Cav's Place

To start with the early hours of June 22, the ideal plan would have been to shave, then still manage to finish working on dinner a little earlier, so I’ll also have time to put some essential oil in and light the little aromatherapy lamp that I haven’t used in who knows how long and still eat at the usual time… However, I ended up only getting on-line for a little while, to check what was posted and sent about the Dream Trek, in that time that I should have spent shaving, so I then went straight to the kitchen, but there were a fair number of things to wash, I also arranged some things that dad had left lying around and exchanged a few words with him, dealt with the bread which I had bought for myself the previous day as well… And I was also bitten by something on my left leg, a little above the ankle. And it was something large enough to feel, but I so often think that I feel something and when I check I realize that it’s just a hair that moved, so that time I didn’t bother until the feeling persisted for too long, at which point I initially just brushed off that part of the leg, only looking after that, at which point I saw a few reddish marks, with a border around them where the skin was whiter than it otherwise is. After putting medicinal alcohol on them, the marks mostly faded by the time I was finally done working on dinner, but it was a concern, especially considering the location. Either way, all of that meant that I only ended up eating dinner between 3:55 AM and 4:30 AM, putting peanut butter on all of the bread… And I even forgot that I had meant to eat an orange before starting to work on dinner. So there was obviously no time to shave before going to bed either, as even so I got in bed at 5:25 AM, without getting back on-line, since dad was still up and working.
Well, even though I hadn’t eaten anything new, even the ingredients of the salad being things that I had also eaten at least once over the previous few days, I had a lot of gas by the time I went to bed, and a couple of minutes before 9 AM things got worse, because I woke up and had to go to the toilet, the result being rather explosive, so things really didn’t look good. And then it also took me a long time to get back to sleep, though I eventually did, and at least it was easier to get back to sleep after the next two times when I woke up, when I just went to pee. But I had weird dreams that left quite a mark all morning, and the most intense one came after the last time I got back to sleep, resulting in waking up once more after only some 20 minutes. I still hoped to get some more sleep, however, so at that point, a little after 2:30 PM, I set the alarm to ring at 3:45 PM, to be safe… But, while I think that I was in that state that’s between being asleep and awake a few times, there was no way to fall asleep again, so I eventually checked the time again, saw that it was a couple of minutes before 3:30 PM, and decided to get up, immediately going to shave.
After shaving, I had a small lunch, consisting of what was probably about half a serving of pasta and a small salad, between 4:50 PM and 5:10 PM. Then I also wrote a quick post, basically wasted time that I didn’t have on the toilet, so the fact that I had needed to go in the morning turned out to be a very good thing, took a quick shower, so I won’t stink right away, ate two apples, since they were small, a nice yogurt, with cereals, baked almonds with Himalayan salt and raisins in dark chocolate mixed in, and the last two of those wheat things, with honey and jam, took the last of those supplement samples, one of those pills against gas and a Smecta, mixed with some of the tea, putting the rest in a reusable bottle from a tree planting event and taking it with me, sprayed myself against bugs, even if that spray expired a long time ago, and left at 8:15 PM, wearing the full running gear, still using the old shoes but once again choosing that more visible t-shirt from the half marathon from 2022, plus one armband and the running belt, splitting the other things that I took with me between it and the pocket of my tights.
I reached that store from Mega Mall where we had been told to meet at 8:35 PM and immediately sat down, took off my shoes and put them on more properly, since I had done so in a hurry before leaving. Since there were two raffles, but one was for those who made purchases from that store that evening and another for those who registered for store cards until the end of the next day, there was nothing for me to do there, so even arriving that late still meant that I stood around for a little while, until Radu started the speech, when it was almost 8:50 PM. And during the speech he said that he wanted to know the score of Romania’s match on the way, and if we’ll have reason to celebrate the route will change so we’ll join the crowd. And quite a few participants were wearing the yellow t-shirt from last year’s marathon, and I had actually glanced at it as well before leaving, but the fact that it’d have been quite appropriate, yellow being the national team’s equipment color, hadn’t crossed my mind until then, when I couldn’t do anything about it anymore. Either way, after the first group picture was taken, it was 8:55 PM when the call to walk out was made, at which point I rushed to pee, catching up to the others at the escalator.
With sunset being at 9:04 PM, we were obviously running late, but there was still a brief warm up, starting a few minutes after 9 PM… And moments later a guard from that mall came to tell us to leave because we were blocking the entrance, immediately saying that he was going to call the police and doing so after Radu told him to go ahead while continuing to lead the warm up a little longer before calling us to move towards the sidewalk and ironically telling that guard that he had won… And I clearly remember that another group picture was taken at that point, but it doesn’t seem to have been posted, which seems weird… Though, unless my memory is really playing tricks, the reason might just be that guard’s attitude, which likely made them want to avoid advertising that mall. Either way, on top of the fact that we were already quite a few minutes late by then, we also waited a little longer for the live tracking to start.

The start was given at 9:11 PM, but I just started moving, quite slowly, since I was trying to pace myself and stay farther back this time around, and it was almost a minute later when I realized that I hadn’t started the stopwatch, so I slowed even further, to a walk, and did so, trying to remember just how much time had passed and then making up for it as closely as possible by waiting more or less that same time before pausing the stopwatch when we stopped at the first stoplight. And there were a couple of other moments over the course of the run when I didn’t press the button at the proper time, but I did so after a matter of seconds and compensated well enough at the first opportunity, so what still makes me say that the total running time is only a rough estimate is that I wonder what should really count, since there were also moments when I was just walking.
To get back to the early part of the run, after the usual group picture from that tram station marking the eastern point of the route, we continued to that new park which had been added on the route last year, and this time I knew to expect those paths covered in pebbles and the slopes, so it wasn’t a problem. And of course there was a group picture taken on that bridge, and since we left that park by climbing some steep stairs, there was a brief rest at that point, at least for those of us who kept up, since we got going again when the last ones made their way up.
Morarilor Park was the next destination, but the first unpleasant moment came on the way, when someone fell. Since I was still staying farther back, she was ahead of me and what I saw when I reached her seemed to be limited to scrapes and bruises, but there were quite a few of them and she was obviously hurting, and I guess that she abandoned after that. But, after a brief stop to make sure that she hadn’t hurt herself in some serious way, the rest of us obviously continued, and when we reached that park and ran a lap on the running lane from there, I saw how much better it is compared to the one from the park that I usually run in. I mean, it was pretty much flawless! Either way, there was a group picture on the bridge from that park as well, and that was just when the match began, so a few of the participants were starting to watch on their phones and the pause might have threatened to stretch a little longer if Belgium wouldn’t have scored the first goal right away. But they did and we got going, though it was a little awkward at first, with plenty, myself included, trying to gather around those who could watch and see the replay of the goal.
The next destination was just this park that I run in, and I was wondering what we were going to find, since one of the islands was set up for the matches, with a large screen and seating, but for example the portable toilets weren’t also on the island, but next to the bridge that leads to it, placed right next to the running lane… But, while there were quite a number of people in the rest of the park as well, the route didn’t actually take us right past that island, so the bigger problem was, as expected, the state of the lane, with its unevenness, all of the damaged spots and the recently repaired patches, so it’s a good thing that it didn’t result in more injuries. On the other hand, I had been noticing that a few participants were wearing glow sticks and even ran past one or two which had fallen and considered picking them up. I didn’t do so at that point, but when we stopped on the bridge for another group picture and I saw who was handing them out, I decided to ask for one as well… Only to change my mind again after waiting too long, since plenty seemed to want to form the national flag with them and the girl who was handing them out ended up assuming that everyone wanted that, and selecting those three colors and putting them on each person’s wrist was obviously taking a while. And I’d have just wanted one, and would have preferred a green one, which were obviously getting ignored anyway, but when it took too long for her to get to me I just gave up and picked up one which had fallen. It was purple, if I remember correctly, which meant another color that was being ignored, and it also didn’t have the cap, so I couldn’t put it around my wrist, but I just stuck it under the stopwatch and ran with it like that all the way.
Either way, after we got moving again, we went back in the park and to the lane, but only for a little longer, since when we reached the area that I usually start running from, so just before getting to that island and the crowd that had probably gathered even around it, we went up the stairs and to the exit, stopping again when we got there. I also drank a part of the tea at that point, and Radu said that we were going to reconfigure the route, supposedly because we had to reach that store where we were going to have the first planned refreshment stop sooner, since the guy who was there had to close up and leave earlier. But Radu had also said from the beginning that he didn’t exactly care to go to the planned southern end of the route, and later he even explained the reason, which had to do with someone having injured themselves quite badly in that area at some point, so I guess that he was looking for a reason to make that change anyway… And the way he explained the new route did leave quite a few confused, but at least I got the general idea well enough, especially after realizing that the gas station that he mentioned was the one where I used the toilet during the marathon of 2021.

I didn’t even get this far before midnight, the last paragraph above and the end of the one that’s before it being added when I edited the post minutes later, to at least finish what was considered to be the eastern section of the route, but at least I managed to force myself to finally post some part of this, the plan obviously being to edit the post in order to add the rest at a later time. However, since I hadn’t added anything by Friday evening, I gave up on that idea, just editing the post in order to mention this, and now it remains to be seen when I’ll manage to write another, containing the rest…