semi d’Argentan [1:36:54, 29/180, M5M 2/14, 19⁰]

After a long break (since 2018), I ran my “traditional” half-marathon in Argentan, Normandy. As the new organisation of the race had not contacted former participants and had changed their webpage, I only heard about it a week before the race and hence had not trained at all for the distance, plus had a fairly busy September with morning classes and the like, hence was not in such a great shape compared with the end of the Summer. As a result I did not do great, with my second worst time ever (the worst being my first half in 1995, with only two weeks of preparation) and not even a first place in my Master category. Despite the number of participants having dwindled from the earlier 600 runners. Which meant a very solitary race as well, with just one runner passing me in the last 12km. And only the Norman field edges to try to escape the headwind…

early morn in Powys [jatp]

Tour de Paris [of pools]

As I am prevented from running since the beginning of this year, due to a ligament injury caused by an excess of kilometers run since the beginning of the (first) lockdown, I have started swimming most days I can find a free window of time. And an open swimming pool! While Paris and most of the suburban cities near me have a decent offer of (cheap) public pools, it is often a challenge to find one open at a manageable time. Meaning for me mostly in the early morning. The lockdown has obviously reduced opening hours and introduced restricted access, requiring a medical certificate for indoor pools, and I have thus being recently visiting a rather extensive array of pools to fit such constraints, since both nearby pools, at home and at work, are rarely available. Last week, I biked to the most exotic so far, namely a pool made from a barge standing on the Seine River. It is alas not yet outdoor, but not yet crowded either (if small and rather hot). By comparison, the nearer and wider pool at Porte d’Orléans is surprisingly crowded at 7am (but pleasantly colder) and the historical pool on Butte aux Cailles also gets quickly crowded and is missing its outdoor pool (but is close to a fantastic bakery!). Even careful scheduling does not always work as I sometimes find an unexpected closed door, as two weeks ago when Butte aux Cailles had emptied overnight or a few days ago when Joséphine Baker had a disfunctioning pediluvium enough to bar entry. (The outdoor 50m pool in Villejuif I used to go to has just reopened to the general public and is not yet overcrowded, despite milder temperatures.)

fit data to your model [bobologie]

A few weeks ago, I contacted my general (and sport) practitioner for a mild issue with hurting toes, as they were indeed hurting and not only during or after my daily runs (!). Since the beginning of lockdown. I thought he would tell me to contact him later and stop running in the meanwhile but instead he told me to come to his office and after a rather cursory glance at said toes started discussing on a rare occurrence of COVID-19 induced frostbite-like toes. He then ordered a blood test which I took the next morn. Right after my (legit and solitary) one hour run. The results of the test were within the “normal” boundaries, except for the D-dimer test which was above the limit and is usually intended for detecting deep venous thrombosis. (As reported on Wikipedia, “a four-fold increase in the D-Dimer protein is a strong indicator of mortality in those suffering from COVID-19.”) This caused my physician to react quickly by prescribing me a cocktail of anticoagulants, corticosteroids and antibiotics. And another test four days later, incl. one for COVID-19. While anticoagulants made sense wrt to the coagulation issues, the corticosteroids were a surprise as they had been earlier pointed out as a potential aggravating cause for younger patients. Including by the French Ministry of Health. I thus asked my daughter for advice, as she had been triaging potential COVID-19 patients in the emergency room for the past month and she was strongly negative about the treatment, both because of the corticosteroids and of the antibiotics. Treatment that was apparently advocated by my practitioner on his own. I thus waited for the second round of blood tests, which returned a lower D-Dimer level and a negative signal for COVID-19. (In the meanwhile, I had spotted a BMJ paper on the possible impact of extended running on the D-Dimer levels and hence waited till the mid-afternoon to take the test!) While this ended up as a non-story, only made more exciting by the lack of competitive events during the lockdown!, I find it interesting that my doctor, who was most reasonably worried about the rising number of COVID-19 among his patients, leaned towards a viral conclusion with little data, as my month-old return to intensive (daily) running was a more likely explanation for sore toes…

free fall [fake]

As I was looking for the location of a picture serving as a background image for Windows 10 log-in page, I came across several versions of the above, supposedly showing a climber failing to grab another climber’s hand and as a result falling. Or “falling” as the image is obviously doctored, most likely by removing the ropes securing both climbers. This is fairly ridiculous, from the top climber hanging by his hand to the bottom one carrying quickdraws on his harness, as in the worst climbing movies… Still, I wish the location of the shot was provided on the website. (As an insider joke, I had a fall when running that was definitely not fake during the Xmas vacations, scraping a fair amount of skin on the gritty sidewalk, but with no apparent lasting damage, although I am barred from running by a tendinitis which started in Warwick last month..!)