High altitude training in Lithgow

Last week I was in Lithgow, New South Wales, having a few days off and doing some altitude training at the same time. It’s about 1000m high and the scenery around the town is stunning. In fact, it reminded me a little of a Swiss mountain town, in the chilly wintery air.

I took my suit as I am aiming to do two runs a week in it. The friends I was visiting offered to get in touch with a local journalist. As it is fragile X awareness month in Australia, it seemed like a great idea.

Barely an hour later the journalist was on our door step, asking Helen and I some fascinating questions about my training, the cause I am running for and life with this condition. The result is here.

“Disappointed but not defeated” was how he aptly described me after the last attempt, when I missed Scott Forbes’ time by 27 seconds. It was a tough moment being so close. But with so much room for improvement in my race strategy I had to give it one more shot.

The kids did so well during the interview, playing with bubbles that Helen was blowing while we talked. Josiah even cooperated a lot more than previously for the photographs.

Running round the town was also a fun experience in my suit. I got shocked looks from dog walkers and quite a few horns beeping at me. Hopefully the newspaper article the next day would have explained to these residents what was going on!

The highlight of my running in Lithgow was visiting the ZigZag railway and the surrounding bushland. No longer in use, but preserved as a tourist attraction, the track is more than 150 years old.

The ‘Z’ shaped section climbs up the steep hillside, connecting Sydney with Lithgow and Bathurst. It was an engineering marvel in its time as still is an impressive series of viaducts. Apparently, due to settlement the stone structures are even stronger now than when they were built!

Thanks, Lithgow, for the wonderful couple of days of rest. And for the surprise moment of Fragile X awareness.