July 20 Broome Marathon Festival

Yay! The day arrives and we are heading to Broome!!  I'm excited,  Darren is excited. Neither of us have been to Broome before and our direct flight will see us there in only 4 hours!

4 hours pass by, and soon we are landing. We are staying in a private house in Broome, and the homeowner is waiting for us to take us to what is to be home for the next week!! Did I mention it is around 22 degree already?

We settle in and decide to go explore straight away. We have a busy few days planned, and besides our run, we are making an amazing holiday from this week. With a camel ride, a day trip to Cape Leveque and Horizontal Falls, I know we are going to have a great time. Friday morning we are up really early as we are off on an all day tour! It was the best tour, ever!! 

The sunrise

We stop at an Aboriginal community and marvel at our surrounds.

Next stop Cape Leveque for breakfast!

A stop at the hatchery

Next is a trip on a seaplane to Horizontal Falls

The view from the plane 

Horizontal Falls from the air

The pontoon where we ate lunch before heading out on a cruise, and then a ride on the speed boat over the Horizontal Falls

Darren and I got in the cage to see the sharks face to face

Horizontal Falls up close

I was lucky enough to be in the co-pilot seat on the way back to Broome

Fabulous day out!!

Saturday we did a bit of sightseeing, and had a camel ride on Cable Beach at sunset!

Sunday morning, we are up early for our run on Cable Beach!  We are excited. It is already 20+ degrees! and I know it's going to be a hard run. 

At the start line

Cable Beach

For me, this run was tough. It was hot, really hot, and it just seemed to go on, and on, and on. I would see a drink station in the distance and then it would feel like I had to run another 10km before I would reach it. The last 4km, my feet were struggling so much that I took my runners off, and ran the final kilometres in bare feet. I was glad to complete it! We were told medals would be handed out at a presentation later that afternoon. We go back to the house, shower, eat, sleep and go down to the pub where presentation is, only to find out that we were not receiving finishers medals. We were gutted! That was our memento of our run, well, it was meant to be. I email the organiser and am told we ONLY ran the half, so no medal. Disappointed, we decide to enjoy the rest of our time away. 

Darren thought the scenery of the half marathon was absolutely amazing. He spent more time looking at the scenery and taking photos on Cable Beach than concentrating on the run itself. The disappointment for Darren was the lack of a medal at the end.

Monday we go out on a whale watching tour, and Tuesday is our final day. We check out more of Broome, and it's time to head home. We may not have medals to show for our efforts, but we have wonderful memories, and we have finally seen the places we have been dreaming of! Alice springs is our next run, but I have one in Brisbane with a friend the first weekend in August.