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Bucharest Marathon 2024 – II
I’ll now be picking up from where I left off, but as I already mentioned, this is initially just a placeholder, once again scheduled to be posted at 11:59 PM, since I’m once again going out in the evening. And, after getting up and doing the day’s squats, I rolled the dice for my little giveaway on the GOG.com forums, even filming the process, though I didn’t upload the videos anywhere… And I forgot the water for the tea on the stove while doing that, so it’s a really good thing that it didn’t spill over badly enough to put out the fire once again when it started boiling, since it was close to an hour before I went back there and realized it, so it’d have been the equivalent of a huge gas leak otherwise, despite the window being left ajar. Either way, doing that, then shaving as well, and then watching the handball match and eating lunch, with an entire large bag of corn puffs instead of bread, means I’m very hastily throwing together this placeholder, limited just to this paragraph and the following one, at half time, since I’ll need to leave right after the match. And it was weeks later, on the evening of February 6, when I finally edited the post in order to add more, and by that I mean four more paragraphs, up to the one about kilometers 30 to 32, so there is more that I need to add at an even later time.
I mentioned in the first part that my calculations started from reaching the halfway point with an official time below 1:50 and, despite failing to catch the 1:50 half marathon pacemakers, I managed to do so, having almost half a minute in hand at that point. That was very little, but it gave me a chance, if I managed to really stick to the plan from then on. And that plan required 5:30 per kilometer until 25 km, then averaging six minutes per kilometer for the next ten kilometers, most preferably staying under that time for the first five in order to be able to go over six minutes by a similar total time for the following five, then averaging 6:30 per kilometer for kilometers 36 to 40, and then seven minutes per kilometer for 41 and 42, which would have left me with a minute and a half, or close to two minutes if I also added what I had gained before reaching the halfway point, for that final portion.
I also already mentioned in the first part a few times obtained in the later part of the race, but now I’ll go through things chronologically and in more detail, starting from the fact that, while the number of runners obviously dropped drastically at the halfway point, when the half marathon runners finished their race, the fact that I was focused on staying ahead of those pacemakers until 22 km and then ate that bar, stayed right behind those pacemakers for a little while longer and worked through the numbers and possible strategies, meant that I only really noticed it after turning off Unirii Boulevard, past the National Library, when those pretty empty first couple of hundred meters also made it all too obvious, and quite disheartening, since I found myself without targets to chase… And without people to stay behind, and staying behind others as much as possible was an important part of my strategy, and I tried to do it whenever possible, to use them to reduce air resistance and get whatever advantage I could, especially when I was running against the wind. And this likely made quite a difference because, while the wind was fortunately not that bad, it turned during the run, so I ran against it more than I had to in previous years.
Either way, I was pleased to see that I reached 25 km 21:59 after passing the halfway point, so while that actually meant an average of a little more than 5:30 per kilometer, the halfway point being at just about 21.1 km, it was nevertheless on target. But, while the plan allowed me to get slower after that point, it couldn’t be by much, any gains compared to six minutes per kilometer until 30 km being what I was going to be able to afford to lose compared to that same target until 35 km. And just after 25 km there was a refreshment point and then I was once again running against the wind, plus that I was starting to feel myself tiring, so being careful with my strategy and taking advantage of any chance to stay behind another runner was even more important. And, speaking of that, there was a somewhat funny moment on that part of the route, well before it turned, when I had spent a little time behind another runner and then passed two others just when one was telling the other that during the race that she had been telling him about you’re not allowed to take it easier by staying behind another.
After passing 27 km, so probably before the turn, which was around or maybe a little after 27.5 km, my tiredness became increasingly notable, and while the lack of detailed notes and the amount of time that passed since then make me uncertain about this, I seem to remember being surprised that it seemed like I was still running against the wind, which seemed to have turned pretty much at the same time I did. Then again, I remember checking the forecast and seeing that it was actually supposed to start turning around the time when I’ll reach that turn, but that it was going to take about an hour to completely reverse, yet at that point, if I remember correctly, it really seemed that it was determined to make me run against it in both directions on that part of the route. And it was around 29 km, so probably just before passing that gas station the second time, when I’d say that I hit the wall. The great thing was that I still felt no notable pressing need, the fact that I was also, shall we say, releasing gas whenever I felt something, even accepting the slight risk of something else coming along with it, likely also helping to reduce the pressure which would have otherwise built up. But hitting the wall with 13 km to go, and even before the point from which I could allow myself to get slower, was a serious concern.
I still managed to push myself to cover that 30th kilometer in just under six minutes, but then things got really bad, the fact that there was a refreshment point on the 31st kilometer not being enough of an excuse for how much over six minutes it took me to cover it. I don’t recall whether it was just before or just after reaching 31 km when I took out the first piece of garlic and ate it, but even if it was before that marker, that didn’t justify such a loss of time either, since I seem to remember something around, and possibly just over, 6:30… And then the next kilometer was even slower, around 6:50 from what I recall. It might have been a little less than 6:50 but, either way, it meant that just over those two kilometers I had lost all of the time gained over the previous five, so all that I could afford to lose until 35 km. Admittedly, I ate the salt bar during that 32nd kilometer, before reaching Unirii Boulevard again, and slowed to a walk a couple of times while doing so, but I had done that just because I felt that I couldn’t keep running at that point and really needed those moments of relative rest.