Red-foot marathon
MARATHON runners from the Far North and beyond will cross the finish line with red shoes at the inaugural Weipa Running Festival this Sunday.
The festival has roughly 200 runners registered to compete.
Running Festival committee president Lauren Gregory said she expected many more on the day.
“This is a very laid-back kind of town where everyone registers the day before,” she said.
“Weipa’s getting easier to access, there’s not as much of a barrier as there used to be.”
Ms Gregory came up with the idea of the festival last year as a way to boost tourism for the town.
“We just have local marathon events, this is our first effort to promote something with a wider appeal,” she said.
“There are a few other things like the fishing competition, but we’re leaning more towards health and fitness side of things, getting that out a bit more.
“Quite a lot of us head out to the Cairns area for marathons, so we pulled together a committee from the Weipa parkrun and got some keen runners together.”
The Weipa Running Festival will include a 42km Marathon, 21km Half Marathon, 10km and 5km Race and a 2.5km Fun Run starting from Andoom Oval.
The track will be a combination of road, bush, beach and dirt, and mostly flat.
Ms Gregory said it was probably one of the most remote marathons in the country.
“The conditions out here are a lot different. It’s very hot, dry, humid and dirty,” she said.
“Once you go out of Weipa, you’ll be able to go past the mines, through the bush and along the beach. It’s very outdoorsy.
“Because it’s such a flat terrain, I’m hoping we’ll see a lot of good personal bests.”
The full marathon will begin Sunday, August 12 at the Andoom Oval with a staggered start from 5am.
There will be community entertainment and markets from 8.30am to 1pm at the oval, and award presentations at 10am.