On August 1, I got up when the alarm rang, at 1:30 PM, finding that something had bitten me on the left leg… And the first attempt to update Emsisoft Anti-Malware resulted in an error, while the second seemed to work, but it asked for a reboot, apparently because they consolidated their own definitions again, moving the older ones into a single file. So I sent a message to ask about that and they didn’t comment about the need to reboot, but said that the error was very rare but may sometimes appear, and while they released a fix for it, I obviously won’t get it, being on Windows 7 and only receiving definitions updates, so the warning will go away after rebooting but this may happen again at some point. And the system uptime was at 108 days at that point, so it was really frustrating that there had been no power failure to force me to turn off the computer during the hot days that were before that point, but I ended up needing to reboot because of that.
But I had to run, so I just left it as it was at that point, without a reboot, then had the usual stuff, with the sweet thing being the last slice of that old cozonac from my mother, saved just for this day, with added honey, and drank all of the tea. It felt like I didn’t leave everything in the toilet, but I had already lost too much time, so I didn’t try again and left just after 3:55 PM, wearing the full running gear and one armband. The inner lining at the back of my left shoe was coming off completely, so I had to find a way to put that shoe on without that piece ending up in a position that bothered me. As for the reported temperature, it was 29-30°C, increasing by 1°C by the time I finished.
The time was 1:46:59, with sector times of 4:16, 5:00, 5:56, 4:26, 5:01, 5:54, 4:28, 5:06, 6:01, 4:42, 5:19, 6:12, 4:51, 5:37, 6:25, 4:59, 5:37, 6:39, 1:57, 6:34 and 1:59, making for lap times of 15:12, 15:21, 15:35, 16:13, 16:53 and 17:15, plus 10:30 for the final portion. I was obviously hoping to stay under 1:45, but feared that I’ll even go over 1:50 and thought that staying under 1:47 would be good enough in those conditions. And the first lap was better than I thought, and I tried to maintain that pace on the second and it ended up being good as well, so I then meant to cover three laps as if I’d aim to run ten kilometers in less than 48 minutes and more or less managed that as well, or at least I was close enough. That did mean that I pushed too hard, too soon, however, and it showed from then on, so if at that point I was wondering whether getting under 1:45 was possible after all, I calculated that I’d have needed to stay under 16 minutes on lap four as well and have limited losses from then on, and even lap four was too slow, and after sector two of lap five I was already behind the target times, so I didn’t just put that thought out of my mind, but after lap five it seemed that I was looking at 1:48. Still, I managed to do just enough on lap six to just have a chance of staying under 1:47, so I kept calculating what I needed, gave it everything and made it by the slimmest margin.
It was cloudy at first, but it cleared towards the end of lap one, only a few occasional clouds passing after that, though one protected me just on the unshaded part of the long straight of sector one of lap three. It did get somewhat cloudier on lap five, actually being mostly cloudy on sector three and even more so on most of sector one of lap six, but at the end of that sector it got sunny again. Either way, I usually tried to look for a shaded route, since it was hot otherwise, but I also avoided much of the lane, since most of it was soggy. I still stepped in that hole that’s under the lane, on sector three, I think on lap three or four, when I was watching a girl who was coming from the opposite direction and had just stopped running and was about to step off the lane, so I wanted to see which way she’ll go. And on sector one of what I think was lap five, when I was focused on the people who were ahead of me, trying to decide which way to go around them, I stepped in another hole, one that I didn’t know was there. And there was also a moment, on sector two of lap five, when I was off the lane and a cyclist appeared from behind another person, so I hesitated and had to avoid him, while I think it was on sector three of lap six when I slowed because of some kids who were on the lane.
In terms of physical problems, my legs got heavy at the end of sector two of lap six and started to burn soon after that, halfway through sector three, while my arms started to go a little numb on the final portion. And as of a certain point I once again felt that nail piercing the toe that’s next to it, so I assumed that there will be blood, and I confirmed that when I got back. Otherwise, at first I felt the need to pee, after all of that tea, but the feeling went away on sector one of lap two. But a certain pressing need tended to appear on sector one, only to then go away until sector one of the next lap, though that mainly seemed to happen on laps two, three and four and I can’t say that I really noticed it again after that.
After jogging back, I ate the remaining walnuts with Himalayan salt, drank one of the protein milks taken after the Dream Trek, made another tea, to have it when I’ll get back, and left again at 7:55 PM. Dad wanted a blood pressure monitor, maybe for his mother, specifying that it had to be for the arm, not the wrist, and looking for the cheapest ones but wanting to get one from a pharmacy, so he didn’t care that there had been a significantly cheaper one on sale at Kaufland not long before, but said that he was going to get one that I found at Tei the following day… And when he also said that he wasn’t going to need the metro card that evening, I decided to make use of it and offered to also pick that up on the way to the metro station, doing so after quickly checking that Mega Image. It struck me as really being at the bottom of the barrel, that one which had been at Kaufland seeming better, but if that was what he wanted, I bought it, put it in the backpack and then also bought some teas for him and another nose spray for myself from that other pharmacy from that area, adding them in the backpack before walking out. And I also quickly checked the Mega Image that’s next to that pharmacy, entering with everything.
I then took the metro to Auchan Pallady, but when I saw a large sign advertising a “grand reopening” and a 20% discount on everything between August 3 and August 8, I somehow failed to notice that it referred to another store and assumed that it was for Auchan, since it seemed to use the colors that they tend to use, so I wondered whether I’ll find that Auchan closed… Only to be quite confused when I saw that it wasn’t closed. And I didn’t ask anyone, just setting my mind on getting back there during those days, to take advantage of those discounts, and not getting anything that day as a result, though I did have a look, entering with everything.
I then continued to Kaufland, washing my hands just with water, since the soap dispensers were empty, and I even checked the women’s. There was a bottle that probably contained soap, but I was uncertain, so I didn’t try to pour from it. Either way, it was past 9:35 PM when I entered the store and it still closed at 10 PM, so I rushed, getting a few discounted bakery products and then spotting some corn that had an evening discount and getting the two that weren’t as bad as the rest. I also got a couple of other things, but I had mainly gone there because it was a location that I hadn’t checked in a while and I wanted to see whether the old kind of detergent was still available there, since it was gone from other locations, mother wanted some and dad never bought a bag when I let him know that it was still available elsewhere… And I did find one last 10 kg bag of that old kind, so I took it and then carried it in my arms for a while, which was quite a problem, so when the closing announcement came while I was checking the refrigerated expiring products, I took a moment to move what I had in the sturdy bag into another and put the detergent in that bag. That meant that I was still in that area when the closing announcement was repeated, so I rushed to also grab an ice cream, having one of the correct discount vouchers, since dad had managed to exchange those wrong ones. I had also seen some biscuits that I was interested in among the expiring products, but I hadn’t grabbed any then and didn’t want to delay even longer, so I rushed to the self-checkout, which accepted that voucher without the need to call an employee. And 0.15 RON seemed to have been in the machine, since that amount was deducted from the total when I paid.
After using the scales from the self-checkout area to confirm that the bag of detergent had the correct weight, I walked out through the emergency door, since the main ones were obviously locked by then, went to one of the tables that are outside, ate the ice cream… And, while eating, I was calculating and checking the total, since I hadn’t done that inside the store, and suddenly realized that I had once again forgotten to pay for the bakery products. And I was already outside and the store had been closed for a while by then, so I couldn’t just turn around and ask to pay for them, like the previous time, and I decided to give them to a homeless person instead. Then I rearranged the purchases, putting the detergent in the backpack and the other things in the sturdy bag, and finally walked away when it was almost 10:25 PM, getting back to the metro station.
After getting off at Dristor, I initially meant to switch, but when I saw that there were no trains waiting in the other station, I gave up on that idea and went out, having another look inside that Mega Image that closes at 11 PM and deciding to put the bag in a cabinet and enter when I saw that there were some discounted bakery products. However, there was nothing interesting among them, so I just retrieved the bag and walked back out. But I still had to give away what I had unintentionally stolen from Kaufland, so I took a longer route back, to improve my chances of finding homeless people, and dropped that bag on the bench that the first one that I saw was sleeping on.
It was almost 11:15 PM when I got back, with 14.5 kg, though I then cleaned the litter box and went to drop a bag of trash down the chute. Then I put the purchases in their place, washed and cleaned most of what was in the kitchen, ate watermelon and drank some of the tea. And then I heated the remaining tea, because the hot water had just been turned off that day, for the yearly checks, so I had to take a cold shower, going to do so when it was almost 12:20 AM and finding that, while it was difficult at first, once I decided to just go for it and also put the shower on my torso and back, it was somewhat less bad than I thought it’d be. It was almost 12:45 AM when I was done, then I also did the day’s squats, which also helped me warm up, and I ate lunch between 1:35 AM and 2:30 AM, while working on the salad. I started eating dinner at 3:05 AM, but I still finished at 3:40 AM. However, while I initially got in bed a couple of minutes after 5:15 AM, I then realized that I had forgotten to rub some cream on my feet and I wanted to do that after such a run, so I got back up and did that, after which I washed my hands again, and it was almost 5:30 AM when I really went to bed… Not that I could sleep, so a couple of minutes after 6:15 AM I got up once again and read until I finally went to pee one more time and got back in bed a couple of minutes after 7:30 AM, finally being able to sleep at that point. I was so exhausted that day, however.
I only finally rebooted the computer on August 3, so the new uptime record became 110 days, seven hours and almost 12 minutes, since I also timed how long it took until Windows actually shut down, after I took the screenshot, that time being about 1:53, possibly a second or two more, depending on my reaction time. And then I also decided to unsubscribe from the RSS feed for The Chive, since I hadn’t really cared to look at what was being posted in a long time. And just before midnight I finished The Hidden Life of Trees, writing and posting the quick review at night, also translating it in order to post in both English and Romanian on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.
On August 8, I got up when the alarm rang, at 2 PM, had a banana instead of an apple, and then forgot to add almonds into the yogurt and cereals and didn’t want to just eat them on their own when I realized it, so I didn’t have any. As for the sweet thing, that consisted of two of those nicer biscuits that expired long ago, with added honey. It was 4:30 PM when I left, wearing the full running gear, and the reported temperature was about 23°C otherwise, but the weather station that’s inside the city was reporting 26°C. Interestingly, that station was reporting 25°C when I finished, but the others were reporting about 24°C.
The time was 47:25.23, with sector times of 4:19.79, 5:04.13, 5:49 (4:48.53), 4:26 (4:25.56), 4:59.00, 5:49.28, 4:25 (4:24.85), 4:56.81, 5:52 (5:51.69) and 1:46 (1:45.59), making for lap times of 15:12.45, 15:14 (15:13.84) and 15:13.35. I pushed from the start, thinking of slowing down a little after the long straight of sector one but deciding against it, so I was thinking that I should have been some ten seconds faster than I actually was on that first sector and kept pushing, and after sector two I thought that I’ll barely stay on the pace for 48 minutes on lap one and then fall behind. However, a good sector three meant that I was safely on that pace on lap one, and then lap two was much better than expected, so it seemed like I had a chance to stay under 48 minutes after all and kept pushing, and on sector three of lap three I started to sort of think of 47:30. And, despite thinking that I hadn’t managed to maintain anything close to the level of concentration needed for that over the course of that sector, the time I saw at the end of the lap gave me a chance, so I gave it everything on the final sector and actually made it with quite a few seconds to spare.
It was rather windy at times, most noticeably on the first two sectors of lap one and on sector two and the start of sector three of lap three, and the lower temperature meant that I didn’t need the cooling effect, so the wind was a problem in those areas. But the people didn’t cause any notable problems, so there was just some weaving and going the long way around. On the other hand, while the small piece of the lane that was fenced off was also not a problem, the fact that it was still soggy in plenty of places meant that I was still trying to avoid what I could. As for physical issues, the right thigh bone seemed to give me some warnings as time passed, which felt strange, while that muscle seemed to want to cramp as I was on my way back, though it didn’t quite get there. To return to the actual run, on sector three of lap three I was hearing liquid sloshing around, I guess in my abdomen, and I had actually noticed that it had seemed swollen before going to bed in the morning, though the yogurt might have also had something to do with it, since it had seemed a little suspicious.
After eating lunch and boiled corn, I left again just after 8 PM, taking the paper and dropping it into a recycling bin on the way. I forgot my cap again, only realizing it when I left the building and not coming back for it. And, after just checking Carrefour and Penny, I washed my hands and entered Kaufland a few minutes after 9 PM, seeing many bakery products already gone and discounts of about 50% already applying even though that location closed at 11 PM, so I just grabbed the last three of some buns. I got back there a little later, when I saw an employee place another label, and scanned a couple of labels, but the one bread that I could have gotten that was left didn’t show up as being discounted, at least on that price checker, and it didn’t have a discount label either. So I went to look at detergents, found one more 10 kg bag of that old kind and got it as well, so we’ll also have one, and that time I took a basket to put it in. And beets had an evening discount, so I carefully looked through all of them and got some. At that point I saw a 67% discount label for some pastries, so I put on a glove and took them… Only to then scan that label and see the previous price, with a 50% discount, and that didn’t change when I waited until after 10 PM and tried again. I meant to ask an employee, but there were none in the bakery area and I couldn’t get myself to go to another, so I eventually checked at a self-checkout, confirming that lower price, which was strange. Either way, after pointlessly waiting until after 10:30 PM, since none of the discounts increased, I actually used the self-checkout, then arranged the purchases, putting the detergent in the backpack, and walked out just before 10:45 PM. And on the way back I checked that non-stop Mega Image, putting only the bags that I was carrying in my hands in a cabinet and then retrieving them.
I got back a couple of minutes after 11:30 PM, with about 17 kg, possibly a little more, since I didn’t weigh myself while carrying everything, weighing almost all of the things whose weight I didn’t know and calculating a probable total at a later point. And I threw my headphones in the backpack before taking it back to my room and then I forgot about them, so they fell when I turned the backpack over and shook it, on the hallway, but that doesn’t seem to have caused any problems. Either way, I ate watermelon and a piece of cake brought by dad, put some of the purchases in their place, and went to the bathroom a few minutes before 12:30 AM, to use the toilet and take another cold shower, the fact that the water coming from what should have been the hot water pipe was a few degrees above the cold water, probably thanks to the insulation, making me somehow manage to bear it. I was done at 1:10 AM, then I once again did the day’s squats, to warm up a little, and then washed what was in the sink, put the rest of the purchases in their place, also baked two beets for dad, the heat from the oven taking care of any lingering chill, and ate dinner between 3:35 AM and 4 AM. And the following night I ended up taking it too slowly and starting to eat dinner at 3:05 AM, though I still finished at 3:40 AM, despite going back to the kitchen at the end, to put a little honey on the last few slices.
On August 16, I got up when the alarm rang, at 2 PM, and had the usual stuff, though I decided to replace three of the almonds with apricot pits. The sweet thing once again consisted of two of those nicer biscuits that expired long ago, with added honey. And I left a little after 4:10 PM, wearing the full running gear and one armband. The reported temperature was 33°C, holding steady or maybe increasing just marginally by the time I finished, and it felt burning hot when I wasn’t in the shade. On the other hand, such a powerful gust of wind hit me just when I walked out that I could barely move against it, and it continued being windy.
The time was 1:19:22, with sector times of 4:20, 5:02, 5:54, 4:27, 5:06, 5:57, 4:32, 5:10, 5:58, 4:42, 5:22, 6:21, 4:48, 5:30 and 6:13, making for lap times of 15:16, 15:30, 15:40, 16:25 and 16:31. I didn’t even think of staying under 1:18, at best hoping to stay under 1:20 and doubting even that, considering those conditions. But I started at a controlled pace and the first sector was faster than I expected, and so was the second, and the lap ended up being much faster, seeing as I was just hoping to at least stay on the pace for 1:18 on that first lap. So I then wondered whether I could stay on that pace for 1:18 on the second lap as well, managing it without problems. But I wasn’t going to keep that up, so I then aimed to just stay under 16 minutes on lap three, once again ending up being much faster. I was expecting to be exhausted after that, and I did start to feel tired from sector two of lap four, so at that point I was thinking to switch modes, aiming to just make it to the end, but I still decided to at least try to aim for 16:30 on that lap, managing that as well, with quite a few seconds to spare. It was only then that I felt quite confident that I’ll stay under 1:20, at least unless I’ll have problems, but I also realized that I might even have a shot at staying under 1:19:30 and tried to push a little on lap five, without completely exhausting myself on the first two sectors and then giving everything I had left on the third, and I made it without problems. And I probably lost a second or so right at the end, after realizing that my finger wasn’t exactly in position to press the button and taking a step or two almost in place before crossing what I consider to be the finish line.
On sector two of lap one there were some warnings that seemed to come from my left butt cheek, but that pain was obviously radiating from somewhere else, though I don’t know whether from the hip or lower back, and I also needed to snap my back, but those problems faded on the next sector and only some fainter warnings, that time clearly from the left hip, appeared on sector three of lap five, when I felt some even fainter ones from the other hip as well. But something of a pressing need appeared on sector two of each of the first four laps, though on the first three it then tended to fade by the end of the lap, albeit sometimes after briefly worsening at some point over the course of sector three. However, on lap four it actually seemed to get worse over the next two sectors, so it was probably at its worst on sector one of lap five, before partially, but not completely, fading on sector two of lap five. And on sector three of lap five I misjudged the height of a branch and banged my head against it, and it was rather thick, so I felt that one… On the other hand, there weren’t many people, so there was some weaving and going the long way around, but nothing notable. But it was so windy, I kept fighting it in multiple areas, at times feeling like I was struggling not only to advance, but even to breathe, and I had to look for ways to hold my body and move that helped. I did notice that the wind was from behind at the end of a lap and took advantage of that moment, but that was the only time that happened. The time seems to indicate that it happened on lap three, but I couldn’t recall whether that was the case or it actually happened on lap two. Either way, it was also hot, and I felt quite dehydrated as time passed. And that toenail also jabbed the toe that’s next to it once again, so there was blood.
After jogging back, I finished the tea and then weighed myself, seeing just over 46 kg, so I probably had 45.5 kg or so before drinking, which meant that I had sweated some two kilograms. Then I made another tea, ate some ice cream and lunch, and left again just after 8:10 PM, finding some spoiling carrots in Carrefour and grabbing the smaller bag. I also looked at watermelons, initially seeing some really bad ones in one spot, but there was one among them that seemed quite nice and also wasn’t that large. There were once again some signs that it wasn’t fully ripe, but it seemed good enough and I tried to hide it under those bad ones, wondering what to do when I couldn’t manage it. But then I went to the large boxes that held far more watermelons, and while plenty of them also seemed better, those, or at least those that I noticed at the time, were also larger than that one, so it remained the one that I meant to buy if I won’t find cheaper ones at Kaufland and I hid it in one of the boxes, under some larger ones, just buying the carrots, obviously not charging myself at the self-checkout for the bag that I was forced to use. That still meant waiting in line for quite a while, however, because those who were ahead of me had problems and a single employee seemed to be there to help.
After putting the carrots in the backpack, I continued to Kaufland, once again washing my hands just with water, since there was no soap, and entering, with the backpack, when it was close to 9:15 PM. And, while the watermelons were slightly more expensive than at Carrefour, there was an evening discount for carrots that made the price the same as that of the spoiling ones which I had purchased, and they were also listed as being from Romania. Most were rather bad, but entire crates of them were left, so I should have been able to find some good ones. Then again, I had no time for that, so I went straight to the bakery area and saw employees just placing labels listing discounts of about 50% over the previous ones, which listed discounts of 30%. There was no bread that I’d have wanted, but I did see and get some other products that I could use instead of bread, plus two buns. A sweet pastry that I might have been interested in was left, but it had no discount label and scanning its regular label confirmed that it wasn’t discounted, so I left it there. Then I got some beer for dad and some kashkaval, returned to check for any new or higher bakery or fruit and vegetable discounts, didn’t see any, waited for 9:45 PM and then went to the self-checkout, needing to call an employee to authorize the sale of beer.
After quickly stuffing the purchases in the backpack, with the exception of the bakery products, which were in the bag that hangs from my neck, I rushed back to Carrefour, jogged in, with everything, a little more than five minutes before closing time, found that watermelon still where I had hidden it, dug it back out and bought it, the closing announcement coming while I was at the self-checkout. Then I took my time to arrange everything, still with the exception of the bakery products, in the backpack, and initially meant to also check that Mega Image, but after finding myself leaving through the wrong exit, I didn’t want to go around that mall and gave up on that idea. I did check this nearby one before getting back, but that just meant entering with everything and then quickly leaving again.
I got back at 10:35 PM, with a little over 13 kg, just put the kashkaval in the fridge and went to the bathroom when it wasn’t even 11:10 PM yet, to use the toilet and take another actual cold shower. I was noticing that it was getting easier once I accepted the situation and decided to just get it over with, but it was hard to actually wash properly that way, the dirt and sweat not coming off well enough. Either way, I was done at 11:50 PM, then I once again did the day’s squats, and then also something else that I had to do, after which I ate the last boiled corn, which was visibly going bad by then, and also peanuts, on and off, while washing dishes, putting the rest of the purchases in their place and making the salad. Just those peanuts contained 950 calories, but I obviously also ate dinner, between 3:45 AM and 5 AM, since I took it slowly and also did some other things while eating, especially when I was close to finishing. And I’ll also mention here that no visits were recorded by Matomo Analytics that day, but the old Google Analytics recorded one, and the new one actually recorded two, somehow…
After initially falling asleep quickly, just after 7:30 AM I was back on the computer, checking the next Carrefour discounts, because I found myself certain that I shouldn’t have bought that watermelon, thinking that they were going to be discounted, one way or another, over the following days. That wasn’t the case, however. Either way, I then also checked what I hadn’t checked before going to bed the first time, finally getting back in bed at 8:45 AM… Only to find myself unable to get back to sleep, so a few minutes after 9:30 AM I was yet again at the computer, only getting back in bed one more time at 11 AM… Only for a neighbor to start vacuuming soon after that, so it took me quite some time to finally get back to sleep… And a little after 1 PM I was awake again, and then I kept drifting in and out of sleep, and at times I was probably in that state that’s in between. I finally got up just after 3:15 PM, but I had been clearly awake for quite some time at that point. So I got a total five hours of sleep at the very most, if you add it all up and don’t care about the quality of it. And I’ll also mention that in the evening I dashed to pay the maintenance bill, and that the old Google Analytics recorded two visits that were quite clearly uncaught bots that day, but the others recorded no visits.
On August 24, I got up when the alarm rang, at 2 PM, and had the usual stuff, though I once again replaced three almonds with apricot pits. And the sweet thing consisted of two biscuits of another kind, but also nicer and expired, with added honey. And that day I did end up going to the toilet twice before leaving, since I initially just wasted some time, giving up when I realized that it won’t work, though at least it worked the second time. I also drank most of the tea and decided to wait even longer, hoping that the temperature would drop at least a little, so I finally left a little after 5:05 PM, wearing the full running gear, with some things in the pocket of my tights. I forgot the armband, however. The reported temperature was still about 36°C, dropping only to about 35°C when I finished, and it was sunny and so hot, it was just burning on the way to the park…
The time was 49:20.39, with sector times of 4:23.26, 5:09 (5:08.75), 6:01.72, 4:33 (4:32.53), 5:16.03, 6:03.03, 4:36.66, 5:15 (5:14.50), 6:07.09 and 1:57 (1:56.82), making for lap times of 15:33.73, 15:52 (15:51.59) and 15:58.25. I just aimed to stay under 50 minutes, not even thinking of doing any better in that heat. And I started with a somewhat controlled pace, but at the same time another runner was ahead of me and I sort of put a target on his back… Briefly, because once he reached the long straight he sped up and I had no chance to keep up, and after the end of sector one I couldn’t even see him anymore. It still meant that the first sector was a little faster than I expected, and so was the first lap, which I only wanted to be under 16 minutes by a safe margin, though it was slightly disappointing to see over six minutes on sector three. Then I wondered whether I’ll manage to stay under 16 minutes on lap two as well, which I did, and when sector one of lap three was only slightly off the pace for 16 minutes per lap, I wondered about getting under 49:30, thinking that I might just get under 16 minutes on lap three as well if I’ll push. So I did, and it worked out.
There weren’t many people, and some stretches were even quite empty, but it was pigeons that made me hesitate twice. The first time, I believe on the first sector, they did it on their own, by not getting out of my way, while the second time, on sector two of lap one, they froze in place when I came from one direction and a kid on a bicycle came from the other, so we ended up sort of facing each other, with a shocked pigeon between us, and I had to avoid him. But there was another moment, on sector three of lap one, when a guy was walking next to the lane and moved towards a garbage can, across the lane, just when I was about to pass him, so I had to stop for an instant, barely avoiding crashing into him. Also, on sector two of lap two, two guys didn’t seem to know which way to go as I came towards them, ending up blocking the lane, so I had to slow and go around them. Otherwise, the lane was still wet in some areas, and there was some damage as well, so I avoided what I could, and there were also two small fenced off patches with very little space between them, so for all practical purposes it was a single area, but while I needed to calculate which side to use whenever I had to go around that spot, I always got it right and avoided getting blocked.
However, the main problem was obviously the heat, and even the wind was hot, so even if there were some gusty areas, I can’t say that I noticed any cooling effect. But it was such a good thing that I had waited, since from sector three of lap one it got cloudy and it stayed that way all the way to the end, with the exception of a brief break in the clouds that appeared while I covered a part of sector three of lap two. It’d have been terrible if it’d have stayed sunny, and even so it was only sector two of lap two when I started feeling dehydrated. There was also a pressing need that first appeared on sector one of lap two, going away on the next sector but then returning on sector three of lap two and no longer going away, even getting worse at times, and suddenly becoming quite a problem as I climbed the stairs at the start of the final sector, so I pretty much had to clench my butt until the end. And I also really slipped on some leaves on the final straight, so I was a little more careful after that, which probably cost me a little time. But, again, the main problem was the heat.
After the run, I had a look in that Carrefour… And only then realized that the large location of the pharmacy that I wanted to get some teas for dad from was at Mega Mall, not at Park Lake. Not that I didn’t know that all too well, but I somehow got confused before leaving. They do have a small location in Park Lake as well, and I did go there to ask, but they didn’t have any of those teas, so I then wondered whether I could make it to Mega Mall and still get back by 8 PM, when I wanted to be back. I thought that I might just have a chance if I jogged both ways and didn’t lose any time while I was there, so I started to jog in that direction after walking out of that mall, but seconds later I gave up on that idea and decided to go to Tei instead, since I had checked before leaving and one of the teas was listed as being in stock in that location as well, and for the same price. However, since I was passing by it, I also had a quick look through the farmers’ market, then also checked that Mega Image, and even made a small detour to that Supeco, getting some spoiling carrots, paying what was listed and not being charged for the bag. I then set down the carrots on a trash can, wondering whether to put that bag in one of mine or just carry it as it was, and I eventually decided on the latter, even if that bag had no handles… Which probably made a guy who was standing there at the time think that I needed a bag, since he said that he had some and asked whether I wanted one, but I told him that I had some as well. And then, after initially going past it one more time, I turned around and had a quick look in the pharmacy that’s next to that Mega Image as well, still not seeing any of those teas.
Even though those teas hadn’t been listed as available on their site, I then decided to cross the street and jogged to that other pharmacy as well, at Dristor, also quickly glancing in another store on the way. But I obviously didn’t see them there either, so I then finally went to Tei, and that was the only place where I put those carrots in a cabinet. And I didn’t only find that tea, but also noticed that another one was discounted, so I grabbed some of that as well, then retrieved the carrots, put everything into a bag and jogged almost all the way back, which gave me a little time to also check the nearby Mega Image. And, oddly enough, considering the hour, all of the bakery products were discounted, and there were a lot of them. Even some of that bread was left, but the freezer was so full that I didn’t even have room for the bread which I had purchased from Kaufland two days earlier, so I ignored it and, after seeing that none of those apple pastries were left, I looked for something else that I could get and decided on another sweet pastry, even if I didn’t know the ingredients. However, I wasn’t sure which one it was and was about to walk away when an employee came and commented out loud that so many things were discounted, so I asked her and she showed me a bag with three of those pastries in it. When I said that I only wanted one, she said that they usually put two in each bag lately, only then noticing that there were actually three in that one. But I had spotted a single piece that looked similar in another bag, so I asked her whether that was the same thing and bought it after she confirmed it, making it back just one minute late. And later, before going to shower, I even did the day’s squats. I got in bed at 5:20 AM. And there were once again no visits recorded that day, except by the old Google Analytics, which recorded one.
Once again, I couldn’t sleep. I might have just dozed off for a moment, but then I woke up and that strange feeling that sometimes appears seemed to be in my entire body, so there was no way that I could get back to sleep and I cut my losses rather quickly, getting back on the computer at 6:20 AM and starting to read The Whitestar Queen. I still felt dehydrated, however, the second tea that I had made and drank in the evening having made pretty much no difference, so at 7 AM I grabbed and drank the bio (organic) carbonated tea taken after the Dream Trek. It was listed as having expired in April, but that’s most likely an error, since they gave it to us in June and the lemonade, from the same sponsor, is listed as expiring next March. Somewhat more concerning was the fact that it contained black tea, which definitely wasn’t what I needed at that point, but it seemed more important to drink some more. And then, at 7:45 AM, I finished the book, if that can even be called a book. Then I peed and got back in bed, but I only got some two more hours of sleep. And in the evening I also posted the quick review.
