June 17th, 2019
Today we packed up camp and continued north to the town of Agnes Water and 1770 (The town is literally called the Town of 1770). When we got to Agnes Water, we went right to the beach and were amazed to find this awesome public place. The park at the entrance to the beach had full-on showers in stalls that were nicer than a lot of hostel showers I have been in. They had BBQ grills along with propane stove tops that you could cook on. I was super excited to go for a run on the beach and then take a shower (and not even a beach shower in front of everyone, but a real private shower).
(WARNING: non-travel side story about to happen)
I took off on my jog following the running app I use, and a miracle happened… let me preface this so you can fully understand the extent of this miracle. I do not like running/jogging nor am I good at it. I was always told that I would be a great runner growing up because of my long legs; this led me to do track in middle school and high school which I was utterly terrible at. Apparently, there is something else you need besides long legs to be a good runner…I never came close to winning or even placing at meets and I remember at end of year parties, I would get awards for things like ‘never giving up’ or ‘best attitude’. Some BS thing to make sure I felt included in the team but that had nothing to do with my running ability (or lack thereof). Over the years I have forced myself to jog in attempts to ‘stay healthy’ but mostly so I can continue on with my Pringle eating lifestyle and maintain a somewhat manageable weight. I have gone off and on with my jogging routines but have been fairly consistent on this trip. I have never, EVER felt anything close to a ‘runners high’ in my life. I always thought this was something people made up in attempt to cover up how much running actually sucks. If they tell themselves they get some sort of high from absolute torture, it will make it better or worthwhile. Even during years when I was super consistent with a jogging routine, every step each second always sucked and I never ‘grew out of it’. Until today… for whatever reason today at the age of 33 I got my first runners’ high. I was jogging on the beach. It was a little difficult at first, and my shins started throbbing a bit. I was able to jog through it though and the pain eventually went away. About 15 mins in, all of the sudden I got a full body shiver that gave me this incredibly good feeling. I have had this feeling before when doing weight exercises but never while running. This full body shiver of euphoria happened several times on the jog and after each time, I felt invincible. Usually I can’t stop looking at how many torturous seconds I have left of the jog but today I felt I could go forever. I actually felt GOOD and WANTED to keep going. The only reason I finally stopped was because I was afraid of getting sunburned. I left without any sunscreen and was afraid Brendan would be worried if I was gone for a long time without a way to contact me. It was really cool though, and the first run of my life I actually enjoyed. The crazy thing is, for the first time my app kept stopping and restarting so it didn’t keep track of how long or how far I went. I usually have a watch that would tell me too, but the band broke. I actually don’t know how long I jogged… I know it was nothing if compared to an actual runner, but I think it was good for me and most importantly I felt good.
I returned pumped on life and so excited to finally learn what a runner’s high felt like. I had visions of becoming a super power athlete wondering if I could run feeling that good every day! Endless possibilities! That is until the evening came… about 8 hours later I had the worst shin splints I have ever felt. The pain in my legs was almost excruciating. It felt like something was squeezing the bones so hard they were just going to explode sending splinters and fragments of bone everywhere (I later looked up and found that running on sand or soft surfaces can increase risk of shin splints). I knew with my legs feeling like that, there was NO WAY I could jog again tomorrow. So there went my eight-hour long dreams of becoming an elite, power athlete (even though my 23 and Me said I do not have that gene… genetics being proved right again). And that’s my story of my one and only runner’s high.
Back to the travel blog. After my jog, shower, and lunch, we went to a dive shop in town to get some info on the Great Barrier Reef and best places to dive. We talked to a great guy who was very knowledgeable and booked a 2-day diving trip on the outer reef! This is super exciting. We will do six dives (including a night dive) and stay overnight on a luxury boat out on the reef. We also booked a day trip to the Whitsundays to spend snorkeling and be on a beach with supposedly the finest sand in the world. I felt like all the free camping and cup of noodles was paying off now that we were able to do some really cool activities! Super excited, we drove to the next free camping spot.
