500k Relay: Superhero Day 2

On Saturday after a 3.15am wake up (woohoo! 15min sleep in from yesterday!), we headed down for an interesting section of the race. It is like a relay where you tag people off, but different. Two people from each team have a mass start. They run for a certain distance, escorted by a police car in front and in back. When everyone is finished, the next race starts from the finishing point with two more team mates racing. There is one team providing a mid-race water stop for all racers.
I was the last leg of this race, running into Killarney. Yes, there is a theme to this weekend - I was put in the last leg of a lot of races. No complaints here! It was loads of fun.
Last year I was dropped off 2 hours before my race started. Me & a fellow team mate isolated on a deserted road in the cold. Fortunately this year I didn't have such a wait. I got to stay all snuggly warm in the water vehicle until the start of the race. Not long before I was to start, I realized with sadness that I had forgotten to give someone my camera to take photos. Fortunately, our lovely water truck driver reminded me we were less than 3k from Killarney where the bus was waiting - so he drove me in to get my camera, then agreed to take pictures of me. I made it back to the start with plenty of time to spare.
As we lined up to the start line it began to rain and thunder rang out in the distance. Yikes! I'm not a rain runner! I wrapped my cape around me to keep warm - to the jealousy of all the non-cape wearing runners!
In this leg, there was only one from each team running. This year there were strict cut-off times for each race (averaging a 6min pace). I knew I had it in me to be well ahead of the cut-off. Besides which, I didn't think the strict cut-off time would be that strict in the final leg of the race.
The gun went off, and we started off running down a gentle hill. I quickly fell into my place but - what's this? A runner right behind me?!


Me in the distance, just ahead of my Run Inn competitor.









I could feel him catching up at the 1k mark and he stayed on my tail for the next km. But I have that special little kick in me, and at the 2k mark I turned on the heat and ran as hard as I could to the finish line, beating my competitor!
I was very grateful for him and thanked him at the end. Had he not been threatening to overtake me, I doubted I would have pushed myself as hard.

Total distance: 2.85km
Total time: 14.27min (goal: sub-15min)
Elevation gain: 8m (but a 20m elevation drop)
Average pace: 5.04min/km

I was SUPER stoked with this time! 5min pace! Yes, it was a short and easy race. But a race is a race, and a 5min pace is a 5min pace.

Flying into Killarney

In the afternoon I was set to do (again) the last leg of the race into Greenmount. Another CHAMPION RUN!!! My last of the champion runs for the weekend - I was soooo excited.
But then it started to get dark. And it started to get stormy. And I started to get a sinking feeling of dread that the race would be cancelled. My team mates tried to cheer me up with reassurances - "oh no, they won't cancel it for a little rain".
When the police cars started directing everyone to turn on their lights about 5 legs before mine, I knew it was over. A little rain is fine, but running in the dark on the highway is not. There is a reason the cut-off time of the race is 6pm, and a reason that they hold this race in November, when the days are longer.
Two legs before mine, it all ended. I was devastated!
No superhero run into Greenmount. Had it been another race cancelled - a cri or a mass start - I would have been fine. But to cancel my second hero run was just too much.

 ...But then a dear friend with a heart of gold became a true superhero. She had 3 runs the next day, and offered to sacrifice her superhero run to me. She agreed that it was also her favourite run of the weekend, but still insisted that I have it instead of her.

Superhero Heather to the rescue! (Yes, that is Batman in the background).

I was still concerned with the stormy weather - with more storms predicted for Sunday, who knew if more races would have to be cancelled? But I held onto a cautious hope for tomorrow...