Inside Back: All the latest on northern beaches sport

Starting from Boydtown Beach near Eden at 5.30am Friday, Joe slogged through rain, mist, cold, hunger and fatigue to reach the Mt Kosciuszko summit and arrive at the finish line 25 hours and 14 minutes later. Temperatures dipped to just two degrees overnight.

Asked what kept him going through the toughest of conditions, Englishman Joe told Inside Back: "Bananas, chocolate bars, songs from Queen and David Bowie, my girlfriend (Sandra Gallo) and my wonderful support team.

READ ALSO: How a local community chipped in to build change rooms

"All those years of the physical training, the mental training and the spiritual training prepare you and then there's the years of kilometres you put in the base of the pyramid. You know you are going to go to some pretty dark places but that's when the mind kicks in and you push through."

Channeling Freddie Mercury at 3am in the middle of nowhere also helps. "Yes, that too," he laughed. "Queen's Don't Stop Me Now was the go-to song that my girlfriend and I would sing on the trail where luckily no-one could hear me.

"There was a bit of Bowie thrown in as well. But my incredible support team were the real inspiration. I didn't want to let them down." The Manly Beach Running Club head coach also didn't want to let his parents Bernadette and Julian down after they'd flown over from England to witness the voluntarily torture first hand.

It's Joe's first C2K win after three previous attempts at the title.

Time heals all wounds - even in the often unforgiving world of rugby league.

Later this month former Manly backrower Glenn Stewart will join brother Brett and a host of ex-teammates as a life member of the Sea Eagles, seven years after an acrimonious split from the club.

'Gift' was forced out of Brookvale at the end of the 2014 season due to salary cap restraints in a move that did not go down well with fellow players or fans.

READ ALSO: New rugby festival set to make a splash

After 185 games for Manly, Stewart joined South Sydney for a season before finishing his stellar career in the UK. He has slowly returned to the Sea Eagles' fold, helping out in ambassadorial and junior development roles.

Club chairman Cliffy Lyons had the pleasure of ringing Glenn to inform him of his life membership nomination. "He was over the moon and really honoured by it," Cliffy told us. "It's tremendous he will now join all those great players from such a successful era in the club's history."

The Manly 16ft Skiff Club fleet received the shock of its life - literally - following last Saturday's race in wet and wild conditions.

A flooded substation in West Esplanade "electrified" the club's rigging area, giving sailors a nasty jolt each time they touched their boats. Ausgrid was alerted and spent the next few days fixing the problem.

"Water and carbon are good conductors and it could have been really dangerous, but fortunately no-one was hurt," winning skipper Dave O'Connor said.

O'Connor knows what he is talking about. He was electrocuted in similar circumstances 20 years ago when a handrail in a caravan park became a conductor for a current. Longtime mates still refer to him as "Sparky".

We love our sport here at Inside Back, but should it be played on Christmas Day? Sydney Kings owner Paul Smith believes so and wants to play an NBL game on December 25 next year. He reckons Christmas Day can be lonely for a lot of people and staging a basketball match is worth a shot to attract the casual fan "because there is absolutely nothing to do".

Try telling that to a priest. Born-and-bred northern beaches clergyman Jack Robson will be flat out performing services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day before joining his family in Manly for lunch. Father Robbo loves his sport as much as the next person, once wearing a Manly jersey at the altar to pray for the Sea Eagles before a crucial match. But he is dead against anything being played on the holiest day of the year.

"No, no. no. I don't like the idea of sport on Christmas Day at all," he told us. "It's sacrosanct. It's a day to spend with family. I will be flicking between the cricket and sailing the next day but there should be no sport on Christmas Day. I hope the Kings rethink the idea."

The Seaforth-based Raiders Rugby Club has a strict rule around its most coveted award - the clubman of the year trophy. If there's no worthy candidate in a particular year, the award is simply held over. Named after former player Dan Shannon, who died in a freak accident 26 years ago, the trophy has been withheld nine times.

Not so in 2021. Young Harry Forsyth was a unanimous choice after years of giving back as a player, coach, manager, referee, first-aid officer and general roustabout.

"To win this award is a huge honour when you realise the background to it," Harry told us. There's a nice synergy with the Forsyth family and Dan Shannon. Harry's father James was a teammate of the player they called "Rocketman" and grandfather Rob managed Manly junior rep team's 1987 New Zealand tour featuring Dan and James.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: