Lamington Classic
Posted by: Audrey Post date: October 29th, 2009Hubby and I spent last weekend at Lamington National Park for the Lamington Classic, the oldest trail race in Australia. It starts at one end of the border trail, you run the 22km trail to the other end, and stay overnight. The next morning, you run the 22km back.
As I have been known to do a fair bit recently, I took on a bit more than I had trained for, yet survived. I decided that it wasn’t that often that Hubby and I had a running weekend away with the kidlets at Grandma’s and the dogs in the boarding kennels, so I figured I’d make the most of it and run both ways. I have photos, but I can’t find the camera, so will upload them a bit later.
Saturday morning found us up dreadfully early and heading to Canungra, where we put our overnight gear on the trailer to Binna Burra and car pooled to the start at O’Reilly’s. The start was staggered based on our recent half marathon times so I started last. Which is fine, because I usually finish last. Start as you mean to finish, I always say. 
We set out on the 22km run around 10.45am. The route follows the border trail and it’s very well marked, with some stunning lookouts along the way. I had my ankles strapped to within an inch of their lives, but I was still paranoid about rolling them. As it was, I rolled my left ankle five times but the strapping saved Hubby having to carry me the rest of the way. Walked the uphills, jogged the flats and downhills, and carefully picked my way through the rocky or tree rooty parts. I firmly believe that it won’t matter how fast I get on the road, my trail times will never come down, purely because I’m so cautious. I wasn’t feeling too bad when I got to the other end. It took me 3 hours 45 or so, and the winner did it in 1 hour 20. I don’t think I’m much of a threat.
We had lunch, then had a few hours to kill before dinner. A thunderstorm rolled in,and it started to rain so we decided to skip the bushwalk and have a sleep in our safari tent instead. The 4am start and long run was starting to take its toll. I snored for a bit over an hour, then had a shower and headed off for dinner at the teahouse. After dinner, a few of us sat around with a few drinks, before heading to bed.
The next morning we were off again at around 8.40am for the return 22km run to O’Reilly’s. I was feeling pretty good, legs weren’t tired, but as we got closer to the start, I was beginning to think I didn’t fancy doing the distance again. About 1km into the run, I was seriously considering turning back and getting a lift to O’Reilly’s, but resisted the temptation. We ran pretty much all the way with the sweep, who was pleasant company. 3 hours 30 on the return trip, so a negative split. I reckon it’s cause of the red wine carbo loading the night before. My legs were totally stuffed when I finished, I don’t think I could have gone any further.On a positive note, I only rolled my left ankle twice on this run.
This was a nice weekend, good company, lovely location for a run, and after a few nights sleeping in compression tights, I’ve got no leg pain. I really think next time though, I’ll plan on doing a bit more training beforehand.
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