Day 5 - Are you Looking at me??

The day has not started well, 67.8Kg and this is not really within the after-race expectation. The funny thing is when I have been trying to lose some weight it has been pretty painful to lose every single gram, and now it looks like they are leaving without saying good bye... Let's see what happens tomorros. I am expecting it to stabilize since there is always a period of internal "cleansing" when the body adapts to a new diet.

Being in a hurry in the morning means my porridge usually will keep on cooking in my stomach in my way to work... :)

The morning has been long. Afternoon has been long. It is the goddamn coffee and the lack of proper sleep...

I can officially declare that I hate this pasta. It could be cooking for 20 minures and still "Aldente" would be an insult. However I have such a vacuum inside at 12 (yes, a Spaniard having lunch at 12!) that they are all gone before I can cry them good bye...

The afternoon is long as lens (Spanish phrase, I suppose some used to take lens pretty seriously...) I am missing so much being entertained by my coffee... My stomach hates me and my brain is going to commit suicide...

And back home a nice surprise awaits, a reminder of last weekend run! My label with my time came with the post. It is official: 1:26:40 :) It will be difficult this weekend but it is also true that I will be 2Kgs lighter (at this pace) and that I know how much I can push the race. And I play at home! Some of the streets I will be running are part of my dark video :)

Once my home duties are done, I am racing to get my dinner done, and since I have desperate for most of the day and groceries are decreasing at a conservative rate I decide to cook something special:

I am calling this one "Are you looking at me?" and since there is no one else around then I suppose that in fact it is looking at me, so I am going to have to wipe that smile off its face...

HAHAHA :) These beans with Rice were simply excellent. I am getting closer for a recipe to top up my levels of energy for Sunday...

Donation are still coming. You are all so awesome!

Good night everyone!

http://www.justgiving.com/marcoshungergames

Day 4 - To cook or not to cook...

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68.2 Kg - 2 Kgs. down since Saturday. Still I think within the margin after Hastings, but we'll see how are we doing tomorrow. Otherwise I can patent a new slim-fast diet!

My kitchen is filling up with pans I wasn't using before. That means now I need to cook whether I want it or not. Plus the Tupperware to take my lunch to work...

Lesson 4 - Convenience is not cheap. So you pay with a piece of your time...

Oh, that is my mouse, but not the edible kind :)

Lesson 5 - If you are hungry you don't get bored of the same food so easily!

So yes, it is pasta again. A loads of water throughout the day. To fill up for the moments of coffee pleasure... with water. Omg...

Back home and a nice cheap cup of coffee. And I must admit that coffee is not bad at all! I may switch from strength 6 to 4 from now on.

And to dinner once again. I cooked two portions of rice not thinking of eating until later, but I coudn't wait...

I call this "Chicken drumstick binging on rice surrounded by a gang of bread slices". None of them survived for long...

I am starting to think how will I fill up the carb reserves for Sunday. Suggestions? :) I still have a few pences to spare, remember! only 3 more days for the next run! It seems my legs won't hurt any more by tomorrow, so it is all well underway to have a decent run. I am more worried about the levels of energy for the marathon, but we will get there when we get there. I could try to run on an overdose of coffee :)

Good night everyone!

http://www.justgiving.com/marcoshungergames

Day 3 - and we hit 1000...

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And we hit 1000 pounds...

... I am speechless... you are all huge. Really, before I went ahead with all of these I thought a few times if all of these was just a big nonsense, but you have made it all worth it. THANK YOU.

Now, with the schedule today :)

The day started significantly better that means I cooked my porridge without spilling half of it into the microwaves.

Also I managed the whole day with half the usual amount of caffeine.



That was actually an homage to Dune and Frank Herbert :)

An the following is my sexy lunch today:

Another mistake, no salt... Yes, this was plain rice. Fortunately (maybe not) it was a sizeable amount, but it was bland. OMG!! And that was it until dinner. But I didn't miss it as much as yesterday. So either I was busier or my metabolism is slowing down.

Actually I have lost 1.5Kg since Saturday, but that can only be because of Hastings itself. If you ever feel bloated running has very interesting effect. Ask Paula Radcliffe :)

And dinner time at last! Opened my first can of beans. Was it good, tell me about that! Another piece of chicken. There is a price for those who find out what part of the chicken is that... I have just realised that the bag of frozen chicken is a mixture of chicken drumsticks and ... chicken butts!!! :)

Lesson 3 - Supply and demand. Where are chicken butts in this graphic?

Certainly at the "bottom", to the right!
Good night!
http://www.justgiving.com/MarcosHungerGames

Day 2 - I think I am starving...

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Let me explain - I am not starving. I just think that I am starving. Too much thinking about whether this is enough or not. It is indeed. It must be the lack of coffee...

The day does not start well. It is the first time I cook porridge, and I choose to microwave it... so half of it blows off. The rest was not too bad.

First lesson - no room for mistakes. You mess up your food, you don´t eat (unless you lick it from the microwaves). Unfortunately mornings are complex enough and didn't get a chance to get a picture.

So that was double espresso and porridge to start the day.

... and it is lunch time. I decided to keep me going with that breakfast coffee, and as a result lunch time seems to never come. But here we are, pasta again, yum! (Well, this is half of it now)

And I keep on thinking about food. Not good. I can't be hungry, honestly. But I can't stop thinking about it. On top of it no coffee.

So it is officially cold turkey - lack of caffeine = head aches...

Lesson 2 - I can live with less caffeine, but it is getting on my nerves!

First thing I do when I get home is getting a double espresso. I need to deal with the rest of the evening, and there is lots to do...

... and dinner, at last!!

That rice is smiling, or is it my imagination?? :) And two pieces of chicken! I must admit that this frozen chicken is not too bad at all!! I can only afford a piece and a half a day, but yesterday my stomach was still in Hastings running. So today I binge on chicken, hiii hiiiiiiiiiii! Like Michael Jackson would say :)

Oh, and it only a slice and a half of bread a day. Yesterday I over indulged in bread ;)

On another note, wow, what can I say... £840 plus £70 in gift aid. You are all so awesome, really... How come there are still so many things to sort out when we are all so incredibly awesome!?

Good night everyone and thanks!

https://www.justgiving.com/marcoshungergames

Day 1 - Hastings And a Bag Full of Carbs

Day 1

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Early wake up for a Sunday and a long drive down to Hastings. Great day, great atmosphere, it was clear that only something good was going to happen...

...Wifey presses the wrong button and the camera switches off instead of taking a photo at the finish line... :-) But she is so lovely that she recovered in no time and there you go :)

A long standing personal best was smashed and I entered the under 1:30 territory reserved to the badest'. 1:26:40.

...

24 hours earlier, in Croydon...

This is my food for the next 14 days:

	Price £	Units	Total
Bread Basics Wholemeal	0.5	1	0.5
Sains Pasta Shapes 500g	0.35	4	1.4
Rice Basics 1Kg	0.4	1	0.4
Frozen Chicken 2.5Kg	4.38	1	4.38
Coffee Basics	1.7	1	1.7
Milk Semi 3.4L (6P)	1.48	1	1.48
Porridge Oats 500g	0.7	1	0.7
Baked Beans	0.25	6	1.5
Bananas	0.12		0
		Total	12.06
		Left	1.94

That is an amazing 1.94 left which I will see how I accommodate (those bananas that I can't buy all at once, and who knows, maybe the deposit for a property?) ;)

And just tonight, the first supper. I had to skip lunch since I only felt like throwing up after that run:

Hmmmm :) A banana added later, that is another 0.12!

An amazing £589.58 have been raised to date, you are all so awesome...

Time to rest my bones, it has been a long day for a Sunday!

http://www.justgiving.com/marcoshungergames

One Day I'll Grow Up

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Beyond the misery of a miserable childhood. Being trapped. Being trapped in the defencelessness of childhood, where not even running away is an option. There is an Stockholm syndrome that will make us be close to a cruel hand. To an infinite Misery. To the cruellest of teachers or the schoolmates from hell. We try to feed of the brief moments of peace that we are awarded with and we endure with stoicism the rest of them. Until either we are killed or we are thrown violently into the world when, finally, we don't need anyone to stand on our feet. And all of a sudden this cruel world sees us born again under the baptism of fire that our childhood was.

This long period of defencelessness in our species will grant us the food and protection that the development of the magic box on our shoulders that distinguish us from the rest of living creatures demands from us.
To make us unique. To make us human. This defencelessness assumes the protection that our parents and environment will provide us with and which will revert to all of us as a stronger and compassionate society.

If this equilibrium is broken, we are not worth it. If this equilibrium is broken we do not deserve our place in this world.

There is a song by Antony and the Johnsons that describes perfectly this period in which we depend on a compassionate environment which grants us the privilege of protection and defence, of growing towards our realization as human beings. And the trap. And our fight. And our strength knowing that there will be light at the other end of the tunnel. The underlying subject in the song is obviously different but it has the same roots in that time of defencelessness which should be instead a time of continuous spring and, why not, happiness.

One day I'll grow up, I'll be a beautiful woman

One day I'll grow up, I'll be a beautiful girl.

But for today I am a child, for today I am a boy

Sadness, anger, frustration... but also hope, strength, perseverance. The picture in the video is truly chilling...

My Hunger Games, another step beyond.

Under the Iron Bridge We Kissed...

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"Still Ill" - Possibly the best Smiths songs ever. You'll find all sorts of explanations on what people think about the intended meaning of a song, but the reality seems to be that it will have as many meanings as people listen to it. Songs travel with us through life and define our coordinates in space, time and emotions, they tell our stories of struggle and joy.

I am just a recent fun of The Smiths. They were really at their peak when I was not even a teenager, and well before I could make sense of English lyrics. However they seemed to be big back in the days in Spain. It has always amazed me that concerts of English bands in Spain seem to drive people mad at the stadiums while here in the UK people seem to be more apathetic about them. Maybe if most Spaniards could understand the lyrics they wouldn't be so enthusiastic in some cases (ha, ha :))

There are lots of flashes on this song that suggest to me our lives in my dear cities. "Under the Iron Bridge we kissed..." and although it was bloody freezing I'd go back under that Iron Bridge :) Who needs the mountains if I could go back under that Iron Bridge on a cold and wet winter in the grey darkness of the city night!

My running is by definition in a city, going past the grey buildings, loads of random people, the landmarks. It is embedded within its concrete foundations. It couldn't be any other way.

"Does the body rule the mind 

Or does the mind rule the body? 

I dunno..."

Isn't that one of the unanswered dilemmas of humankind? So thrilling to hear the question in that sad, nostalgic voice. And then that kiss under the Iron Bridge... Our eternal love/hatred relationship with society's rules and ethics. And, from another angle, how the mind can guide the body conquer the next frontier.

In My Hunger Games  it is definitively the mind ruling over the body. Or is it the body ruling the mind to rule about what it needs to? I dunno...