we neared the end, our final descent to Bondi, we passed two guys that said, “Woah long walk?” And Julia said, “Yeah we’ve come all the way from Manly.” His face and response were priceless. “…today?” We had a good laugh at that point.

I was so glad I had Julia with me. I definitely would have quit if I had been in the dark on my own.