INT. Bedroom
DON is at his computer with his foster dog Noodle and feels the need to write.
DON
VOID Nothin' bruv
DON
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INT. Bedroom
DON is at his computer with his foster dog Noodle and feels the need to write.
DON
VOID Nothin' bruv
DON
VOID
DON
VOID
DON
VOID
DON
VOID
DON
VOID
DON
VOID
DON
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DON
Woah its my birthday today and I'm posting my 38th episode on my 38 birthday! ekkkk!!
Yesterday I ran my 6th Marathon and the 4th time I've run LA Marathon. Here is my summary:
| MILE 1 | 9:57 | Took a pee break immediately at the start of the race. |
| MILE 2 | 8:17 | The first half of the marathon is my favorite part of the course. You run past Echo Park Lake/Silverlake/ Los Feliz and this year they had the entire set up for the Oscars in Hollywood which I don't think has ever been set up in all my past runnings of the marathon before. Unfortunately I didn't see anyone I knew during these miles. |
| MILE 3 | 8:27 | |
| MILE 4 | 8:16 | |
| MILE 5 | 9:12 | |
| MILE 6 | 8:46 | |
| MILE 7 | 8:28 | |
| MILE 8 | 8:30 | |
| MILE 9 | 8:36 | |
| MILE 10 | 8:33 | |
| MILE 11 | 8:31 | |
| MILE 12 | 8:26 | |
| MILE 13 | 13:18 | I knew once I hit 10 miles is when I would need to start worrying about my body holding up. This was when I started to cramp up for the first time in my left calf but found someone with biofreeze to apply onto my calves. Whenever I had a chance I would take the opportunity to apply more biofreeze/icy hot to my calves. |
| MILE 14 | 9:30 | |
| MILE 15 | 9:02 | |
| MILE 16 | 10:17 | Definitely the fastest I've ran down the big hill on Doheny St. |
| MILE 17 | 11:24 | I won't lie, there was this women that was encouraging people on their run but way too aggressively. I did not like it. |
| MILE 18 | 10:23 | Saw my friend Bryan and he ran with me for a little bit! |
| MILE 19 | 10:18 | Almost all my friends were on this mile! Elaine, Frank, Matt, Devon, Lu, Peter, Garrett, Jason! |
| MILE 20 | 11:45 | |
| MILE 21 | 21:11 | I practically walked this entire mile and met a new friend trying to go for a PR but wasn't her day unfortunately. |
| MILE 22 | 14:04 | |
| MILE 23 | 12:54 | I started to feel "better" my calves weren't cramping up as much but were just super tight. |
| MILE 24 | 12:51 | |
| MILE 25 | 11:19 | Saw Chelsea and Huddy! |
| MILE 26 | 11:13 | Saw Sylvia and family! |
| FINISH | 4:39:59 | Not my best performance but I'm glad I finished. I aim for next year. |
January 13th, 2023 (friday of Leiout) - Monday December 15th, 2025
Monday December 15th, 2025 (Day 1068)
The Friday prior to this date I decided to reach out to Alice. This would be the first interaction between the two of us since she broke up with me on Saturday November 29th. Why did I want to reach out? I wanted to tell her how I felt in person or at least get some closure, but I didn't get a response.
The Sunday prior I decide to send out one last message to let Alice know that I was still flying into Boston on that Monday. If she didn't reach out to me by Wednesday I would be taking a bus to NYC.
Monday morning I received a call from Alice on my bus ride to the airport I could hear her sniffling and I asked if I could call her later, she hung up on me. During the end of my flight I received a message from her telling me that she'd pick me up from the airport. I obliged since I wasn't sure if I'd get another opportunity. With the remaining 1.5 hours I started writing out my thoughts. Unfortunately most of my notes were on the internet so I didn't have time to review them. So immediately and desperately I went straight to hand written notes to jot down my thoughts. I wrote 3 pages of tangential jargon where maybe only a few lines were useable. I was out of time.
The ride from the airport to where I was staying was roughly 20 minutes away. The conversation started off hot, in a bad way. I pretty much confessed my love to her and she let me know that she was done with the relationship. She was tired of trying. I tried to understand what about our communication was off or what needed improvement, but all she could do was refer to a past conversation where she couldn't get through to me. Specifically a 3 hour long conversation where she couldn't reference exactly what was talked about so unfortunately it gave me no answers. Now to be clear, I am putting no blame on anyone here. I am literally just stating what happened.
What was definitive was that she wanted to move on.
I would be lying to you if I said I was surprised with the outcome. There were signs well ahead that I could have brought up. Post work calls became less and less. She didn't want to share moments together, ie watch shows together. We would start watching shows but then she would finish them on her own at home. It was initially her idea to have us watch movies or shows together over the phone. But that idea drifted away. Or what did I need to do differently? Should I have came to visit her in Boston more? Or maybe not worry when she didn't call during her typical time? Am I saying these are definitive signs? No, I'm really just here trying to make sense of it all.
In the past we've talked about not assuming how one person felt and to make sure to bring up whenever a problem would arise. To not assume how one felt and to trust eachother to talk about our concerns.
This entire car ride felt like she was looking for ways to fight with me, to blame me, to hate me. It's my fault for thinking everything was fine. My fault for not understanding our communication issues. My fault for the failure of our relationship. Whatever I said, felt as though I could say no right. There were moments of silence that I wanted to fill but was too afraid to say anything at all. I was spiraling.
When we parked at my destination, time was still. We made it outside of the car as she waited for me to take my belongings out. She then made it to the side of her car where she started weeping and I followed it up by hugging her. We lingered for another 10 minutes. I muttered some word vommit pertaining to love and asked her to reach out to me before she made any decision about where she will work in the future. I told her that she was my best friend and I hoped that she would still be around. That's when she tried to take the blame for all of this and I refused. There's always something you can do. It is so easy to put blame on one person for your troubles. I wanted to figure out what I could have done to be better for Alice so I won't make the same mistakes in the future.
I saw early signs but failed to bring them up. I thought I was giving her the agency to communicate with me or was I just being lazy by saying that "I didn't want to assume"?
I made it to the front of her car and she turned back to offer me one last embrace. We hugged and I started to weep onto her shoulder and I grasped her tighter. She then started to lean back as I attempted to hold her hands as she pulled away. She then entered her car as I waited for her to leave behind the trunk. She sat there still without moving. As a last ditch effort I opened her door and gave her my final plea. She says “No” I then apologize and walk back to where I was and she continued to not budge.
I felt as though she wanted something else from me but I didn't know what. With despair I put on my winter cap and proceeded to take my things to the sidewalk. Eventually she would leave.
From the time we parked to when she finally left was approximately 40 minutes.
That night I booked my bus to NYC.
I later had a dream and in that dream I was in bed with someone and I told them Alice and I broke up. Whoever she was, rolled out of bed and found that the bed was soaked in blood. Someone had their period in my bed. I immediately woke up and was confused as hell and tried to look up the meaning and this is what google had to say:
"Dreaming someone bled on your bed, especially with period blood, often symbolizes deep emotional release, life cycles, creativity, or feeling unprepared for a sudden emotional flow, representing a need to let go or embrace new beginnings, not literally about someone's physical period, but a subconscious processing of change, passion, or vulnerability in your personal space (the bed)."
Thanks for that universe...
The three weeks prior I recollected dreaming zero times and was close to breaking down twice. The only time I actually cried was the morning after the breakup. This surprised me because I knew my body was ready to cry but I think the night of December 15 made it more definitive. I was ready.
Tuesday December 16th, 2025 (Day 1069)
Tuesday morning I left my friends apartment to get to my bus to NYC. I looked out to the spot one last time from last night. I finally broke down, finally feeling the release that my body oh so needed. It was over.
The bus trip was 5 hours long with just my thoughts replaying as many moments as I could trying to figure out what went wrong and what I could have done differently. When I got to NYC I met up with friends to get dinner letting them know I wasn't ready to talk about it.
We took the ferry back to their apartment in Staten Island and relaxed in their living room. I then proceeded to tell them what had happened breaking down for the third and final time that day.
It's been 1 week being "single" and I can definitely say that I have great friends. I have been blessed with good people in my life, that want to see me happy and that's been such a reassuring part of this entire process.
I have played with the idea of what would it look like if we got back together again or why it's good/bad that we're no longer together.
I have asked myself "why do I love Alice?" and that will be the driving force moving forward. It is either do I win her back or parting ways is for the best. This brought up so many questions in my own mind:
November 29th, 2025. I'm single again, surprise!
In relationships you either succeed or fail together. So I guess we've failed.
Around 12:30PM I received the news and I met it with shock. I didn't know how to react. All I was met with was a burning weight deep in my chest and the back of my head while Alice was crying and apologizing profusely of the outcome. We would have continued the conversation but I thought it was something we needed to walk away from and return to at 2PM. We did and it was still met with the same result. I dumbfounded and Alice weeping on the other end.
Following I looked for ways to distract myself but nothing worked. I felt dead inside and I was too distracted by my own turmoil. I found some solace talking to a friend over the phone trying to analyze the situation.
What could I have done differently?
Why didn't I cry?
-I knew it was there but the question was when? I was a ticking time bomb.
Is this better for the both of us?
-Did we rush into this relationship?
My faults in the relationship.
My stubbornness.
My mind even headed down other roads:
Is there someone else?
Was this relationship doomed from the start?
I started looking for people to blame when in reality it's probably just a relationship that just didn't work out.
Later that night it was a friends birthday dinner and I decided I wasn't going to sulk, sulk alone that is. I wanted to be with my people but I didn't want to talk about it. So I kept silent.
1. It was a birthday dinner.
2. I wasn't ready to talk period. And I don't know if I ever will be thus this blog.
During the dinner I found myself starring off into the distance not knowing what I was thinking. I just found comfort looking out into the void. Was I thinking about Alice? Yes, some thoughts having clear direction but most not. In the middle of one of my gazes I was met with the question, "So when are you headed to Boston, Don?" I answered almost unable to get this full statement out while my face began to squish, "I'm not, Alice and I broke up... sorry excuse me." I then rushed to the bathroom on the verge of breaking down. It was the first time that day I was almost driven to tears and if I started there I knew I wouldn't be able to stop. I gathered myself and returned stating quickly punctually, "We broke up, I don't want to talk about it right now." Without a word everyone agreed and took tangents to other conversations.
I continued to find myself starring off into the distance more and more losing chunks of conversation trying to stay engaged but mostly with no avail.
Once I got home I received messages from all my friends from dinner with words of encouragement.
I "slept" and now I'm here. Listening to Christmas Lo-Fi and writing this blog.
November 30th, 2025. 9:24AM I shed my first tears.
| MILE 1 | 8:26 | At the start of the race I found myself weaving in and out trying to find an opening to faster pace groups. Mainly to find the 3:30 pace group. During this time I packed up with KRC runners. I also ended up taking a 2 minute break to pee before mile 2. I didn't find the 3:30 pace group but I felt myself at a comfortable pace that wasn't too slow so I held that. ALSO Found Lu running along side me on the sidewalk during this stretch! |
| MILE 2 | 7:43 | |
| MILE 3 | 8:03 | |
| MILE 4 | 7:30 | Got a little excited this mile. 💋 |
| MILE 5 | 7:54 | At the start of mile 5 I saw my split for mile 4 and knew I needed to settle down. During this stretch I was just trying to enjoy the race and running with acquaintances from KRC was nice which helped with my pacing during this time. |
| MILE 6 | 7:54 | |
| MILE 7 | 7:42 | |
| MILE 8 | 7:49 | |
| MILE 9 | 7:57 | |
| MILE 10 | 7:44 | |
| MILE 11 | 7:38 | |
| MILE 12 | 7:41 | THE VASELINE THAT SAVED LIVES. At this point I was feeling the need to reapply some Vaseline and this women had a poster of it so I slapped her poster and applied it immediately. No shame. I hit a second wind. Also popped two Advil. |
| MILE 13 | 7:50 | This is where I caught the 3:30 pace group and it brought me to a crossroads. Do I stick with them? or push it? I felt confortable so I decided to go a little faster. |
| MILE 14 | 7:51 | |
| MILE 15 | 7:23 | Here I feel strong but I still knew the goal was to finish. Once I pass mile 18 I get worried about how down hill it is since from mile 18 - 22 it'll be a there and back meaning what I see at mile marker 18-19 will be the finish of the race. I catch the 3:20 pacer. |
| MILE 16 | 7:41 | |
| MILE 17 | 7:54 | |
| MILE 18 | 7:37 | |
| MILE 19 | 7:47 | |
| MILE 20 | 7:54 | Mile 20 & 21 were the problem. There was a slight incline for these two miles and it was probably the least populated with spectators. I start to really feeling the pain of the end. |
| MILE 21 | 8:22 | |
| MILE 22 | 7:58 | Mile 22 is when we started seeing loads of spectators and finally I saw the Bravo zone with KRC. It was cool seeing the turnout but unfortunately I didn't really know anyone there and I wasn't wearing a KRC singlet to get any big cheers. Once Mile 23 began was the turn around and fortunately it was a subtle downhill to mile 25. I used this to recharge for the finish. |
| MILE 23 | 8:09 | |
| MILE 24 | 8:08 | |
| MILE 25 | 7:46 | For the last two miles I knew if I started walking that would end me so I did everything in my power to keep running. At the start of mile 25 I start getting all of this pain on the outside of my left foot. I feel like it was going to break so I had to change my running form to alleviate the pain. I now believe the problem is peroneal tendonitis. |
| MILE 26 | 7:57 | |
| FINISH | 3:28:24 | I didn't cramp or walk for the entire run but I did almost cramp at the very end because when I saw that finish line I started to try to really push it and my body said "no". I'm so proud of myself for finishing this one. I showed myself how much grit I have and that I can still perform under the circumstances I was in for this race. |