I had time for about 20 minutes of warm up before the start, then realised at the last minute I'd left my barcode back at the hotel - but it wasn't far away so I could get it after the race instead. I wasn't planning to run too fast but ended up trying to catch and overtake people in front like usual, finishing in fourth place in about 20:15. Sadly my Garmin activities for the day got corrupted somewhere as I tried to connect the watch to my phone or tablet, so I lost most of the data for the day.
I included the buffet breakfast in the hotel booking - it had all the standard things like cereal, fruit, toast and yoghurt but it was exactly the same every day, which was a little disappointing. They also had some pancake maker but it was broken on the first day! as well as a hot food section with bacon, eggs and sausages that only weird people would eat so early in the day.
Plans for the first day were pretty limited since I didn't know what would be open, so started with some exploring around the city centre and the esplanade, boardwalk, lagoon pool and marina. I had three hits in a row finding Barnacle Bill's, a souvenir shop and an Asian bakery in just a few minutes.
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| Cairns city. |
It wasn't much warmer than Melbourne's mid thirty temperatures, but felt much more humid and steamy so I found myself always getting dehydrated - probably never properly recovering from the morning running and being behind for the rest of the day. My left leg was already aching which wasn't a good sign, the same problem came after too much walking around Halls Gap the same time last year and took months to recover.
We stopped in at a burger place that had a mushroom burger - almost as bad as meat - as the only vegetarian option so I had to settle for chips and a milkshake.
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| Big Captain Cook. |
After walking all the way back to the hotel and resting up for a bit it was back out towards Centenary Lakes. The short way into the place was closed due to some bridge repair, so had to walk all the way back to the start and go the long way instead. The place offered a freshwater and saltwater lake, some bamboo forest that was alright and a pretty poor botanical garden. At the end of the area was the entrance to the Mt Whitfield walking tracks.
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| Centenary Lakes. |
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| Great view of the airport. |
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| Mt Whitfield. |
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| They don't like the carbs. |
I would have liked to have taken the longer loop under normal circumstances, but with several days still to go I only took the short loop, which was still quite steep and had a lot of steps. There was one view of Cairns along the way, but was partially blocked by some trees - you did get a view of Cairns Airport at least...
Finally made it back to the hotel and recovered in the pool from too much walking. Heading out in the better direction in search of dinner there was some half Asian, half non-Asian restaurant. I ordered a big bowl of chips and steamed rice and never stood a chance of getting through both.
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| Should have taken the water birds advice. |
That was the end of the first long and thirsty day.
Walking - 28000 steps and 300 minutes
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