But.
But.
I was looking at the run guide for the first race I had on schedule and I saw in big bold letters 30 minute time limit. And the distance? 5.5km! For those of you that haven't calculated this out instantaneously, that is a strict 5.30min/km pace.
Could I do it? Quite possibly. If it was flat. If it was going to be very hilly...yikes!
The night before I had expressed my concerns with our fearless leader, but he shook off my concern with a hand wave. "You'll be fine! You'll do it easy."
Riiiight. "Easy".
I swallowed my concern so that it sat in my stomach like bad meat and let it percolate over night. Since I couldn't sleep, it was a long night of percolation.
My leg was second one of the morning, so the only good thing was that I didn't have long to wait. For this section of the race, it was all mass starts (aka, we all started together). There were two runners from each team to make 32 runners in each section. The first group ran from Point A to Point B. My group started at Point B and finished at Point C, where the third group started from. And on it continued.
No individual follow vehicles on this section. Instead, there was a police car leading and - even worse - a police car following. And just in case I wasn't worried about that, a pick-up vehicle ominously creeped in front of the police car to pick up runners who were just too slow to make it to the finish within the time limit. As the time crawled to an end, one of the marshalls yelled out at the last stragglers, "30 seconds to get across the finish line! Less than 30 seconds to go, hurry up!" To be fair, he may have yelled this for about a minute, but boy, it's tough with the next batch of racers all staring at you and waiting anxiously for you to cross the finish line so they could start their race.
I immediately scrapped my plan to take this race easy and the second race hard. This race would be about 3 goals (in order of importance):
1. Do not under any circumstance get picked up by the pick-up vehicle to be shuttled to the finish line.
2. Do not be the last person. The thought of listening to the car stalking me the entire 5.5k was enough to make me shudder. And if I went to slow, would they nudge me on the back of my legs to hint that I needed to pick it up?
3. Come in well enough under 30min so that I'm not yelled at to hurry up and cross the finish line.
Any repercussions from these goals with regards to my afternoon race would be dealt with in the afternoon race. At least there was no time limit in that run!
As I waited at the start line I eyeballed the other 31 runners from my group and what I saw was not encouraging. Those that I knew were all much faster than me (it wasn't hard to be faster than me!). Those that I didn't know looked like lean mean running machines.
Oh boy!
The gun went off and we all surged forward, jostling for a good position. The first few hundred metres were slightly downhill and I took full advantage. Anything to not be in dead last! I glanced at my watch in the first 500m and saw I was running at a 4.45min/km pace.
And the group was pulling ahead. Seriously? Everyone was running at a sub-4.45min/km pace? This was not encouraging. I pulled back a little to avoid burn out in the 2nd km. I didn't hear the police car behind me but I was afraid to glance back and see how far back the last runner(s) sat. Was I second last? Third last? Was the person behind me 10m behind or 100m behind?
I didn't really want to know. I set my focus on forward and kept pushing through.
The morning was cool. The road was thankfully flat with a few small rolling hills. But it felt like it was going downhill more than uphill, so I was extremely grateful.
One team supplied a water vehicle at the halfway point and as I passed them I offered a smile and thumbs up - which is not exactly how I was feeling. I hadn't gone far past them when It Happened. I was running up another of the small rolling hills when I heard a car pull in behind me. Ulp!
I couldn't look, but I could feel flickers of heat race to my cheeks. This is it, I told myself. The runners behind me have all been picked up. I'm the last person now. Woe to me!
As I crested the hill the vehicle passed me. It was the water truck, not the pick up vehicle! Oops. Had I not been running in the middle of the lane the truck would have easily passed me. There I was feeling a tightness in my chest as I assumed it was the police car, and the poor water truck crew was probably cursing my stupidity going, "move to the side of the road, idiot! Can't you hear there's a car right behind you?!"
At least, that's what I imagine they were thinking, but I don't know because they were all politeness when they passed me. All I was thinking was, "Oh thank God, oh thank God! Oh thank you that it wasn't the cop car!"
At the 3k mark I passed one of the girls I'd been following, and I felt a little more settled knowing that she would have to pass me once again for me to be last. And since my racing strength is in the last 1k of the race, it was unlikely I would fall into last place at this point. And I was especially grateful when I looked at my time and saw I was within my target time.
I crossed the finish line without getting picked up, without being followed (aka, last runner), and without being yelled at to hurry up and finish because there were only 30 seconds left. Plus, it was my fastest pace since I've been injured. I call this race a success. Beached Pirate Race #3 Goal Achieved!
Total distance: 5.5k
Goal time: sub-30min
Actual time: 29.33min
Pace: 5.21min/km
And with the knowledge that this was the only race where I had a time limit, I could breathe a sigh of relief and look back to see in the end just how close I came to being the police car's front bumper decoration.
After the girl I had passed in the second half of the race, there were three others behind her, which made me 5th last in a field of 32. I don't care. 5th last is a far cry from last last.
After such an intense race this morning (Warwick to Killarney), I was happy to roll my worries & tight hamstrings away and chill out in the playground in Killarney with my fellow runners for breakfast.
Getting ready to watch the start of the next section, with the police car all set to send the runners off. (He wasn't following them in this section, as there was no time limit to be enforced!). And oddly, this section used a different route to go from Killarney back to Warwick for lunch!
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