Cav's Place

In the early hours of October 7, I ate dinner between 3:20 AM and 3:55 AM. And after getting up I ordered a cheap TV, after having talked about it with dad, since the old CRT one from the kitchen had been requiring more and more attempts before turning on, even reaching hundreds, plus that there had been some diagonal lines over the top part of the image for far longer, and TVs were among the many product categories that Carrefour offered those vouchers with 20% of the value for those days. However, if I ordered it from their site, they charged for shipping, even if it was above the value that would normally be required for free shipping, so I checked whether their delivery service could be used to reserve one and pick it up from the store, being pleasantly surprised that this no longer required paying on-line, which meant that I could order it even before dad got back. The site listed that model as available in a limited quantity at both nearby locations but that delivery service could only be used for the one that is assigned for the area that includes my address, so I ordered it from there but also got ready to go to the other location in case I’ll be told that it was actually sold out. However, I didn’t need to go out at all, since I was quickly called and told that I could pick it up, the guy specifying that I had to do so from the electronics department instead of the usual place for such orders, but dad got back just as I was about to leave and he went instead.
Before he got back, I activated the new version of the list of games played, and after he got back I set up the new TV, then added the games finished last year which I hadn’t yet added to the list, and then rushed to post something, that piece of news offering me the chance to quickly solve the problem of the week’s first post. After that, I made mamaliga, and at night I also added the first Broken Sword to that list and wrote a quick post to mention this site update, since on October 8 I was going to walk the longer part of the marathon‘s route and wasn’t going to be able to write anything else. It was past 5:20 AM when I got in bed… And I’ll also add here that my mouse really acted up that day, all of a sudden alternating between missed and double clicks, the good news being that it then recovered and there hasn’t been another such day since then.

In the early hours of October 10, I didn’t even really think that I could start eating dinner at 2 AM anymore, so despite going to the kitchen a little earlier than usual, after starting to shave a little before midnight, and actually after mixing something that I was going to eat even before that, I only started to eat dinner at 2:30 AM, having some of the older peanut butter, which had hardened but otherwise seemed fine, on some, or probably most, of the bread, and finishing at 3:05 AM. I made the tea while working on dinner, but after dinner I spent half an hour on-line and shouldn’t have. Then I put a couple of things in the running belt and also the cereals, almonds and raisins in dark chocolate in a bowl, which I put in the fridge, so I’ll just have the yogurt to add in the morning. I got in bed at 4:10 AM.
After waking up at one point and seeing 8:06 AM, I initially got back in bed, but rather needed to pee, so I got back up to do that and then did manage to get a little more sleep before the alarm rang, at 8:45 AM. Then I ate the apple and added the yogurt, “Greek” but expired, in the bowl and ate that as well, and another sweet thing were two expired nicer biscuits, with added honey. I even left something in the toilet, took all of the supplements, except of course the second pill of the one for joints, put the other things in the running belt, so its contents will be more or less what they’ll be during the marathon, and ended up drinking most of the tea. I left a little after 10:15 AM, wearing the full running gear and holding the belt, since I put it on after locking and putting the key in that special pocket of the tights. The reported temperature was 13-14°C at that point, and about 16°C when I finished. I pretty much marched to the park, but felt something around my right heel as I entered it, so I stopped on a bench, took off that shoe, found that the sock was a little bunched up and fixed it. I still managed to start running at 10:30 AM, however.
The time was 47:43.45, with sector times of 4:16.35, 5:01.28, 5:56.22, 4:29 (4:28.60), 5:06.53, 5:52 (5:51.59), 4:31.06, 5:00 (4:59.66), 5:43.28 and 1:49 (1:48.88), making for lap times of 15:13.85, 15:27 (15:26.72) and 15:14.00. I was aiming to get under 47 minutes and pushed from the start, so that first sector time was several seconds slower than it should have been. I kept pushing and felt better about sector two’s time, but sector three should have also been better, so the lap made me seriously doubt that I’ll even stay under 48 minutes, and after lap two it seemed quite clear that I won’t. But I just pushed hard from the start of lap three and after two sectors I had some hope to at least have a chance to just squeeze under 48 minutes. And then, after really giving it everything on sector three of lap three, I was surprised to already be safe at the end of the lap, and then to manage a good final sector as well. Needing to give everything in order to obtain what should only be a normal time was a bad sign, but at least it wasn’t worse…
There was some occasional weaving and going the long way around, but the only notable problem caused by people was on sector three of lap one, when a cyclist appeared from behind a blind turn and I was off the lane, so I was the one who had to clear the way and did so, avoiding him after hesitating for an instant. In terms of physical issues, there were some small warnings from the right knee, starting on sector two of lap two, but while they didn’t go away, they remained faint. There was also some discomfort in my upper abdomen, probably at least in part reflected from my back but I doubt that it could be completely explained by that, and it started either from that same sector two of lap two or even from sector one of lap two, and while it lessened over the course of lap three, it didn’t fully go away. Also, a bug got right in my eye on sector two of lap three and I only managed to get it out after getting back and washing that eye. And on that same sector a certain pressing need appeared, but it wasn’t a problem. Otherwise, a few small spots of the lane had been patched up, being marked with bands that were just placed on them, held down by rocks, but much of the lane was soggy and I didn’t avoid some of those areas, so it felt unpleasant. On the other hand, the new shoes felt completely fine, so I guess I managed to cover just the right distance with them before the marathon.

After getting back, I finished the old watermelon, changed and left again at 12:55 PM, with a can that I threw in a recycling bin on the way. I meant to go back to that Profi from Decebal, where I had stopped walking one part of the marathon’s route, and walk what was left, but on the way I decided to have quick looks in several other stores, so I went back and forth in one area, then checked that Mega Image and Penny as well, and that was the first time I entered the Penny from Decebal since messing up the way I did on June 19. Either way, I then checked that Profi as well, but I forgot that I had seen a TV ad listing a good discount on Pepsi, so I didn’t get any for dad.
I then turned around and walked that part of the route, though I also stopped at the Mega Image that’s before the other Penny, getting an expiring product for dad and putting it in the backpack. Then, after reaching the place where the route turns around, I continued to that Penny, getting two bars, one of them from the expiring products… And seeing a long line at the single open checkout, and I hadn’t put on my mask. The woman who was ahead of me saw that I just had those two bars and told me to go ahead, insisting repeatedly and saying that others should also let me past when I said that it’d be pointless to just get in front of her, with so many others ahead, so I was getting increasingly embarrassed, but the guard eventually said that we should come to another checkout as well and at that point I did get ahead of her and of the man who had reacted faster, ending up the first in that new line, though some more time passed before a cashier actually came.
After putting the bars in the jacket’s inside pocket, I crossed to the other side of the road and walked to the entrance of the stadium area before once again moving away from the marathon’s route and going to Mega Mall. I went to the toilet and finally put on the mask before checking that Hervis and confirming that they don’t have that gel in that location, then I entered Carrefour and just got some expiring mozzarella, forgetting about the good discount on cabbage. But I didn’t really need another one, since I was yet to touch one which I had purchased when it had previously been discounted, the price having been higher then… Either way, the self-checkout machine gave me a little less change, giving one more 0.01 RON coin instead of a 0.05 RON one, but I just mentioned it in passing to the employee who was there and then shrugged it off.
After adding the mozzarella in the backpack, I continued to Kaufland, finding sardines in tomato sauce. The sardines of their store brand were listed as on sale in the catalog, but I had previously only found those with lemon at the sale price, those in oil at the full price and none of the others, while that day I saw all four kinds. There were piles of those with lemon and those in oil, almost one full box of those with chili and maybe two thirds or so of one of those in tomato sauce, but while the first two kinds still had those different prices, neither of these other two had any price label, so I took some and tried to scan them… Only for two scanners to freeze at those in tomato sauce, so I then tried those with chili… And saw an even higher price than for those in oil. However, I could then finally scan those in tomato sauce as well, and saw a price that was even lower than for those with lemon, so each kind actually had a different price. But I wanted to make sure, so I used yet another price checker, once again needing to scan something else before it listed the price for the sardines in tomato sauce, and when it confirmed that lower price I bought five, adding them in the backpack. Then I returned to the spot where I had walked away from the marathon’s route and made my way back.
When I saw a homeless person on the way, I realized that I could have bought one of the salads, with cheese and sauce, discounted by 90%, which I had seen in Kaufland, but at the time I had only considered getting one for dad and decided against it after seeing that the ingredients were imported, ignoring the fact that the price was just over the amount that I still want to give away in order to make up for what happened on June 19. But by then it was too late to go back. So, after a quick look in the nearby Mega Image, once again entering with everything, I got back just after 5 PM. And at night, after a late nap, I even did the day’s squats. And I took another pill when I had dinner, just in case.

The initial, tentative plan for this post was to cover the entire period between October 5 and 13, so also including walking the entire route of the marathon and getting the race kit, which would have left me to start the post about the marathon with the day before the race. That would have probably been too much for a single post, even if I’d have written it over multiple days, so another option was to leave out October 5 and 8, when I walked the route, but that still meant making another post, since walking the route is something that I do want to write about, even if most of the post would have still been about odds and ends, and I pretty much stopped posting about days that just contained odds and ends, the oldest one that I didn’t post about being May 22. So I decided to just leave it as it is, with what I could write today, before midnight, and put those other days in another post. That means delaying the post about the marathon even longer, especially since another series of long walks for Carrefour’s campaign is coming, but I really can’t get myself to write about that anyway, the problem being that I couldn’t really get myself to write many notes about the actual run either, so I’ll have to rely on my memory and that will fade as time passes. But I’ll see what I’ll do when I’ll get there…