a Sunday running chronicle · North Head
Chapter One · Winter 2026
the opening chapter: June to August on the North Head loop.
North Head · Fairy Bower · June – August 2026
Nineteenth of July · six on a silver sea.
Winter didn't cancel a single Sunday. The field thinned, the coffees held.
The 2026–27 edition opens the way these things should: without ceremony. Three starters, the bay all glare and good intentions, and the standard 10k run at the standard price of one flat white each.
Two held the line under a sky with opinions. The coffees were raised anyway, which under the group's constitution makes it official.
One out, no witnesses. The 10k got run regardless, and the post-run committee meeting was brief and unusually agreeable.
Numbers back up and a big blue morning, Manly laid out behind the wall like a postcard nobody needed to send. Coffee in hand before the photo — priorities intact.
Numbers back, towels working, the sea doing its pewter act behind the wall. Full winter kit and nobody pretending otherwise.
Winter produced a sky with no argument in it, so the swim happened on principle. A 2018 Boston shirt came out, which around here counts as formal wear.
The variant vote won: up and over North Head for the view before anyone was allowed near the café. Coffee arrived late and thoroughly deserved.
9.40 km · 319 m of climb · 56:39 moving — away at 7:37, traced by the watch. The full map and profile live on The Course.
The water was declared warmer than the air, a claim with witnesses but no thermometer. The swim faction carried the morning; the coffees closed it.
Next Sunday's entry lands here after the run — the shot, the line, the headcount. The season wrap follows when spring takes over.
Same loop, same wall, same argument about the swim. That's the point.