Townsville 2018, August 05 (Road Rules)

The 10km race start was only at 7:45am, probably could have been a bit earlier. Drove from the hotel to the race, I thought roads might be crowded, but plenty of street parking everywhere!

Did a quick 2 kilometre warm up around the streets, while the marathon and half marathon was already out on the roads. Sweating from the warm up wasn't a good indication, walked over to the start and got in the front row.

Started a bit slow off the start, having gone too quick in the heat in Singapore earlier this year. Skipped the 2.5km drink station which was a mistake, struggling by the next drink station which wasn't until 5.5km. Need more drinks!

Not a huge field of fast runners, I probably made my way up into the top 25 quickly but was mostly running by myself afterwards. There was a couple of hills later in the race which were a bit difficult, not having a great time trying to stay under 4:00/km.

Grabbed another couple of spots late in the race, gave me something to focus on. The distance was 10.13km which didn't help my finish time, just came in under 40 minutes but not close to any personal beats. Lately my races haven't even been as good as my training runs, need to make some improvements to race preparation, especially hydration.

Drive back to the city to the farmers market on Flinders Street, not much for sale except cronuts! Got some food for lunch at stopped at the Palmetum - a place will palms. Good place with a little rainforest.

Palmetum.

Started a long drive north to Paluma, but took a detour first to the Frosty Mango. Basically it's just a larger version of a milk bar on the highway, selling lots of ice cream flavours and a few other mango specific products.

The Big Frosty.

Took the road inland to Paluma, one of those annoying roads with bends every few seconds and narrow roads, 40km/h max speed. Stopped at Little Crystal Creek for a break, had a river and some rock pools.

Little Crystal Creek.

More slow driving to get to Paluma, nothing at all in the town, almost drove past the other end without realising. Got out of the car at last, walked around for a while, had some nice tracks though the forest. Otherwise very quiet and deserted.

Somewhere in Paluma.

Downtown Paluma.

Drove back to city, lots of dead kangaroos on the highway, no near misses this time.

Steps: 13,000 + 14.5 km