Starvation

I'll never know what it is like to be a pregnant woman who has to eat for two. I'll (hopefully) never know what it's like to be in a famine or a disaster with scarce food. I'll (hopefully) never know what it's truly like to be in the kind of poverty that means that there isn't always enough money to buy food. But I do know a thing or two about that "First World problem" of marathoner hunger.

It didn't really affect me too much in the preparation for my first marathon in 2017. I probably ate more overall and succumbed to Pandoro (an Italian-style patisserie) from time to time but that year, relatively speaking, I didn't train to the same extent. In fact, when I look at that year, which felt like a busy year of running, it wasn't anywhere near the same intensity as last year or even this year. No wonder I had trouble hitting my goal. My 2017 mileage was just over 2000km from 44 training weeks, averaging 45km a week. In 2018, I ran 2800km from 39 training weeks, averaging 69km a week. And that kind of calorie burning, muscle repair and and electrolyte demand takes some provisioning.

2018 was my first real year of running hunger. When it was a staff member's birthday, welcome or farewell and there was cake, pizza, chocolate or whatever, I was completely unprofessionally scoffing what I could get. Student farewells were awesome. Bye bye! Num-num-num! Worse, the chocolate for student prizes was stored in my office and barely stood a chance with the wolf inside the door. It became my year of bags of almonds, cashews and cranberries. They were often $8 a bag and I'd buy them all and store them in my drawer. One 500g bag might last me a few days in the office. Breakfasts deluxed. Throw in a pie. Pop down for a muffin. There was no respite.

My training in 2019 has slowly but surely cranked up and at some stage over the last few weeks the "hunger" button has most definitely been pushed. A few weeks ago, while trapped relieving the front desk when I mentally materialised pizza.  I was sitting there aching for something to eat despite the fact that I'd had breakfast, an arrival snack (a boiled egg), morning tea (a banana) and it was just 1 hour till lunch.The front desk always needs someone there so if no-one relieved me, I couldn't leave; and it's an exposed place so it's not the place to chow down on something anyway. But I just wanted something else to eat. Pronto. And it was just then that Cristian, a lovely Chilean student, came around the corner with a slice of pizza and offered it to me (they had a group meal and had too much). It was divine and satisfying. For a couple of minutes. And then lunch wouldn't come soon enough. Since then, that prize chocolate has again taken a beating. I'm feeling all rather guilty.

And now I'm blogging partly on the inspiration of food. In the wee hours of this morning, 4:41am to be precise, I stirred and awoke and it was my tummy that stopped me from returning back to the land of Nod. I had been planning a long run this morning but I usually do my running without breakfast (as it delays departure because I wouldn't feel comfortable digesting a solid meal and running). Fortunately, my tummy had woken me up so early that I could fit in breakfast, a blog, digestion before the dawning of a new running day.

On a completely different side-note I just witness something truly eerie. A trick of the (lack of) light. When I started this blog, whenever I searched for a word or phrasing to use, I would look out the window, where the city lights and even the edge of Sky Tower are visible. I looked over just moments ago and could see only darkness. It could have plausibly been a massive power cut but I believe a thick moving fog, invisible in the absence of light, has sludged its way into downtown Auckland. Looks like it will be a humid morning run!