Why I Completely Freaked Out On My Speed Run…

and it had nothing to do with running.

For those of you following along – I got stung by something during my run on Thursday. I figured it was a bee. It hurt at the time and then kinda went away after a while? Maybe I just zoned out.

When I got home and took a shower the place where I was stung on my butt was super pink – but not like anything major. Then, a few hours later it had swelled up and gotten red and hard AND hot. The all the red swollen skin was significantly hotter than the rest of my skin.

But it didn’t really hurt anymore so I just figured ‘meh’.

Then, the next day I woke up and it was a huge red super swollen circle, probably about 5 inches in diameter. What.the.heck.

So I  decided to just walk toward the light and say hi to Jesus.

RIP Monican.

But, I remembered I was supposed to watch the US Women’s Gymnastics Olympic Trials and I already had my plane ticket so I decided to put off my impending doom until Monday. Priorities, right?

That morning I took a picture of my sting mark and sent it to my mom and a few random others. Let’s remember – this was on my butt. But, I really needed to make sure I wasn’t overreacting or underreacting – it’s seriously hard for me to tell since I have a history of morbid hypochondria with a side of ‘being able to run 26 miles at a time in 80 degree weather’ so my pain threshold is confused.

Most of my life is confused, but I digress….

I sent my mom a picture of my butt, got on the plane to San Jose and went on with my life.

Travel time between SoCal and San Jose was a one hour flight and I was there in a breeze. But when I got to the hotel and changed I realized the sting was even BIGGER now. WHAT IS HAPPENING!?!?!

Again, it still didn’t really hurt or itch but it was swelling up more and more and was still red and warm.

I sent my mom an updated picture and she actually said ‘you should have went to the doctor’!

Mind you this is the lady who when I broke my finger in 10th grade told me to ‘walk it off’ and “if you really want to go to the doctor go find your medical card in the house…”. Ha!

The point is, if my mom thinks it’s not actually just in my head than it might actually be something.

Long story short – after showing the pictures to Ben he researched it and said I could be having a slight allergic reaction or it might have been a wasp instead of a bee or something. And for some reason he decided to read to me this thing he found about how bee stings can get worse each time you’re stung and the next time I might go into full on cardiac arrest and die (okay he didn’t say die but did say I might have a worse reaction).

So when I was 1 mile into my speed run yesterday I was starting my first 800 meter when I spotted a few bees flying back and forth in the distance and remembered this is where I got stung before.

I totally freaked out and ran FAST through that area but then could not get my breathing back to normal. I stopped to walk but every time I started to run again I would just go into overdrive and feel like I was hyperventilating or having a panic attack. I could not calm down. I walked and talked to myself to try and relax but it just wasn’t happening.

I walked for half a mile trying to breath normal and calm but could not do it – I felt like I had a weight on my chest and couldn’t keep calm and carry on. I might have been having some sort of freak out (I think that’s the medical term for it).

I decided to just walk home and let this one go. It wasn’t a life or death situation and I wasn’t helping myself by trying to push through.

So yeah, I quit and went home. The End.

Except it’s not completely the end.

It was the end for that day but the next day I busted out 10 miles and felt really great. Boom.

Bad runs happen to everyone. No big.

No one cares if I have a bad run and I still got to see the baby ducks. Love.

But all was not lost that day because I had delicious Pad Thai for dinner. It made me happy.

 

Question: If I die after my next bee sting should I try to have someone pretend to be me and keep RER alive?

Or should I let it die with me? Or should I try to blog from Heaven?

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