500k relay: Day 3

Day Three: 500k relay. Toowoomba to Gatton

Our final day! I ran 7.78km total. (Distance “advertised” 7.50km)

Leg #5: The Champion Run
Difficulty rating: 5
Time start: 5.30am
Total distance: 3.50km
Total time: 17.10min
Average pace: 4.54/km
Fastest pace: 3.48/km
Elevation: -63
Temperature: cool
The best weather (cool)! The best time of day (early morning)! My ideal terrain (mostly flat with some gentle sloping downhills)! What can I say? All the stars aligned to make this my fastest split times I’ve ever raced.
I was very fortunate, in that I was the third runner of the day but the first to get a follow vehicle (the first two legs had a police escort only). My team offered me water, but the weather was cold and the distance short. Who needed water?
The person tagging off to me surprisingly came in dead last by a long shot. Surprising because the two people ahead of me were both strong runners. But on my leg were a few slower people, and I was sure I could pick them off! I received the tag off and took off down the hill. Not long after the follow vehicle picked up my trail (they were a bit slow as the poor finisher had to jump into the car right after his race). It was a quiet morning and a quiet highway. So the followers rolled down the window to cheer me on. I responded at first, but I was on a mission after all! I needed to catch those guys in front, within my sights after 500m. I only heard about 20% of the words, but the voices sounded encouraging. I gained a lot of lost time, but sadly 3.5km was not enough time for me to pick-off a lead of at least 800m. If I’d had another km I would have had them for sure! In the end I was only 100m back. I gave it everything I had, and am really happy. Maybe next year I’ll be fast enough (lucky enough) to pass someone in the champion runs.

Leg #6: The Mass Start.
Difficulty rating: 2
Time start: 2.00pm
Total distance: 4.28
Total time: 25.21min
Average pace: 5.55/km
Fastest pace: 4.52/km
Elevation: 24m
Temperature: hot & humid. As hot as Friday with dead air that stifled.
The very last leg of the race. The ‘glory run’ for some teams, who run this unified and finish together. The six of us in it had planned to do that, but our coach found out and wasn’t happy. We had to run our best, he said. We had to beat the team that was (at last check) 15min ahead of us in time. I was bummed, as I was the slowest runner put into that leg.
No one wanted to do it. No one! It was hot, and there was a champion run “finish” coming into the town, but then after a 30min break we had to mass start it to Gatton. The 8.4k journey was split into two runs. I ran the last of the 4.2km.
What can I say about this run? I ran with a water bottle for the first time this whole weekend, as we were only promised one water stop. But within 5 min the heat and jostling had heated my water up quite warm, and it was no longer very useful.
I remember a marathoner telling me that at the end of her first marathon she had burst into tears due to the physical & emotional exhaustion of her achievement. I never thought such a thing would happen to me but by the end of that race I could see what she meant. There reaches a point when you think you can’t take it anymore. Was it from sleep deprivation? Physical exhaustion? Heat exhaustion? Sadness that this marked the end of such an amazing weekend? Frustration that my hopes of finishing with my teammates had been squashed by our coach? That I had forgotten my sunnies and the brightness (and heat) was burning my eyes? Perhaps any of those – perhaps all. In any case, it was the most emotional race I’ve ever run. Fortunately, no one expected me to speak at the end of the race. I had a lovely supporter from the team pass me a chilled bottle and I poured it over my head as I caught my breath. Perfect!