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Bucharest Marathon 2024 – I

The year ended and I still haven’t written about the marathon other than to just mention the result that day, not even the notes are fleshed out, and even what I do have was written quite some time after the fact, so plenty of details are quite clearly gone or altered in my mind. And this was my most important run, so I have to enter damage limitation mode, push aside any ideas of doing it properly, writing it all at once or even having a good chance of editing the post in order to add everything by the end of next week, and at least start, even if with only this first section that’s little more than a placeholder, ending at the start and scheduled to be posted at 11:59 PM, because of being out for most of today. But I did manage to make a first edit in the early hours of Thursday, covering the first part of the race, ending with the paragraph about catching and being caught by the pacemakers, so getting a little past the halfway point. And that was it, because it was clear that I wasn’t going to be able to finish this by the end of the week, so in the early hours of Saturday I just added this sentence and changed the title of the post to reflect that it’s only a first part.

To start with the evening of October 12, I tried to make the salad during the national team’s match, also eating a few walnuts and a bag of nicer bagels during that time, but when the match was about to end I had only eaten a few of those bagels, so I then finished that bag, eating about half of it right after the match ended, and the salad was far from being done, and I also jabbed my palm with the knife, though at least it was the left one. And, once done, the salad yet again ended up being somewhat bigger than I meant it to be. But I also made the tea, and then ate dinner, with peanut butter on all of the bread, between 1 AM and 1:30 AM. And then I’d have wanted to take one of those pills against gas, but when I asked dad for two he only found one, which I’d have been wary of taking if I had a choice, since it’s in paper and it was in a bag that he carries around with him, but as it was, I saved it for the morning. Either way, after eating I shaved, then lit the aromatherapy lamp again and got things ready for the morning, writing the emergency information on the back of the number, seeing that the problem’s the material that’s hard to write on, pinning the number on the t-shirt while wearing it and being a little less strict about doing it just right, putting the wet wipes, garlic and Smecta Go in the pocket of my tights and the other things in the bag, just leaving the bars, gel and liquid magnesium to add in the morning, and also putting the cereals, baked almonds with Himalayan salt and raisins in dark chocolate into a bowl, so only the nice, low-fat, high-protein, “Greek” yogurt was left to add in the morning. And, after also putting some cream on my hands and feet, I got in bed at 3:40 AM, with the alarm set to ring at 6 AM.
Well, I couldn’t get to sleep. I might have dozed off for just an instant after a little while, but I’m not even sure of that, and I was definitely wide awake again within moments even if I did, and then I tossed and turned for a long time. I never checked the time, but it was long enough to get annoyed, and I continued to be awake for some time after that started to happen, so I have no idea when I finally fell asleep. But at least I did at some point, for some time, because just before the alarm rang I was awake again, my internal clock seeming to work very well from that point of view, because I barely had time to think that I should probably check the time when the alarm rang. So I then got up, ate the huge Gala apple set aside for the morning and added the yogurt into that bowl and ate that as well. Then I took the supplements, except the second pill of the iron and the one for joints, somewhat surprisingly left something in the toilet, also ate two nicer biscuits, with added honey, took that pill against gas and a Smecta, with most of the tea, and put the bars and liquid magnesium, as well as the last iron pill, in the pocket of my tights. Yes, that means I forgot the gel, though I only realized that when I needed it. Either way, I left a few minutes before 8 AM, with dad, who drove me to the metro station and then came along to insert his metro card, so I could use it to get there even though he was going to need it the rest of the day. I was wearing the full running gear, and the forecast listed about 13°C at the start time of 9 AM and about 18°C at 1 PM, when I aimed to finish.
The metro came right away and when I reached the starting area I saw that it was separated into sectors once again, with entrances on the side that were placed at the front of each sector. But, since the assigned sectors weren’t written on the numbers, the choice of which sector to enter was left completely to the runners. Either way, I was at Constitution Square a little before 8:25 AM and had a look around, only spotting apples and bananas in the Mega Image area, so I took one of each and ate the banana. Then, after taking the last iron pill, I handed off my bag at the wardrobe just after 8:40 AM, did a few quick stretching exercises while waiting in line at the toilets, peed, washed my hands at one of those portable things, and then made my way back to the starting area and initially entered sector C, for times between 3:30:00 and 3:59:59, but then went under the band separating it from sector B, for times below 3:30:00, and advanced a few steps in that sector. That put me very much out of position, but I was far from the only one and it obviously cut some seconds not only off my start time, but also off the first kilometer’s time, if not even more than that. And I ate the fruit bar while waiting for the start.

I started the stopwatch when the announcer gave the start, but I heard the gun a few seconds earlier and that proved to have been the real start, so I had 53 seconds and a lot, almost 54 seconds, when I crossed the start line, but the real start time was almost 58 seconds, making it the second best, after the 53 seconds from 2021. Strangely, this time around it’s not listed separately in the official results, but the difference between the official time and the net time is 58 seconds at the end and at six of the eight intermediate times and 57 seconds at the other two intermediate times.
If I was going to have any chance of staying under four hours, this had to be a particularly calculated and tactical run, so I was slow at first, losing time in the crowd instead of weaving to make my way through or sprinting when there was an opening, and I ended up covering the first kilometer in 5:48. That’s one of the few times that I clearly memorized and included in my notes, but I know that the second kilometer was less slow, even if still concerning if taken on its own, and I was finally in clearer air and could obtain better times from the third kilometer. However, I missed the markers for five and six kilometers, so I never knew those times at all, but it seems likely that the fifth kilometer was the first one covered in less than five minutes, since the total time for kilometers five, six and seven was 15:17, making for an average of less than 5:06 per kilometer, and the first refreshment point was on the sixth and that climb was on the seventh. But the fastest kilometer was, somewhat unintentionally, the tenth, which I covered in 4:49. And another, and I believe the last, kilometer covered in less than five minutes was the 12th, which I covered in 4:58. On the other hand, the first time I went over six minutes was on the 31st kilometer, and it was by a lot. And I also know that I covered the 42nd kilometer in 6:31 and that final portion in 1:12. What’s unclear is whether I ever went over seven minutes per kilometer, since I seemed to do so on the 38th, I don’t recall by how much, but I didn’t see the marker on the road in the spot where the sign was, which made me think that the sign had ended up being placed some distance past the marker and it’s possible that I never went over seven minutes per kilometer after all.
To go back a little and explain why I said that I was somewhat unintentionally fastest on the tenth kilometer, I’ll say that it was a result of noticing a key falling on the road and putting in a burst of speed in order to catch up to the guy who I thought had dropped it, to let him know. It’d have obviously been nicer if I’d have picked it up and handed it to him, but I was already past it by the time I thought to do something and I wasn’t going to go back for someone else, so I just hope that he was the right guy and I didn’t make a different person go back for no reason. The fact that he asked whether it had fallen out of his pocket and then rushed back made that likely, but I was never certain.
To also get to the refreshment points, I changed my approach to them as well, in good part after exchanging a few messages with someone, so instead of making the most of each, I limited my intake, quite drastically for the first part of the race, just taking a cup of water at the first regular one, as well as at the additional ones, which were on the 23rd and 34th kilometers, where only water was offered, while at the third regular one I only took a cup of the other drink. As for the other regular ones, I took a cup of that other drink and a piece of banana, though I kept the piece of banana taken from the last refreshment point in my hand for quite a while, only eating it towards the end, since I had garlic in my mouth until then. And I also delayed eating the first bar, which I had initially planned to do at 14 km, on that short but steep climb, until the second half of the race. And that did have the desired result, preventing that pressing need from appearing, and I actually got to the end without any notable problem from that point of view, which was definitely what made all the difference, being the first condition if I was to have any chance, but it led to feeling out of energy after leaving Cismigiu Park, so even before reaching 16 km, and I was obviously slowing, since I was getting passed left and right by others and felt really out of position, and on the 17th kilometer my hands were already going numb, which was a really bad sign. But then I got my head down, accepted and adapted to how I was feeling, and eventually, as I increased my intake, things even got better for a while.
While I’m still at the first half of the race, I’ll add that my targets during that time were the pacemakers for 3:45 and the half marathon ones for 1:50. They pulled ahead early on, when I was so slow because of the crowd, but I caught the 3:45 ones on the seventh kilometer, before that climb, and then pulled ahead. On the other hand, I never caught the 1:50 ones for the half marathon. Despite something seeming to be really wrong with my right knee on the 13th kilometer, making me sort of throw that leg forward, hoping to shake off the problem and apparently managing to do so after a while, I was just about to catch those pacemakers just before that short but bad climb at 14 km, but then I fell a little behind again because of it, even if approaching it slightly differently made it feel somewhat less exhausting, and I didn’t recover that distance before the refreshment point from Cismigiu Park, where they pulled ahead even more. And then, as the effects of that reduced intake were making themselves known and I was feeling out of energy, I definitely had no hope of catching them anymore and could only watch as they pulled farther and farther ahead. However, they were faster than they needed to be, so failing to catch them didn’t also mean failing to reach the halfway point in less than 1:50, which was basically what my calculations were starting from, my official time at that point being 1:49:33. On the other hand, the 3:45 pacemakers had also been catching up by then, in fact being right behind me when I got going again after the fourth refreshment point, so I pushed to stay ahead of them until the halfway point, and then continued to do so until 22 km, only then finally pulling out that bar which I had purchased after getting the race kit, and only starting to eat it right before that first additional refreshment point, as we went past Constitution Square again, where I also took that cup of water and they overtook me.

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