Other than thicker socks, the only other item I felt I should have packed for running is a lip balm. My lips felt so dry when I was running although it was still bearable. However, after I reached the hotel and take a good shower, my whole body started to feel very heated up like I was going to have a fever. I guess immune system really got weaker after a long race and I was falling sick. Back at the hotel. I filled the bathtub with tap water so that I can do a ice bath for my legs. The tap water was so chilling that there was no need to get ice to cool the temperature, but I could only put my legs in the cold water for a short while before it was too unbearable. I'm not sure if it helped me in recovery but my legs felt well the next day and I could walk around Nagoya city like a normal tourist. As I was feeling feverish, I decided to go out for dinner earlier so that I can be back for a good sleep sooner. The famous Astuta Horaiken (no. 1 on Tripadvisor) is a good reward for myself after the marathon, so I decided to head there.
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| Long queue for the famous grilled eel rice |
It was still early and only 5.40pm when I reached. Thankfully, the queue was much shorter than the previous day although it still took up the whole stretch outside. I was seated in the restaurant after 40min and it was fast since I was using my phone chatting with friends. The grilled eel rice was served in a traditional wooden tub and I ordered the normal portion even though an upsized one was available.
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| The food was served |
There was several ways of savouring this delicacy, which made it really special. The grilled eel was really nice on its own, but my favourite way of eating is the chazuke style. The instructions for eating this was printed on a card just in front of my seat but I referred to my notes which was taken down during during my research for the trip. The cost of this meal was not cheap (about 40+ SGD) but it was worthwhile since its one of the best thing I get to taste for the trip, the shorter queue also made me very happy.
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| The restaurant from outside |
It was drizzling when I left Matsuzakaya, I couldnt wait to get into my warm bed and have my head on the comfortable pillow for a good recovery sleep. I was soon asleep even though it was just 8pm, I felt so tired and feverish that I wondered if it was worthwhile making this trip. I was too tired to evaluate if the experience was worth it. I woke up at midnight and it seemed that I had rested enough even though it was just a few hours of sleep. In my mind, I started to go through what had happened earlier in the day and got excited going through my finishers' items. I took pictures of them and posted on my Instagram.
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| My finisher items |
My fever had subsided with enough rest and food and hydration. Ironically, I started to get quite motivated and overwhelmed with a sense of achievement, feeling the runner's high late in the night and hours after the marathon. I started thinking about my next overseas marathon and fell asleep at 4am while reading race review of the Osaka marathon and GCAM.
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| My timing and splits for this run |
As seen from the previous blog post, I did not buy the All Sports package of photographs as I only managed to find 59 pictures when searching for the photos using my bib number. It was not too bad except that some of those pictures were not mine. This happened as I kept my jacket on and zipped up most of the times with my bib pinned inside, therefore my bib number was not really visible. I saw many runners running with jackets around their waist the previous year, so I thought I would take off my jacket eventually. That did not happen as it was cooler later nearer to noon and afternoon as compared to the morning and the temperature was generally lower this year. I did not know that photos were sorted according to bib number and it was important to keep it prominent since we always search photos manually over here.
Made a mental note to keep this in mind when preparing for future races, especially those in Japan.
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