In this diary‑style vlog, the creator recounts the 22nd day of a 28‑day marathon‑training series. A rainy Monday forces a treadmill run at the gym, where he completes four miles despite initial dread. The day quickly spirals as persistent internet service problems dominate his thoughts: a flaky technician, an aging provider infrastructure, and a frustrating switch to AT&T that feels opaque and overpriced. He reflects on broader societal pressures that drive low‑price internet plans and the resulting service degradation. Amid the tech woes, he celebrates acquiring a vintage typewriter, describing its smell and nostalgic appeal. He also mentions cooking a quick quiche for dinner. Throughout, he acknowledges losing emotional control, letting stress dictate his day, and vows to learn from the experience so it doesn’t affect his upcoming 26‑mile race. The vlog ends with a resolve to improve stress management and a reminder that the race is five days away.
Chapters
Why do you have to wake me up so early? So as fate would have it, the last Monday of the week before the— of the month before we go to the Marathon, and sure enough, we've got rain. I hate to go to the club and run on the treadmill. I hate the treadmill. I'm just so excited, I can't hide it. It's raining, so off to the club we go. Wrapping up our workout at the club. Got our 4 miles in. Wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it would be. I guess that's because I've raised my mileage this past couple of weeks, and so I'm used to going 5 or 6 instead of— whoa, that was close— instead of 4. No sunrise to look at today, but a big day nonetheless. Starting about an hour and 15 minutes late today. It's been a, been a frustrating morning. I've, uh, after getting my run done and getting done at the club, and of course had to run on the treadmill, which I hate, but it wasn't too bad. Now getting back to the house and getting ready and everything Since then, I've just kind of had a couple of things that have really tried to get in my way. The internet thing is just, you know, taking on a life of its own. It's just, you know, they don't understand. I mean, they're just like utility, and they— I guess they don't think of themselves that way, although they sure do charge as if they are, probably more than if they are. But, um, you know, I guess that's just like anything else. You know, we expect things to work, and when they don't, it's extremely frustrating. But then You know, they don't take good notes and they don't know what one person said to the other. I mean, they must be using a 286 computer over there in that office trying to keep track of whatever's going on because they're not keeping track of anything. But they promised me they're gonna have somebody out today. Yeah, between 11 and 2. Yeah, I could land a 747 in New York between 11 and 2 at this point. But, um, anyway, well, hopefully we're gonna, uh, get— shake all of this off and just focus on having a good day. But, um, it's hard when you got things going wrong, but we're not gonna let things keep going wrong. I hate negative trends. I'm gonna fight this one tooth and nail. I don't understand. I think I speak plain English. I tell somebody I'm gonna do something, I do what I say I'm gonna do, and they're not there for it. I don't get it. It doesn't make any sense. I don't think I'm inarticulate. I guess I just need to figure out a way to communicate better. So I'm gonna help you through this because here's the deal, all right? I'm kind of stressed. Yeah, I understand, but the truth is this: we know better. And we do it every freaking time. Well, the thing is— We need to learn our lesson this time. We know, we've been there, done that, know what he looks like. That's right. That's all I'm saying. And so we need to stop. We need to stop it. And we need to look at this situation as, "Hooray! We got a reminder call to get back on track and stay in control." The magic internet fairies swear this will solve our problem. I doubt it. Here we go with our new magic box. It's gonna solve all our worries and woes. Somehow I doubt it. You wanna do it? Sure, make it happen, Captain. The magic has started. It's gonna take a long time, so— Really? Yeah, it's gonna take a long time. Fine. I've made the mistake of allowing a problem to just dominate my day. Just dominate my day. This internet thing has taken on a life of its own. I've had just, you know, a technician out who didn't care. I did get one nice lady on the phone who really did seem to care, but the solution was to go and put it, you know, get a new router. And so I went and got a new router, and that didn't solve my problem either. And I think it's probably got a lot to do with the fact that the infrastructure from this internet service provider that I've got is probably older than Methuselah, and it's, you know, just, it's just not up to par anymore. So then I decide, you know what, I'm just gonna switch providers, screw them. So I go online and sign up with AT&T, and that was like a joke. I tried to ask a question, you can't ask any questions until you enter your credit card information, for God's sakes. I mean, I don't understand, everybody makes everything very, very difficult. And I guess really the problem is this: We have as a society demanded lower and lower prices, and I know it doesn't seem like, you know, $99 a month is low for internet service, but compared to the infrastructure investment and all of that, I guess it probably is. I don't know. But we've demanded such low prices that we have absolutely no room left for service. The artist has gotten something mom brought back from the getting place. I've always wanted a typewriter. I mean, ever since I started doing photos, since stuff, and I've always wanted a typewriter. It's kind of one of those artistic things, and I got one. What the most intriguing thing— come here— is it says Inglewood, Florida. Isn't that funny? What is this? Bennett Stationers, and then Hamilton's Office Supplies, Inglewood, Florida. It smells old, I'll tell you that much. It definitely smells old. What do you guys think? It's awesome. I love using old tech sometimes. I love it. It's mine now. So it's a Monday evening, day 22 of 28 days, and I'm having to do it underneath the COVID of the porch because it's raining this evening. It's rained all day today off and on. And today was probably the worst day I've had in the entire period so far of the 28 days. I just let things get away from me. I didn't control my emotions. I didn't control my anger, and, um, and I paid the price for it. I let things get away from me. So today was mostly occupied by trying to solve problems that really I just let get bigger than they really were. The internet problem just continues to be a problem. I've exacerbated it by now I'm going to have two internet providers if I'm not careful, and really neither one of them are the ones I want, but I don't know what else to do. So I'll see who races to the finish. But I just let that, you know, occupy my whole day, and because of that I lost some time. I didn't get some things done, and I took a— well, it started out as a very good day overcoming the adversity of rain and going to the club and running on the treadmill and just let it get away from me. So I'm gonna learn from that today. I'm gonna learn from that and I'm gonna use it because I know that in a 26-mile run, you know, I'm gonna probably have some times where I'm not gonna feel it and I'm gonna remember that I can't let it get a hold of me. I can't let it dominate my thoughts. So tomorrow I'm gonna hope that I can wake up refreshed and with a new idea. I'll tell you, the other thing is this stress thing, it'll wear you out. I am exhausted this evening. It's not even 9 o'clock yet. And I'm just really tired. I didn't cook that— and the cooking tonight was easy. I made a quiche and it didn't take long to do. I'm just whipped from just all the stress and anxiety that I allowed to just become generated in my life today. So I'm gonna learn from that. I'm gonna be better tomorrow. So that'll wrap it up for day 22 of 28 days. Tomorrow is 5 days till race day.
