Run, Yoga, Party, Then Sudden Fever.

My Sat started off similar as last week. A long run with running buddies from 8:30AM. I was feeling pretty tired so my goal was only to run 1.5 hours, but we ended up running out quite far and I knew I didn't have enough on my Suica Card to get me back home, so I stuck it out and ended up running for 2.5 hrs! An hour longer then planned and I was starving! My friend gave me one of her gels, but these days I really can't stomach those artificial flavors, so I waited till I got home to eat something. The first thing I did when I got home was raid the fridge. mmmmm.....a huge apple before jumping in the shower never tasted so good!
I was dying to take a nap, but I felt obligated to stay up and prepare for my yoga class. After teaching, Motozo and I rushed home to get dressed for our Bonnenkai.

I can't believe its already this time of year! The time of year when my running club hosts a Year End Party and we all get pissing drunk and dance until mid-night.  For the past 3 years we've had the lovely opportunity to have the party at the British Embassy, thanks to Jaynie and Simon who work there. We order pizzas, Yumiko always makes fabulous salads, and there's plenty of snack foods and of course, LOTS of alcohol.

Today I was particularly excited because I wanted to take lots of photos with the new SLR. I seriously need to branch out of Auto mode, but I wasn't in the mood to fiddle around too much. Party photos are HARD! More times then not, I got people with their eyes half shut, an arm or leg suddenly blocking the view, or to just put it plainly, drunk photos are never too flattering. Humorous though! :-)

 

Half way in the party, we have an award ceremony with prizes for most improved male/female runner and prizes for the people who contribute the most to the club in forms of race organizing, photo taking etc. 

This year, I was so surprised they gave me the Most Improved Female Runner prize. I won a Y1000 Starbucks gift card! You know that's going to be put to good use!

I'm still not sure I deserve this prize literally just over my last 10k results of 40:40, because other then Tokyo Marathon and Namban's informal 10k race, I haven't done any thing else as far as racing goes. This is a very quiet and conservative running year for me, so I almost feel like I'm cheating other more serious runners out there. But I'm still very very happy to have gotten the prize :) Damn, I'm afraid I'm going to have to get a little more serious next year and bang out a couple more races. We'll see we'll see....

Once all the prizes were passed out, we started the music and everyone got their dancing shoes and wigs on.

The dancing did not stop until we got kicked out of the embassy at mid-night. I think half of the club went to karaoke, but I was totally beat and did not feel 100% on the taxi ride home. Motozo even had to help me take off my boots and help me into bed or I probably would have fell asleep right there in our door way.

I woke up Sunday morning feeling horrible! I think I may have over did it yesterday with the long run and late night. I didn't feel like moving a muscle, and spent the entire day curled up on the couch feeling chilled to the bone. It never occurred to me that I may have a fever until the evening, yep, fever alright! Motozo was an absolute saint! He turned the heaters on even though he himself wasn't that cold, he rushed out and got me organic lemons to make me fresh lemonade, and was there on my every whim. I don't know how I would have managed without him! I realize I haven't had a fever in quite a while and the last time just happened to be also during x-mas time. I remember Motozo and I had some holiday party but Motozo ended up going to alone since I was too out of sorts to go. Well, I'm glad the fever decided to make an appearance after the party this time!

Luckily, Monday morning I'm feeling pretty fresh with lots of appetite to make up for the zero appetite I had yesterday.  I'm still going to take it easy and take another day off running, maybe just do some light yoga and nap in the noon. I hope everyone else had a fabulous weekend that did not involve a fever!

Cheers!