Relay Addiction

On Monday I saw a group of runners had signed up to be on a team for the K-100 Relay. It looked full, but I thought to myself, "I'll sign up on the waiting-list and maybe I can help out as a volunteer driver for the weekend or something."
Lo and behold! Less than 24 hours later I was told I would be a runner on the relay. Wait, what?!?!
Frantically, I squinted at the relay legs more closely. 16k is the typical distance.
Sixteen Kilometres.
 
  Weather in the Rockies in June can be a bit unpredictable. I just hope the roads look like this:

 Now that may not seem all that bad. But wait, there's more! I remind you that the K-100 relay is named after Kananaskis. As in, it's a relay through the Rocky Mountains.
At this point you're probably asking yourself, "Hmm, won't that make it hilly?" And you would be absolutely right!

Ulp.

 It bears repeating that hills are not my friend. And considering as of Monday I had just upped my distance to a mere 11k, neither was distance. This would not be a problem if the race were months away. But with just under 8 weeks to up my training enough to compete in a 16k hilly race through the mountains, that is putting a bit of time-bake pressure on the whole affair.

...And not like this...

But on the other hand, how cool would it be to run in another relay this year? I've done three in a row in Australia, and now I'll be at #4. I've become a relay junkie.
But before I could fully commit to this endeavour, I needed to sufficiently lower the expectations of our team leader as to my contribution to the team. I may love running, but I sadly have very few illusions about my so-called "speed". So if our fearless leader was hoping for a competitive/fast team, I would have to bow out of the relay with grace and relief. Fortunately (or unfortunately?), he was fast to reassure me that I was still a go for running on the team.

So bring it on, K-100! Operation Train It Up has already begun...but more on that later.