When the whole goal is half

One of Istanbul’s half marathons was a couple weeks ago, and I made it a goal to participate. Again, I’m not going to pretend I was going to run the whole thing, but I intended to finish. My No. 1 goal was not to die. I felt I met that one, although once I got home I swigged Airborne after a cup of hot chocolate. It was 55 (tops) and cloudy and windy. Just awful weather in which to be outside. I felt worse on this one from the get-go than any of these yet. Getting minimal sleep the night before didn't help. But I did it! 

 

I got home and soaked in a hot bath with a cup of hot chocolate.

BUT my ultimate goal was do it in under 2:45, and I came in at 2:42:48 so I'm thrilled. The bad thing for the competitor in me if that since I felt so awful and the weather was terrible, I know I can do better. I do NOT need to do another of these things. 

Usually, I can run about 2km before needing to walk. Last race, I went 3k before needing to catch my breath. This time, I barely made it to the 1k mark and I started doing this pattern of once I hit a marker, I'd run until whatever song was on ended, then walk (briskly) for an entire song, then run. That worked pretty well. My walk, seriously, is not slower than my jog. A couple of places the markers were on a slope so I kept going, but once I got to the 20 I had to pull up mid-song. It finished on a slight incline and I had to walk from the 300 to the 200 meter mark; couldn't even turn it on at the end, which I usually do. Going to sit down after it, I almost fell over. I sat down next to some other lady, and I noticed she almost fell over when she stood up.

And Big Brother being what it is, as soon as I sat down I got a text with my time on it. That's scary.

 

But I made it! I am so relieved to have finished it. I know I could do better, because I hadn’t been “training” much since I’m still doing physical therapy on the shoulder.

Yeah, that’s not fun. First, it irritates me to pay someone to watch me lift weights, the same weightlifting I would be doing in the gym if I wasn’t in the physical therapy place. I’m just tired of it.

I’m also concerned it’s not working because the same movements hurt of just feel weird. I had a follow-up appointment, though, and the surgeon assures me it’s OK. He also suggested swimming, which was good since I started doing that the day before he said I could.

It gives a different type of resistance, so that’s good. He told me to do the over-the-shoulder swim method, which I never do and now I don’t like doing it because it hurts! I’ve been trying to experiment with stretches  and holy cow, I have done something twice that has caused more pain than I can ever remember being in.

One happened when I was doing some kind of butterfly-ish backstroke. I held my hands together at the top of my head to stretch and I swear, I felt stuff rip. Apparently, this is what was supposed to happen but man, it hurt.

Yesterday, in another move, something like that happened again. You know what it sounds like when you pull up a weed that has a bunch of little roots? That’s the sound.  It hurt so bad I screamed, but once it was over, the pain stopped. However, I was not even remotely tempted to try that move again. I just could not believe the pain.

I guess is normal. I’m supposed to go back to the surgeon in another week for another checkup.

In other news, I’m down to about two months here and am trying to get started on the get-ready-to-move process. Trying to sell my car. It's a POS and the odds of selling it in the consulate are slim since I am departing before most people arrive. Per the customs guy's suggestion, I listed it on what's basically Istanbul's Craigs List.

Oh my. Ad in English, specify it's diplomat-owned and owner needs to be eligible for duty-free purchase. Specify I'm a foreigner and don't speak Turkish. 

My phone has run off the hook. Not a one speaks English. At work, a friend helped me but they continued until 11:30 last night --- I stopped answering them. It is a nightmare. For those who grab, for example, a broken English-speaking uncle and ask me details of the sale, I don't know since that's why I put the "diplomat-owned" and "must be eligible for duty-free purchase in it." If you are not one of these, I cannot explain what you can do, as I have no clue.

The customs guy sent me a paragraph in Turkish explaining who's eligible so I've Whatsapped it, and I've sent pictures to many. (One guy, who spoke zero English, called me baby and, after sending 14 photos of the car to him, he responded "picture yourself?" I blocked him.)

I've had Google Translate open and I've tried to answer questions, but I just don't understand some of it. And when I run "I don't understand, please call tomorrow so someone can help translate" into Google and run it back, they follow up with more questions in Turkish.

I have no idea how this will go down. In the two weeks or so I’ve had it listed, I’ve probably had 200 calls/texts or emails. I guess only blocking three of them so far isn’t such a bad track record.