Run This Town

Life’s a game but it’s not fair

I break the rules so I don’t care

So I keep doin’ my own thing

Walkin’ tall against the rain  

Victory’s within the mile 

Almost there, don’t give up now

Only thing that’s on my mind

Is who gon’ run this town 

We gonna run this town

(Rhianna)

I run. I don’t walk. Unless there is a coffee shop at the end. Which there always is down here. People love their morning walks and cuppa at one of the waterside cafes after. What better way to explore the City? 

The only better way I can think of would be running. I run this town.

Sydney is a coastal city with over 100 beaches and about 80 km of coastline north to south. It is possible to walk most of the coastline from Barrenjoey Head in the North to Royal National Park in the South. 200 km of walking, or in my case, running. Well, maybe both, because Sydney is also extremely hilly. Lots of heartbreak hills around, as they call them here. But let me start at the beginning.

Part 1 The Northern Beaches 

Run 1  Pittwater

My first run in Sydney took me along the shoreline of Pittwater in the far North of the city close to my home. Surrounded by the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Pittwater is actually not part of the ocean, as I first thought, but a separate large body of water fed by several creeks. Eventually, though, it does make its way north towards its mouth at Broken Bay, 1km from the Tasman Sea. The Kuringgai Aboriginal peoples have lived in this area many thousands of years. Today you can find tiny harbours with gently rocking boats, beaches and boardwalks, and, of course, cafes!

My early Saturday morning run took me from my home in Newport to Church Point, 10 km from my place. Me and heaps of other people! What could have been a peaceful run along the tranquil waters of this bay, turned into quite a dangerous excursion. Hundreds and hundreds of people on race bikes were competing for the winding roads and me against them all. Mental note: next time, start running at sunrise to avoid getting run over by crazy bikers! And bring money for a coffee! 

Run 2 Palm Beach Peninsula – Barrenjoey Head

Palm Beach – The Australian soap opera Home and Away was filmed here and so was the 2019 Australian comedy Palm Beach (surprise! surprise!). 

The northernmost point of Sydney is supposed to be one of the most spectacular beaches in Australia. It is also apparently a holiday spot for the rich and famous: Chris Hemsworth, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett have been spotted here. No such luck! All whom I met were Anne and Udo from Stuttgart. Not famous maybe, but also very nice.

It is the Palm Beach Peninsula that separates Pittwater and the ocean. On the hammerhead tip of this northern most point of Sydney sits Barrenjoey Head with its lighthouse. Palm Beach gets its name not from the many palm trees that you can find in the area, but its palm tree shape when looked at from the top. Once you have made your way up a steep staircase built by convicts once upon a time, you are rewarded with a beautiful view of Pittwater to one side and the southern coastline to the other.

(My son #3 would get a kick out of this bit of information. Did you know that over 150.000 convicts were sent to Australia for petty crimes? And that around 20% of today’s Australians are descendants from these transported convicts? I’m beginning to understand my child’s fascination with this topic haha!) 

Once you shake the large groups of tourists, and find a quiet spot on one of the cliffy rocks overlooking the ocean, you can sit there for quite a while, watching the sail boats on the water and enjoying the serenity of this beautiful place. And a coffee after…obviously!

Run 3 Avalon to Newport Beach 

This is my turf … or in this case surf! Newport Beach – I love being able to walk to the beach any time of day and just sit there and watch the waves crash ashore. I never considered myself a beach person at all – I get restless and bored easily and the thought of lying on any beach for more than 5 minutes makes me anxious. Who would have thought that I would enjoy living at the ocean so much.

My landlady took me on this walk from Newport Beach via Bilgola Beach to Avalon Beach. It was a Sunday morning, 9am and it was busy! A never ending stream of walkers, runners, hikers were following the path that offered spectacular views of beaches, dunes, cliffs, houses perched above and rock baths. 

Rock baths are the perfect solution for people like me, by the way, that have an irrational fear of sharks whenever swimming in any kind of water, especially the open sea! Rock baths, also known as rockpools, or ocean pools, can be found at almost every beach in Sydney, some of them over a hundred years old. A safe place to swim, away from crashing waves, the current and shark attacks, they are Sydney’s version of a public pool. Newport Beach Pool is 50 metres long with a natural rock floor. I didn’t dare go for a swim, yet, due to the wintery weather conditions, but it’s definitely on my bucket list.

For now, a nice hot long black at the end of our walk seemed more fitting.

Run 4 Newport Beach to Dee Why

The next stretch on the map from Newport to Dee Why Beach was actually done in reversed direction in the form of a proper 13k run: The Pub to Pub Run.

After I got over the disappointment, that this race had nothing to do with visiting pubs along the way (now, there’s an idea!), we had great fun doing this run with a number of colleagues from school. 

The run took us along seven different beaches, with the first 800 metres actually being run on the beach (which sucks by the way, because you either get your running shoes wet by incoming waves or you struggle through the soft sand, feeling like you are running in slow motion, which you actually are!). 

The great thing about these races is that for tourists like myself, it offers the perfect way of sightseeing: cordoned off by police, clearly signaged, it tells you exactly where to run and you get to see all the amazing sights up close along the way without the fear of getting run over by one of Sydney’s reckless drivers. Stopping along the way to take photos, even gives you the chance to catch your breath and make it up the hill without looking like a loser! And there is always a friendly volunteer along the way to snap a photo of you with the perfect scenery in the background! What else could I ask for! 

Run 5 Manly to North Head

The final stretch of running along the coast of the Northern Beaches will take place tomorrow: The Manly Fun Run. Just as misleading as its Pub to Pub Run counterpart, this race has nothing to do with manly man, I’m afraid. But after days of incessant torrential rains, I am looking forward to running in the sunshine with my friends, enjoying yet again the scenery and stopping whenever I feel like taking a photo (or catch my breath!). And if it happens to rain again – maybe it’ll be raining man!!! (Which would make us The Weather Girls?)

Coming soon: Part 2 of I Run This Town 

City2Surf Run (City to Bondi Beach), Sydney Bridge Run and The 7 Bridges Walk