running

temperature: 10 deg. C
target zone: 155-
time in the target zone: 55'30"
intermediate time: -
total time: 65'00"
maximum HR: 172
distance: 12.7 km
starting hour: 14:45

The terrain was very difficult again: loose, slippery, in many places heavily muddy. Of course that I have tried to run next to the country road, because there is vegetation there, but when is dark the terrain becomes treacherous even there. Why dark since the starting hour was 14:45? Because...

Above you have only the data concerning my usual run. Today all turned bad in a way, and marvelous in another. Bad, because it was raining and I lost my keys: it would be some problems here if I could not find them. Good, because I ran about 28 km for the first time. You could imagine that I was back-tracking step by step on my normal route...

Yet, my memory is quite good, and I reviewed the moments when I could lose the keys. Unfortunately, there were more than a few, but some of them were easy to eliminate -- I refer, for instance to those that were in town, because the keys sound when they are dropped. My equipment is new and I was compelled to admit -- though with a small probability -- that they could fall from the pocket, somewhere in the final part near the town, in the grass: on the route I hold them right in my hand, to avoid exactly this kind of situation. After deliberations, I decided that the most probable moment when I could lose them was that at which I had to tie my laces on my shoes: this was at the most distant point in the run, when I turn back on the route.

So, I was not back-tracking. I ran direct to that place, but on another route, this time on roads: it was a mistake. Regardless the distance was quite longer, running on streets around towns in Romania is a nightmare: roads are usually very very narrow -- this one was about 6.5, maximum 7 meters! Everywhere were trucks which replace the good air with a heavy polluted one. Further more, a significantly part of run was raining, and I was not properly equipped for this situation: running for hours in a cold rain could be perilous. An other detail that could make completely useless my efforts was that when I started the second run it was already dark: remember, it's November 15, and in this moment of the year, the day is quite short. Perhaps you would not believe me, but outside of town, in the field, it is never completely dark: and I know those places very well, almost every inch of them. So, I was pretty confident that if the keys were there, then I would find them.

After a long run and having all these problems upon me, I eventually arrived in that point: in the first instance I did not see the keys, as I would expected. I walked around, looking in the dark, looking and thinking that they could not be there, after all. I leaned and touched the grass here and there, and at a given moment, I griped the keys: they were in the grass...

On the second run, I have maintained the mean pulse around 149, because I did not want to perspire too much. It was not a big problem that I was thirsty, but my t-shirt was changed after the first run, and I could not take the chance to get wet again. However, my shoes get completely wet and my feet swam for hours...