Cav's Place

The post about the half marathon still has only two paragraphs and today I ran and now I’m making mamaliga, so this is initially yet another placeholder, limited to the first three paragraphs, before the start of June 12th’s second run. I really can’t afford to do what I did with the first part of this post and not even add the rest about this series of runs at a later time, but for now I’m just picking up from where I left off, right after the day’s first run, when right after walking out of the park I noticed that a spot on my left foot was itching and even stinging a little at times. At that point I assumed that the shoe had rubbed me there, but it was right at the top of it, not at the back or even lower, where the inner lining of those shoes is torn or even completely gone, and later I saw bite marks in that area, so that was probably when some bug ended up there and bit me quite angrily.
Either way, I then walked to the farmers’ market, picking up a recyclable on the way and buying some apples that were worse and not even as cheap as those which I had bought from a different seller from that market the previous time I had been there, and that one had even rounded down the price while this one even set a couple of better apples from that pile aside after I asked her for all of them and apparently rounded the price up at first, because she then fussed around for a minute or so, adding a couple more apples taken from another crate and switching a few in and out of the bag while I was holding the money out to her, and when I put the bag on another seller’s scales I saw that the weight, with those apples added after she had told me the price, was exactly what I had paid for.
Then I went to that mall, washing my hands and face before drinking the shake and eating the bar which I had taken with me and then putting the apples in a cabinet from Carrefour, the problem being that the keys were gone, so I couldn’t lock it and I was going to leave them there for a while. And checking the store was just a waste of time, since I didn’t find anything to get, and what was concerning was that many of the expiring products were still only discounted by 30%. Either way, I then washed my hands again, after sifting through those expiring products, and after going back out, crossing the road and returning to the other side of the park, I sat on a bench and finally wrote the times and a few notes about the day’s first run, the problem being that I was already running late, and it was almost 8:20 PM when I started the second run. While I couldn’t check, the forecast stated that the temperature should have been 25°C, or perhaps 24-25°C, at that point, and about 23°C when I finished that run.

The problem is that, because of sector three of lap three, the time is only a rough estimate, and I’m going to go with about 52:13, though that’s probably still less than it actually was. The other sector times were 4:47, 5:22, 6:09, 4:42, 5:19, 6:22, 4:57 and 5:37, plus 2:09.96 for the final sector, making for lap times of 16:18 and 16:23 for the first two laps, but the estimate of around 6:49 for sector three of lap three, leading to about 17:23 for that lap and that total time, is largely a guess, because at the end of sector two of lap three I accidentally pressed the stop button instead of the interval one and didn’t realize it even though I had actually slowed to a walk in order to see the time better, only noticing it when I reached what I guess should be called the former ship’s dock and looked again, and while I could have turned around, walking back to the start of the sector and resuming from there, I only thought of that later, at that point just resuming the timer and deciding to go back there after finishing, to cover that portion again and add that time then. However, walking back there meant more or less resting for some ten minutes, if not even more, since I also picked up a few recyclables and left them behind something, and I started running directly instead of walking for the first couple of seconds and probably also stopped the timer just when I reached that area, so when I thought about looking again the first time around, while it had obviously taken me a couple of seconds to realize that it was stopped and resume it then. So I’ll just mention that I covered that distance in 40 seconds at that point, but I decided to add 45 seconds… Though the real time was probably more like 50 seconds, if not even more, since that’s the result if I try to determine my speed at that point, and two days later it was taking me 45-50 seconds to cover that distance.
At least it’s certain that I failed to stay under 52 minutes, which had been the initial goal and which had seemed very likely over the first two laps, sector three of lap one even just squeezing under what’d be the target for a 16-minute lap and sectors one and two of lap two being less slow than those of lap one… But then I hit the wall and everything changed, so from sector three of lap three I was just trying to limit the loss of time and hoping it’ll be enough… And until the end of sector two of lap three it might have just been, but sector three of lap three was just awful even if you take an optimistic estimate of the time into account, and the final sector was the second worst ever, only the one from last year’s second run in a day being worse, not counting the few times when I was slower when that sector was the last one of a half marathon run, and a bad one at that, since that’s quite a different thing. If it’d have been close, it’d have been really frustrating to not know which side of 52 minutes I had actually ended up on. As it is, it’s just disappointing… Though I do wonder if I didn’t slow down on those last two sectors just because I knew that I won’t be able to know whether I actually made it or not in case I gave everything and ended up close. Not that 52 minutes isn’t a bad time anyway, even for a second run in a day.
It was definitely more crowded than it had been during the day’s first run, and on the first sector I hesitated and probably briefly stopped because two cyclists were coming from the opposite direction with quite a lot of speed and also aiming for the only available space through what was otherwise a roadblock. And I once again hesitated and probably stopped for an instant on sector three of lap one, when the old woman who was about to cut me off hastened to cross the lane when I spoke up, so she really did cut me off. On the other hand, I probably didn’t quite stop on sector one of lap two, under the bridge, when I had to squeeze through, or on the following sector, when there were two moments when I hesitated. But, as I already mentioned, on sector three of lap two I hit the wall and it showed. Plus that, if I remember correctly, from that point forward there was one moment when I slowed in order to squeeze through a roadblock on each sector. And, since it was getting dark, at the end of sector two of lap three I slowed to a walk for a few seconds, wanting to make sure that I saw the first sector’s time properly and then had a good look at the second sector’s… Only to really mess things up by stopping the timer, as I already mentioned, the fact that I didn’t just do that but didn’t even realize it despite actually trying to focus on the stopwatch probably also showing just how exhausted I was. Either way, on sector three of lap three I stopped for a moment to pick up a coin, and while I’m not entirely certain, I think that it was on that same sector, maybe shortly after I looked back up after resuming the timer, when a silly dance with a cyclist ended with both of us stopping for a moment in front of each other.

After covering that part of sector three again, I walked back to the bridge, retrieved those recyclables, and made my way to Carrefour again, picking up more, along with two paper bags to carry them in, for some reason choosing one without handles the first time, even though it was actually inside one that did have handles, but at least seeing another one that had handles and seemed reasonably clean a little later and taking that as well. Then I just retrieved the apples from that cabinet, picked up a few more recyclables… And had quite a cramp just as I walked out of that mall. But I also wanted to check Kaufland and after a while I realized that I had to jog if I wanted to get there before closing time, so I tried, but only lightly and frequently finding myself slowing back to a walk. Still, it was enough, so after trying a few cabinets, finally finding one that locked, and putting my things in it, I entered the store at 9:55 PM and just took a lettuce that had a good evening discount, the closing announcement coming while I was checking the expiring products. Then I entered the digital store card’s number manually, having it on that slip of paper… And then that cabinet wouldn’t unlock, recognizing the code and sounding like it was unlocking but not actually doing so, until the employee from the information desk noticed that I kept trying and came to unlock it, so I could finally retrieve my things, and then I washed my hands again, in the room for disabled people and just with water, since there was no soap. And on the way back I kept picking up recyclables, ending up with quite a lot, and also checked those two Mega Image locations, putting my things into two cabinets, though I only locked them the second time, when I also found a 0.50 RON coin in a cabinet, and getting some bakery products, including two apple pastries, from the first one and some expiring things for dad from the second one, all being discounted by 90%.
I got back at 11:55 PM, then cleaned the litter box and went to drop a bag of trash down the chute, washed a few things in the kitchen, put the purchases, along with a few more things that dad had brought, in their place, ate a banana and an apple pastry, even did the day’s squats, and went to wash when it was almost 2 AM. I was done a few minutes after 2:30 AM, but then I wrote some quick notes about the day, so it was past 2:50 AM when I went back to the kitchen, the initial plan being to just eat the few slices of pizza brought by dad some days before as lunch and otherwise munch on the last bag of expired peanuts while working on dinner. However, I ended up deciding to add one of the baguettes with butter and garlic bought from Mega Image to that pizza, eating that lunch, on and off, between 3:30 AM and 4:30 AM, and just use part of the peanuts in the salad, leaving the rest for the evening’s match, and eventually even having some left to use in the salad made the following night. Either way, I also washed the remaining things that were in the kitchen, and ate dinner, with another one of those baguettes instead of bread, between 4:40 AM and 5:40 AM. And I got in bed at 6:40 AM, after making another tea.

Well, it took a while to fall asleep, and I was starting to get cramps in my right foot before I did, and just after 8:10 AM, after only sleeping for a short time, I woke up with some pretty serious cramps in that foot. Either way, after getting back on the computer for a little while and also rubbing cream on my feet and sipping a little tea, since it was still too hot to drink properly, I got back in bed at 8:25 AM… But I still couldn’t sleep, so a few minutes before 9 AM I drank more tea and got back on the computer, getting back in bed yet again at 9:55 AM… And still being unable to sleep. And there was some noise from above as well, including some brief cutting with power tools at one point, and then dad also got up, and that spot on my left foot was itching badly as well, and it was only in the evening when I realized that I had three bites there, and later I saw at least one more a little higher, and possibly yet another on my thigh. Either way, if I got any more sleep during that period, it was only a brief nap or two. And right at noon there was even some drilling from above, but it was brief and I had gotten back up just after 11:50 AM anyway, getting back in bed one more time at 12:40 PM. And I think that I eventually managed to catch another brief nap or two, but that didn’t add much to the total sleep time, and I had been awake for quite a while when I checked and saw that it was still several minutes before 2:30 PM. Since dad had said that he’ll be back after 3 PM, I stayed in bed, in fact only finally getting up at 3:40 PM, but I don’t think that I got any more sleep during that period. And dad only got back at 4:25 PM anyway.

After getting back in bed late in the evening and actually getting a proper nap, sleeping for about an hour and a half or so and finding that my internal clock was once again extremely accurate, since I woke up at exactly 1 AM, I had a hard time to get moving again, also talked to dad a little, and then used the worse lettuce leaves, along with a couple of better ones, to make the salad, which also included those remaining peanuts and was way too big and took way too long, so I ended up eating dinner between 4:05 AM and 4:50 AM and getting in bed at 5:20 AM. Then I got up after the alarm rang, at 2 PM, though I had been awake for a few minutes at that point, put some more medicinal alcohol and a bandage on the two bites that remained particularly noticeable and itchy, especially since they were also right at the top of the shoe, had the usual stuff, with the sweet thing being a slice of some sort of cake made by that friend of my mother’s, with added honey, and went out at 4:40 PM, wearing the full running gear and one armband and with some things in the pocket of my tights. The reported temperature was 24-25°C, holding steady.
The time was 1:23:37, with sector times of 4:35, 5:20, 6:19, 4:52, 5:28, 6:26, 4:52, 5:31, 6:34, 4:56, 5:41, 6:28, 4:47, 5:28 and 6:20, making for lap times of 16:14, 16:46, 16:57, 17:05 and 16:35. Since I felt as if I hadn’t recovered at all after the two runs from two days earlier, the only realistic goal seemed to be to stay under 1:24, the worst time over this distance, and the only time I went over 1:24, being the 1:24:06 from the first time I covered it. Not that I didn’t give a passing thought to somehow getting even under 1:22 at first, but sector three of lap one put an end to that, and from lap two I was ever more desperately trying to figure out what I needed in order to just squeeze under 1:24 and how I could possibly manage that. And when the time over the first two laps was significantly worse than that over the first two laps of the second run from two days earlier and I needed to average just under 17 minutes over the next three in order to make it, I started thinking more and more seriously of continuing to a half marathon distance, which would have allowed me to lose a few more minutes without ending up with a new worst time. But that’d have still been a failure, and five more kilometers was a daunting prospect when I was already exhausted, so I got my head down and dug in, just managing to stay under 17 minutes on lap three and then, after a sector two of lap four that was particularly concerning, pushing even harder, recovering a little of that loss over the following sector and needing “only” to match lap three’s time on lap five in order to make it. So I just gave everything, hoping it’ll be enough, actually thinking that it was after sector two, and being relieved when that proved true at the end. But it’s still the fourth worst time, with the second and third being from 2018 and after a flu and, respectively, on snow and ice and in below freezing temperatures…
Of course, the main problem was the exhaustion, but it didn’t help that, while during the first part of the run it was sunny only on some of sector two of lap one, the clouds cleared from the end of lap three, making it feel hotter, and later on there was some wind that I had to push against as well. And there were just so many of those annoying bugs; I kept running through clouds of them and they were getting everywhere. But people also caused me to lose some time, on top of the usual weaving and going the long way around. On sector two of lap one I hesitated because of a girl, while on sector three of lap three I really hesitated, or it’d probably be more accurate to say that I was startled, and possibly stopped for just an instant, because of a cyclist who was coming from the opposite direction and seemed to be heading straight towards me. Then, on sector one of lap four, I meant to more or less shove my way through a roadblock formed of people coming from the opposite direction, yet when they did open a narrow way through I found myself facing a man in a wheelchair, so I had to briefly stop and then go around him on the grass. And on sector three of lap five I slowed in order to pick my way through a group… And there was one more moment when I might have briefly stopped, on sector two of lap four, but that was because of pigeon that got startled by me and didn’t know how to get out of the way anymore.

After the run, I jogged to Carrefour, but still grabbed a recyclable on the way, hiding it under the carts before entering the store and just wasting time. Most of the discounted products were still only discounted by 30%, but there seemed to be more at half price and I did find a couple of things that I might have bought, yet I decided against it and that proved to be a good thing. Either way, I then retrieved that recyclable and, despite jogging again, grabbed a few more on the way back, along with a paper bag to carry them in.
I got back for the first time just before 7 PM, so in time for the match, and after eating a banana I initially tried to start working on lunch, which included something like a pizza, but when I realized that I had no chance to even finish making that before the end of the match, not to mention eating it as well, I just put some cheese on the two halves of that small flatbread and put it in the fridge and otherwise ate the other apple pastry that I had, did the day’s squats, and left again a few minutes after 9 PM.
Since it was so late, I jogged again, that time in the other direction, and as I went around the stadium I saw that there might have been a lot of recyclables to grab, the garbage cans being just full, apparently because there was a Jehovah’s Witnesses convention taking place there. But I was running and had no time to look, so I just grabbed two that I saw sticking up from the top of a garbage can, put them in a cabinet when I reached Carrefour, rushed in and found a few things to get, also finally using the vouchers received for previous purchases at the self-checkout. Then I retrieved those recyclables and jogged to Kaufland as well, with the purchases in one hand, putting everything in a cabinet when I got there and entering the store when it was almost 9:40 PM, seeing that the fruits and vegetables that had evening discounts were pretty much gone by then, so I just got a bundle of radishes with a great discount. Even that had probably only been left because it was incomplete, but I added two more radishes that I found scattered in the crate to it. And I also took broccoli for mother, even if it was imported, having learned that she regularly wanted some and seeing that it also had a good discount. On the other hand, I only realized when I was at the self-checkout that I had forgotten to look for the toilet paper that was supposed to be on sale those days, and the closing announcement had already been made while I used the machine, but after paying I rushed back to have a quick look, though I didn’t see any, which wasn’t surprising.
After retrieving what I had in the cabinet and arranging a little, I also went to that Mega Image, picking up one more recyclable, putting my things in a cabinet, and then waiting for the 90% discount labels to be placed on the bakery products and getting some. And by the time I did that the other products had received those discounts as well, so I took all of the packaged bread that was discounted by 90%, for my parents, and two other products that had that same discount for myself, all of that meaning that I then needed some time to arrange everything just enough to be able to walk out, and then I stopped at a bench and, after picking up another recyclable, I did a better job of arranging what I had. And then I tried to jog back as well, but the weight and the exhaustion meant that the “jogging” was in fact barely above a fast walking pace, plus that I occasionally slowed to an actual walk. And while I meant to give away at least one bakery product, I wasn’t sure that the first person that I thought might be homeless actually was, and he also had beer and cigarettes next to him anyway, while the second, despite quite clearly looking the part, had a smartphone and I think that he was on a betting site, so I moved along both times.
I got back a little after 11:15 PM, drenched in sweat. Then I put the purchases in their place, with the exception of the radishes, talked to dad a little, and it was several minutes after 12:30 AM when I went to wash, being done at 1:25 AM. Then I checked a few things on the computer, talked to dad a little more, and decided to eat the expired walnuts with Himalayan salt, getting some 850 calories just from those… Along with plenty of salt, but I had lost a lot of that, as all of the white streaks on my t-shirt showed. Either way, I also washed what was in the kitchen, including a pot and a large jar, and resumed working on that lunch, adding another base for a “pizza”, alongside that small flatbread, in the form of a cheese pie, also cut in two, and selecting what radish leaves were usable and putting them on the “pizza”, along with a can of sardines. And I also moved something into a jar and finished the tea and made another, finally eating a combined, and large, lunch and dinner, with another one of those baguettes with butter and garlic instead of bread, between 5:25 AM and 7 AM, writing notes about the day and checking stuff on-line during that time. And, after also drinking most of the new tea, it was 7:45 AM when I got in bed, feeling awfully stuffed… And while I did manage to get to sleep, between some noise from above, dad getting up, and Liza going to the litter box, around 11:20 AM I woke up, and after going to pee I got back on the computer for a while, getting back to bed just before noon and only getting up again a few minutes after 4 PM. But I have no idea how much I actually slept during that time, since I kept waking up and falling asleep again, and plenty of times I didn’t even know whether I was asleep or not.

This was rather tight, but at least I managed to finish this post before posting something else, finally editing that placeholder in order to add most of the rest of it, up to the point when I left again on the evening of June 14, in the early hours of Friday, before getting to bed in the morning, and when I woke up because dad got up I got back on the computer and wrote the remaining three paragraphs, or four if you include this one, adding those as well not long before noon, before getting back in bed.