Recovery - Day Number 1

4 October - Woke up in pretty bad condition - my legs were aching and I had a bit of a rash from my running shorts and was still pretty annoyed from yesterday's events. One thing I forgot to do before the run was trim by toenails and the tips of my toes were very bruised and a bit bloody - everything will heal in good time though. Small thing I didn't mention in yesterday's commiseration was a great thing that the locals did with cheering people on - some of thm were carrying the registration list and as runners approached them they looked up our numbers and then cheered us on by name - I did a bit of rubbernecking as I heard people yelling out 'Go Sax, Go!' (in Slovak so I presume it was 'go', maybe they were shouting 'Faint Sax, Faint!'), and there were also the local drunkards giving people slurps of their beer as they ran past (maybe if i'd indulged I wouldn't have had the same result) ...
Had to have a pretty quiet day so me and Irina headed out to a few of the shopping malls so that I could take advantage of the all-powerful Australian dollar's buying power and I got a few small things (i don't know if i'm going to be able to fit everything into my bag with all the bits and pieces i've accumulated from the family but hopefully I won't be leaving anything behind).
Got a call and email from the insurance company regarding my medical claim which I couldn't do - the cost of the ambulance, ECG and other tests totalled up to 350 SK or around about $AU15 (good place to collapse during a marathon, I suppose) - which is far less than the excess I would have had to pay.
Later on we went on a small tour around town and up a small mountain where the air was clear and the view was of the beautiful local ... Kosice US Steel factory, but it was very nice. Also when we returned to the flat one of Irina's neighbours gave me a suspicious look and asked Irina who I was (younger man perhaps???), Irina told her and she laughed because she knew dad from 36 years ago.
Stano and Natasha dropped around with a video he'd made up of my time here - most of it was from when he'd hidden the camera in a corner and none of knew he was filming but there was also my embarassing performance at the foosball table and, of course, the inevitable footage of the marathon. It shows all of the athletes running through the start, then me at several points during the race (looking okay, as far as I can tell) including the 36k mark where I run off into the distance never to be seen again and then it ends with Slovak Prime Minister Dzurinda crossing the finishing line in triumph (actually very depressing to watch).
Later that night I also met Mrs Zara Djuberova, who's husband was a colleague of dads and she had a photo of a very young Joe Cucvara (age 25) to give me. She was very excitable but didn't speak that much English - but she did make it clear her consternation that I was planning to spend such a long time away from my mother. Irina told me that many of the building's inhabitants were long termers who knew dad when he lived here and all of them were quite excited about my presence there - pity I didn't meet more of them to find out about dad's (presumably) unsavoury past. But then again, they all seem so happy to see me so i presume must have made a pretty good impression on them all prior to '69.