I'm so glad that Osaka Marathon moved to the last week of November this year instead of the usual October weekend. My hols had just started (this is really just day 0 as we only finished our last meeting earlier today), so I can make it for the marathon!
Ironically, last year I got myself a slot to Osaka marathon through balloting, but I gave it up to go for Hakusan Shirakawa-go Ultra instead. This year I tried balloting for Osaka again but I didnt get a slot. It used to. be really easy for foreigners to get a slot in the past, but this marathon is getting really popular even though this year it's just the 7th edition. Its one of the biggest marathon in the world, boosting 30k people participation I was glad that someone on forum mentioned Crest Travel offering guaranteed slots, so I put myself on the waiting list. I was lucky enough to have some slots opened up in the end and I managed to sign up through the travel agency. The damage of the race registration and 3 nights hotel stay is about $800. It's not too bad for a deal as the hotel is supposed to be a 4 star hotel.
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| The very nice Terminal 4 |
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| Things are automated in this new terminal |
This is my second overseas marathon this year. I went for a second round of Nagoya Women's marathon in march this year, took lots of photo, bought photos from the organiser but got too lazy to blog about it lolz... Anyway, finances are quite tied this year so I travelled to Nagoya on a cheaper flight than SQ. I am taking the same Vietnam airlines again this time and transiting at Ho Chih Min city. In fact, as I'm typing this, I'm sitting at a cafe in front of the boarding gate waiting for my flight to Osaka. Earlier on, I've scanned through all the airlines and this is the cheapest other than MAS and the budget airlines. Anyway, doing this the second time makes the environment familiar enough for me, its just a bit confusing for me right now as Vietnam is one hour behind Singapore and Japan is one hour ahead of Singapore. So hubby P was asking me what time i'll reach Japan and I got a little confused there.
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| A very essential item for all my Japan trips |
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| Mandatory photo after P sent me (look at those eyebags!) |
After Nagoya marathon in March, I got busy with moving to my new home and preparing for the wedding, therefore there was a long hiatus of 4-5 months before I starting running again in late August. In the midst of it, my FR220 also decided to retire so I did not have the motivation to start exercising again until I bought a new Garmin watch, my precious FR935. Although I just wanted to take things easy and enjoy the race, I really hope I can make it to the end point by the cut off time of 7 hour after such a long break and insufficient training. I did several runs more than 10km and one half marathon the past few mths, but the mileage was definitely not as much as my Nagoya Marathon preparation earlier this year. I was also a bit dejected as my Nagoya Marathon race timing was even worse than last year after all that preparation, so I decided to take things easy. Unfortunately, I developed the whole package of flu symptoms this week and was down with sore throat, cough, flu and blocked nose, phlegm etc. After a few days of self medication, things did not improve so I visited the doc yesterday even though I did not need the MC, hopefully I'll recover in time to do a good run this Sunday.
It was a pleasant surprise when I realised that I'm flying out of SG from the new Terminal 4 that just opened recently. It was really spacious, less crowded and a different experience from the other 3 terminals as we can clear immigration using the automatic gates and immediately after that they had the hand carry checks like the other airports (other terminals normally just do it at the gate). There was no queues at all the counters so it was a breeze getting to the boarding gate. On my way there, I saw Paris Baguette so I grab something for dinner before proceeding.
(Have to contine my blog in Osaka later as my laptop is getting low batt :( )
