From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishrace/work/battle against timerace/work/battle against timeto try to finish or achieve something even though you have very little time Mark was racing against time to complete the work by Friday. → time
Examples from the Corpus
race/work/battle against time• They face a race against time as fears grow over the health of the whales and the possibility of their becoming beached.• However, with the contract negotiations starting, Lipton and others know that they are fighting a battle against time.• Now it is a race against time to rebuild it before high spring ties later this month.• It is a race against time.• It looks as if my whole life is a race against time.• For the cartoonists, it's a daily battle against time, to create work that captures the imagination.• But his parents are faced with a desperate race against time to raise the money necessary for his treatment.• The picture which became the cover shot, of the Rollright Stones, was a particular race against time. 