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Finally Getting to the Last Two Runs from October, After the Marathon
It’s Saturday evening and, after being out Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, when I also ran, and again today, when I went out early in the morning, without sleeping, I’m yet to add anything to the two-paragraph placeholder for the second part of the post about the marathon thrown here on Sunday. But I absolutely must finish writing that post at some point, without making yet another new one to cover last year’s marathon, at least as far as the actual run goes, so I’ll have to do that at some point, even if it’ll mean adding the vast majority of a post well over a week after the initial placeholder. And I’m forcing it to be the one that goes up to the point when I crossed the finish line in one more way by making this post about the next two runs that came after it, finally writing about regular runs again and getting to the end of October. I had considered editing this at a later time in order to add the part about the rest of October 13, after the moment when I crossed the finish line, at the beginning, but I don’t see how I could have done that by the end of next week, so I’ll mess up the chronology by putting that in a post that I’ll write at some later point, and which may also include the odds and ends from the following week or so, even if I’m otherwise not writing such odds and ends posts anymore. But that’s a matter for another time, and now I should just get to those runs.
After skipping one week, I ran again on October 23, and in that day’s early hours I started eating dinner at 3:10 AM but still managed to finish at 3:40 AM. But then I tried to update Pale Moon Portable and wanted to move the existing version into a backup folder first, yet it said that the Bin folder was still in use, so I checked whether the process had been left hanging and, after finding that it wasn’t, I canceled that move attempt and then went into Bin/Palemoon and moved all of the contents, which worked. However, I then couldn’t delete Bin and couldn’t access Bin/Palemoon at all, getting an “access denied” message even when I tried to use an elevated command prompt to take ownership of the folder or reset its properties, or when I tried various other methods that I found on a quick search… And, while I was struggling with that, I accidentally deleted the User folder… So I unpacked the new version in a different folder and got in bed at 5:20 AM.
After getting up when the alarm rang, at 2:30 PM, I mounted the system image backup made almost a month before and recovered the Pale Moon User folder from there, copying it in that new folder, but I still found no way to delete or access that stuck folder. Either way, since I had the external HDD connected, I made a backup of the other files, though I didn’t make another system image backup as well, and otherwise had the usual stuff, with the apple being a huge but spoiling Gala one, so I had to remove a fair bit of it, while the sweet thing consisted of two regular biscuits, with added honey. And it was almost 5:30 PM when I left, wearing the full running gear, but obviously returning to the old running shoes, and staying with the t-shirt from the marathon of 2023, since I hadn’t washed it yet after using it for the morning run before this year’s marathon. The reported temperature was 20°C, dropping a fair bit by the time I finished, the sites that record past temperature listing 15°C at 6:30 PM, but I forgot to check what was actually reported at 7 PM, to try to make an average with the 18-19°C reported at 6 PM.
The time was 47:41.48, with sector times of 4:16.10, 5:02.85, 5:53 (5:52.96), 4:31 (4:30.44), 5:01.25, 5:47 (5:46.66), 4:27.12, 5:03 (5:02.82), 5:53.40 and 1:48 (1:47.88), making for lap times of 15:11.91, 15:19 (15:18.35) and 15:23.34. I hoped to stay under 48 minutes, but I had no idea what I’ll be able to do at that point, so the first sector’s time was something of a relief, and sector two’s time perhaps even more so, and at the end of the lap I thought that I might just have a chance. But sector one of lap two was somewhat concerning, so I pushed more after that, being pleased with the following two sectors and the lap as a whole. Yet I was far from safe, so I kept pushing, thinking that I had to give everything in order to just squeeze under 48 minutes and worrying that I may miss out by just the seconds lost while stopping in order to see the time better, only feeling relieved when I finished the lap and saw that I was quite clearly safe. And then I managed a good final sector as well.
Those stops made in order to see the time better were one on sector two of lap three and two on sector three of lap three, each lasting a couple of seconds. And on sector two of lap three my left hip also gave some warnings, but they passed. And on sector three of lap three I hesitated and might have yet again stopped, albeit for just an instant, first when a man that I was just about to pass moved in front of me and then, moments later, when a guy on a bicycle jumped down the stairs that I was just passing and couldn’t have stopped before reaching the lane, so I did my best to avoid getting hit and he also swerved hard as soon as he touched down, and while it wasn’t such a near miss as it initially seemed, it definitely was a scary moment. And there were a few moments when I had to swallow some crap from my nose, which might have slowed me for a few seconds.
After getting back, I ate a banana and a slice of the cake which I had bought for myself two days earlier, and decided to set the computer to run a proper chkdsk on the system partition, rebooting in order to do so, and doing 200 squats as it started the check. I don’t know whether the simple reboot sorted things out or chkdsk did something, since the last time I checked I thought that it had much more to go and went to wash a pot in the kitchen, so I didn’t see whether it reported anything, but I was able to delete that stuck folder after that, and then I put that new version of Pale Moon back in the proper folder. Then I took a shower and made mamaliga. And the following day dad left me money to at least pay the previous month’s maintenance bill, so in the evening I went to do that, and then also dropped a small bag of trash down the chute, but I still didn’t go anywhere else.
The plan for the early hours of October 30 was to go to the kitchen earlier, but my mother was here again and we talked for a while, so I actually ended up going later than usual, had radish leaves to wash and boil, though I had at least selected them already, also dealt with some bread that I still hadn’t dealt with at that point, and when I got to my room I saw that some of the munchies had fallen over and they kept falling if I tried to put them back, so it took a while to figure out how to make them stay in their place again. All of that led to eating dinner between 3:40 AM and 4:30 AM, and after finishing the roes that I had left I put peanut butter on the last slices of bread. And I got in bed at 5:20 AM, after seeing a mosquito while flossing but failing to kill it.
Since the hour had changed, I set the alarm to ring at 1 PM, and even though it was 12:44 PM the last time I woke up, I decided to just get right back in bed and rest a little longer, only getting up after it rang… And soon thinking that I should have gotten up right away, since I found plenty of things to wash and arrange in the kitchen. But I took care of most of that and had the usual stuff, though the apple was another one of those huge but spoiling Gala ones and the yogurt a bio (organic) one, while the sweet thing consisted of two nicer biscuits, with added honey. I left at 3:45 PM, wearing the full running gear, sticking to the t-shirt from the marathon of 2023. The reported temperature was 18-19°C, dropping by just 1°C by the time I finished.
The time was 47:19.67, with sector times of 4:14.73, 5:09 (5:08.44), 5:58.12, 4:30.56, 4:59.03, 5:55 (5:54.41), 4:22.59, 4:50.07, 5:38 (5:37.53) and 1:44.19, making for lap times of 15:21.29, 15:24.00 and 14:50.19. I obviously hoped to still stay under 48 minutes and the first sector looked good, but the second didn’t and, while I initially thought that I’ll at least complete the first lap in less than that 15:20 that’s the target for 48 minutes, when I failed to do so things didn’t look good at all and I was quite sure that I’ll end up going well over 48 minutes. So I pushed more from the start of lap two, but sector one of lap two didn’t give me any reason to change my mind about the outcome. However, sector two of lap two was good, and after the end of the lap I knew that I needed 15:20 on lap three to have a good chance to squeeze under 48 minutes after all, so I pushed even more from the start of the lap and then really gave everything from sector two, thinking that there was no way to be safe at the end of the lap, but that I might have a chance if I’ll somehow manage to avoid losing more compared to five minutes on sector two than I’ll gain compared to six minutes on sector three… Only to find myself already safe after that outstanding sector two, assuming that I wasn’t going to go much over six minutes on sector three, and continuing to give everything led to a great sector three as well and another lap covered in less than 15 minutes… And to realizing that I should even be able to squeeze under 47:30! So I kept pushing on the final sector as well, and despite slowing on the final steps I even managed to just squeeze under 47:20!
I do have to point out that there were hardly any problems, however. The conditions were great, and while I still had to do some weaving and go the long way around, most probably once again mainly because of the lane, the only notable problem was a small one on sector three of lap three, when I hesitated and slowed because of a small dog that went straight towards me. Otherwise, there were the usual warnings from my right knee, but faint ones, and some pain in my left leg on sector one of lap two, though I couldn’t quite figure out whether it came from the knee and radiated down, from the ankle and radiated up, or from somewhere in between and radiated in both directions. But what’s important is that it didn’t last.
An old woman had just entered the building when I got here, so I held the second door open for her and asked whether she wanted to lean on me when I saw that she was struggling to climb those two steps from the entrance area, but she said that she’ll just hold on to the wall and that she was used to it, so I just turned on the light when she said that she wanted to and couldn’t quite reach the switch and otherwise stood there for what must have been some two minutes, until she managed to climb those steps, after which I handed her back her bags, which she had set down, and called the elevator for her, but I really wondered how does she manage to get around on a daily basis, and apparently even go out and do her shopping, if that’s how bad her mobility is. Either way, after getting back I ate a banana, changed, though I left the running t-shirt on, and left again a couple of minutes after 6 PM, with the recyclables with the deposit symbol.
I first checked the farmers’ market, but the one guy with a handful of cheap apples had turned on some awful music and threatened another seller who told him to turn it off, so I didn’t even approach him to check them out, meaning that it couldn’t have been any more of a waste of time if I’d have stopped at Penny on the way instead. But at least I then put the recyclables in the recycling machine from that Mega Image, though one of a kind that doesn’t usually cause problems required several attempts, and then I just cashed in that voucher before going to the metro station, since I had dad’s metro card again.
The day marked nine years since the Colectiv fire and I reached that square just before 7 PM and lit the candle which I had brought, but it tipped over when I placed it in the covered area and it was too hot to try to pick it back up with my hands, so I then broke off a small piece of a branch from a bush and used it to first grab the lid from there, after which I managed to take the candle as well. It fizzled out when I did that, and the wick ended up being too small, so it was hard to light it again, but I eventually managed it, and then took some pictures, though the low turnout was disappointing.
After grabbing two recyclables with the deposit symbol from a trash can from there, I walked away at 7:40 PM… But I tried to go the other way, which should have taken me to Unirii a little faster but only proved yet again that the shortest route is the one you know, since I ended up turning in the wrong direction. At least, after finally realizing that I really wasn’t where I should have been and initially going the wrong way from there as well, I turned around and went in the direction that pretty quickly got me to the Tineretului metro station, when continuing in the other direction would have meant a longer walk right back to Timpuri Noi, where I had gotten off the first time. Then again, I’d have just had to take the metro for one stop from there as well, which was what I did from Tineretului, the fact that I had the card being so fortunate, and I also picked up another recyclable with the deposit symbol from the station.
After getting off at Unirii, I went to Carrefour, put those recyclables in the recycling machine, and considered leaving right away and going somewhere else when I didn’t initially see anything interesting among the expiring products. However, after having previously noticed that the bakery discounts may even be applied before 9 PM in that location, I decided to pee and wash my hands and then see whether they’ll apply at 8:30 PM, and by the time I knew that they didn’t it was getting too late to still go somewhere else. But another reason why I had chosen to stay was that I had seen that they had made room in the expiring products area and hoped that they’ll bring more, and when I went back there I saw that they had, and the new products actually included something that I had even been sort of considering buying at full price, so I got one, along with another yogurt, plus a bag of spoiling apples, obviously without charging myself for the bag that they were in at the self-checkout, where I also used the voucher received for previous purchases as well as the one received for those recyclables. Then I arranged the purchases in the backpack and returned to the metro station, picking up some more recyclables with the deposit symbol on the way there and yet more after getting off here, since I switched trains and actually got off at this stop.
After getting back, at 9:25 PM, I cleaned the litter box and went to drop a bag of trash down the chute, put the purchases in their place, ate the protein pudding received after the marathon, and did the day’s squats. And then dad removed the stove top and at 11 PM I went to the bathroom, first using the toilet, then washing that, including the grates, and then washing myself, finally being done a little before 1:25 AM. Then I washed and cleaned some more in the kitchen and made pizza, finally eating between 5:05 AM and 6:55 AM. I got in bed at 7:35 AM, but despite falling asleep quickly at first, I couldn’t get back to sleep after getting up to pee a couple of minutes before 11 AM, and if I was drifting off I was awake again within what was probably seconds, after starting to dream about one of my fears, so while it was almost 1:30 PM when I actually got up, those first three hours of sleep were basically all I got. At least I caught a nap in the evening, but then I got in bed again at 5:20 AM.