Cav's Place

Since I still didn’t write anything more than what was in the post with the first part, I keep spending quite a lot of the time when I’m on the computer playing Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition, and this evening I went out again as well, this was initially just a placeholder for what I really intended to be the post about the rest of this summer’s Dream Trek, since I really didn’t want to allow myself to split that story in more than two… But I never meant to even split it in two, of course, and then the plan to stop at two also failed, since I took all week to even write this following part, only editing the post in order to add it in the early hours of the following Monday, August 5!

To pick up from where I left off, the following section, until we crossed the river and went past that gas station, meant running through an area that I know well and it was so straightforward that pretty much the only thing that I remember, other than simply running and still controlling my pace, was the fact that I spotted another fallen glow stick, or perhaps two, and was thinking about grabbing it, or one of them, and adding it next to the first one, so much so that, after initially continuing to run, I even considered rushing back to that spot a little later, since the sidewalk was narrow and the group was stretched. But that’d have been weird, so I didn’t do it.
Things get somewhat less clear after that, since I don’t really remember when I drank the rest of the tea which I had taken with me or just when the route was reconfigured yet again and I can’t even understand what I meant to write about drinking. I’m thinking that it was supposed to be a shortened form of either “entrance” or “intersection”, written in Romanian, but it might be something entirely different, and even if it is one of those and I could figure out which, I didn’t write down which one, so I must have thought that it was obvious at the time, but that clearly didn’t remain the case after the run, since I couldn’t figure it out the first time I tried to read those notes either. And then I just added that the route was reconfigured again, so that might have happened after I drank, but I’m not even sure of that, and it doesn’t exactly mean anything anyway.
What I do know is that we turned right after passing that gas station and we were supposed to go in Lumea Copiilor Park, but Radu said that we should go around and then enter through another spot since the straight route was too dark. I’m also pretty sure that the route was reconfigured twice while I believe we were more or less in that area, not just once, since the first time we were told that the guy from that store where we were going to make the first scheduled stop couldn’t get in because the roads were blocked in that area, so we shouldn’t go straight there, and then the problem was solved and we had to get there as soon as possible, but whether this was just a notification or it actually implied reconfiguring the route yet again, I don’t know.
Either way, I very clearly remember the area that we entered that park from, and it did strike me as a very visible entrance, so if I meant to jot down that I drank the rest of that tea at the entrance, it was almost certainly there. And I know that, after emptying it, I tried to put that reusable bottle through that loop that I make in order to tighten the running belt more than it’d normally allow me to, but I soon realized that I couldn’t run with it there because it didn’t allow my arm to move properly anymore, and I seem to recall struggling with it when we reached the running lane from that park, which would just about confirm that I drank at that entrance. But I don’t really know, and it’s too easy to create false memories without realizing it when you try too hard to picture something that you no longer have any real memories of.
To get back to what I do remember, the running area from that park was also pretty much flawless, and it’s not just a lane created on one part of what’s otherwise a regular path, but a proper running area, with three lanes and separated from the other paths, though the problem is just that it’s too much like an actual running track, just a circle and apparently no more than 600 meters long, if even that. But we ran a lap on it, during which I might have struggled with that reusable bottle, before eventually pulling it back out of that loop and continuing to hold it in my hand. And then, seeing as that running area ended up being the unplanned southernmost point of the route, the question was where to take the group picture marking that moment, that spot ending up being in front of the Children’s Palace, at the suggestion of one of the participants. That meant almost getting back to the area that we entered the park from, so it wasn’t exactly the southernmost point anymore, but it was a landmark from that area.
While this is just a memory that’s almost a month and a half old by the time I’m actually writing this, I’m pretty sure that by the time we got going again, after that picture was taken, we knew that we were going straight to that store, so the announcement that the problems had been solved came either just then or a little earlier, before we left that park, when I seem to remember that we were told to make use of the toilets from that area because there won’t be a toilet at that store. And, to return to the few moments needed for that picture to be taken, I also believe that I jotted down those few words during that time, meaning that I had finished the tea by then and therefore making it more likely that I did so just before we entered that park.
Either way, what followed was another period of straightforward running, past Tineretului Park and then, even though the route that was initially planned was different in that area as well, continuing straight until we reached the National Theater, where we stopped for another group picture, at which point someone asked whether I had participated the previous year as well and ran all the way to the end, since she thought that she recognized me from the pictures, but still seemed surprised when I confirmed it, asking a few times whether I actually ran to the end “like that”. And no, I don’t know what she meant by that and didn’t ask.
A little after we got going again, we crossed the road and made our way to Calea Victoriei, where we did see some people despite the fact that the national team had lost, since we were still in first place and with a good chance to get past the group stage. Of course, that area is normally pedestrianized during the weekend, so it’d be better to say that the number of people was somewhat higher than you’d normally expect and the pedestrianized area was probably somewhat larger. And, of course, we made use of that, running on the street and just pushing, those who could go faster being free to do so and not having stoplights, traffic or narrow sidewalks to worry about. And yes, at that point I was among those who really pushed, just setting my sight on whoever was ahead of me, pushing to overtake them, then finding the next “target” and continuing like that until I reached that store. It was 0:20 AM at that point, I was among the first to get there, and the distance covered until then seems to have been about 19 km.
We had been told to expect water, Coca Cola and snacks and initially I didn’t mean to have any Coca Cola, thinking that it was going to give me gas and make the problems that I was almost certain to have later even worse. However, I ended up drinking two cups of Coca Cola and just one of water, and I also had that reusable bottle refilled with water, for the next part of the route, since the only other listed refreshment stop was close to the end even according to the initial plan, and it was clear that, if we were going to manage to get there at all, we were going to do so when dawn will be approaching and then cut straight to the finish on the shortest possible route. Either way, during the time we spent there, I also ate three pieces of banana, likely adding up to more than one whole one, and took handfuls of chocolate and salty pretzels, even if I had to make do with simply wiping my hands with a napkin… Or at least I believed that I did, keeping that warning about the lack of a toilet in mind.
That warning was the reason why I spent some of that time wandering around that area, looking for a toilet that I could use in some other place, but I didn’t spot any from outside and didn’t dare to actually enter anywhere, so I just wasted time and made a little additional effort, obviously keeping the stopwatch off, as that wasn’t part of the route and I was only walking slowly. So a better use of that time would have been to find a spot that was far enough away from the others and write down a few more details, since the woman who had asked whether I had participated before at the National Theater approached me again while we were there, saying that she had noticed that I was writing something down and asking what it was, and while I pretty much ignored the question, I really didn’t feel like writing more while I could be seen… And it also turned out that I didn’t need to look for a toilet elsewhere either, since I had noticed some of the others going down the stairs in the store, and as the group was getting ready to get going again I just followed someone else down there, finding out that they did have a toilet after all… And I was the last one to use it, the fact that I was still waiting for my turn being the reason why I’m not in the group picture taken in front of that store. Of course, since there was no more time, I also had to give up on the plan to see what was going to come out from the other end at that point, to reduce the risk of ending up in a desperate situation later, only peeing quickly and then rushing back outside as the rest were leaving, so I got going again at 12:55 AM, with the others doing so just before that hour.