Me VS the Hamilton Island Hilly Marathon
If you haven’t experienced North Queensland hospitality before, any trip to one of the many islands in the Whitsunday’s will give you more than a taste of what it has to offer. With a whirl wind trip over to Hamilton Island for the Hilly Half Marathon, both my girlfriend and I were able to experience it first hand. The general feel of the weekend was that we had a pretty amazing time due to the friendly atmosphere and environment, it also didn’t hurt that the course was on a tropical island.
Island Logistics
The fact is, we only had two nights on Hamilton Island so our timing was a little rushed. To get to the Island, you either need to fly in via the airport on Hamilton Island or get a ferry from the mainland. Due to the Cyclone Debbie hitting only the previous month, it meant that the race needed to be moved to near by Dent Island, which meant more ferry’s to and from the race as well. This left us with little time to get from the race for our connecting flights home.
Yeah, you may have guessed, I am a little stressful to travel with, everything needs to be organised 100% and I hate leaving things to chance, but with the Hamilton Island, you can just relax. These guys do this everyday and had no issue getting us to the start, finish, airport, connecting flights back home with no issues. Everyone I came in contact with from tour operators, to Ferry Captains, to Concierges, were able to just get things done, without any hesitation. It was a massive highlight, leaving us with only needing to kick back and kick on with the marathon or half.
Even with our day trip to Whitehaven beach conflicting with our race registration, we found our race packs for the event in our rooms ready for us to take on half marathon course.
Marathon, Or Half?
That brings up my next point. Both my girl friend and I were guests on Hamilton Island as part of a promotion through Running Heroes, and were given the choice of doing either the marathon or the half marathon. A quick view of the previous years time and the name “Hilly Half”, we decided that it would be best to only tackle the half marathon on this occasion.
Having got to Dent Island for the race, we were glad with the choice. During the race, there were times that I wished we had opted for the teams event to run even less. The race was tough and there were some pretty steep hill climbs. The half marathon was a two lap run round the Island Golf Course(Marathon was four laps), with the terrain being a mix of both paved paths and golf course fairways. The uphill in some parts was brutal, some of the downhill was worse, as it meant having to try and slow your body from going head over. I was pleased that I was able to keep running continuously for the first 9km, but had to face facts and walk some of the hills after that point.
About the Race
I love a good challenge, and from the terrain map above, you can see that it gave me exactly what I was there for, in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. I didn’t get time to look at the scenery out into the Whitsunday Islands as we were on our run, but will remember this for next time. You pass through some beautiful sweeping cliff faces where you can look out onto the ocean and see across the islands in front of you, but I was there for a race.
For those playing at home, my race is at the following link:
https://www.strava.com/activities/963675976
I learnt a lot from this race and if you are planning on tackling this one, I can recommend that it is well worth it. I can give the following advise for anyone keen:
- Practice on hills, both climbing and descending.
- You most likely will end up walking some of the hills, so make sure you are walking with purpose.
- Pace properly and maybe err on the side of caution for the first lap until you see what you are faced with. My girlfriend was able to make up five places in the final stages of the race as a result.
- Get some water in, especially if you are not used to humid conditions.
- Enjoy the scenery and enjoy the race.
Meeting Steve Moneghetti over the weekend was also a highlight after following his career as a kid. Its great to see him still smashing a course like this and getting a respectable third for the event.
My day panned out pretty well and even though I have made some reference to the challenging course, it was still a fun event and will hopefully grow and continue on in the coming years.
For more details about the Hamilton Island Marathon and Half Marathon, go to the following link: http://www.hamiltonisland.com.au/endurance-series/hilly-marathon
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