TOF DAY 4! CHARIOTS OF FIRE

I wasn't too bothered about this one to be honest. Whereas some of the competitors were dreading it....It's SAND! My legs were really tired and sore going in to the hill last night, but it was short and I felt slightly better today. This is a different race entirely, more for speed, different muscle groups, and of course, it's flat. I probably ran 4.5miles on the sand a few weeks ago at Sandy Slither and as long as it's the wet stuff, it's fine. The other big talking point was shoes - I opted for racers.
I arrived early as there was a wee concern about traffic around some silly golf thing. It was a very windy day which stopped play and allowed me to get parked. The beach was deserted at this point.
I waited until I was stripped and had a wee run about on the wet sand, probably not enough, but I'll need to do. Soon there was the usual bunch of around 150 at the harbour end of  St Andrew's Beach. I noticed the no-one was warming up either and just standing around waiting on the start. All a bit strange, 6.30pm on a Saturday night!
Next thing we're off. I started fast, not intentionally, but I was with runners that I'm not usually with. Think I paid for it as one of the Fife guys that has been a few places behind me past me before the bend. I was fighting to stay on the wet sand, but it's a fairly sharp left turn and I was losing too much ground. I needed to give in and hit the soft stuff, then some grassy dunes, followed by sinking sand as I hit the water. There was 2 steaks in the sea with Brian and Tony dressed in Hawaii shirts, splashing you as much as they can.
On the way back I just headed for the wet stuff and ran on my own. But as you come in to the finishing straight (hard to judge as it must be more than a mile) you all end up back together and I didn't seem to be any closer to the runners in front. I was suffering and just wanted to get back. I had the guy from Fife, girl from Corstorphine that was a place or two away from me in previous nights and another girl about 5 meters ahead. It stayed like that for ages. We were also closing other runners down. I knew if I pushed myself I'd fly past them, I just had to wait and time it. I looked up from time to time to see the finish and try and judge the distance. You can see the buildings clear, but the people are ants, then bigger ants..... I made my move and shot past them before refocusing and thinking, Jesus there's still about 600mts to go! I hung in there and was not passed, but there was about 6 of us with only a few seconds apart. Time 30.26 PB by 9 seconds. Distance 4.25miles.
Collected my free skull tattoos for tomorrow's final race "skull mountain".
George