May 2020 has started... It have been over 50 days of quarantine days during Covid-19. Every day seems to be the same... Has 'no name'... The situation is slowly getting better but we all have in the back of our had the consciousness and reality which are not normal... But I am not trying to figure out it now, we all have our own ideas and opinions. This blog I want to keep 'pain-free' and as normal as possible.
So… Here I am… Today/tonight I am writing about the yesterday race… WINGS FOR LIFE!
(Almost all) fellow runners know that the first Sunday of May is a day for the unusual race – WFL Run.
“From the Americas to Oceania, from Europe to Africa – in the Wings for Life World Run 2020, all participants are running on their own but start simultaneously. There’s no traditional finish line – instead, a virtual Catcher Car pursues you! So you run as far as you can until you’re caught. 100% of your entry fee goes directly to the Wings for Life foundation to help cure spinal cord injury.”
Due to the current circumstances, the format of the race has been changed this year. And all participants ran it… using Mobile App 🙂 Actually, I have realized about it only one night before and signed 2 hours prior the start… so as usual… it was my last-minute registration for the race 😉
At 1pm local time (in Poland) and all other runners around the world had started the race simultaneously. First 30 mins of the race you run as far and as quick as possible, later the Car Catcher starts to ride and catch the participants. Every half an hour the car speeds up, once it got the runner he/she has to finish the race. The result is the distance covered until that time by the participant.
Talking about my race… I was not prepared the best >< I did not have the plan for the track and route to trace, neither supporter nor extra food, only bottle of water.
First half an hour went very easy and peacefully, actually, I kept the same pace through all the race:
And then after 50 minutes of the race…. the weather has changed so much… sunny sky has transformed into a stormy & dark… The wind became to blow hard and… yes rain and hail got me… After a few minutes I was totally soaked! But guess what, I felt such a joy and pleasure during the rain that happy face and smile enhanced even more 🙂 I changed my route a bit and decided to do loops over 3 km long along my neighborhood.
There was almost nobody on the street! I felt like a lord of the district. Entire path walks and roads were mine. Loop by loop, kilometer by kilometer I heard a voice in the ‘Audio Assistant’ from the app. Beside of this, I had some Spotify playlist in my headphones that actually had a good beat for the race 8-).
After 25 kilometers of the race, I have heard (finally) the communicate “the car is 500m behind you”.. (!) that was such a funny feeling, I literally felt as if had been there for real, so I speeded up, made it to 26 kilometers, then I heard “the car is 300m behind you”… soon after “150m away!”…
Aaaaaand…. it got me over 26,6 kilometers in 2h14minutes…
That was very good and satisfying distance and result for me, as I did not plan it and had no strategy for the race.
But I really loved the idea and concept of this race, I am pretty sure I would love to participate in this in the next editions. Who knows how many kilometers I might do surrounded by others and feeling, even more, this ‘adrenaline’ of the race? 😉
