A.M. Ran 11 laps around Grandview field barefoot. First 5 with Benjamin. He turned around at the tree and finished 2 miles in around 16:20. Jenny was not feeling awake so she ran slow. 2 miles in about 20:30. Julia's foot is still recovering from the cut. 4 more laps at an easy pace, and then the last 2 fast - 2:18 and 2:16 (5:54 pace). During the run on the 9th lap I stepped on a wasp and it stung me.At first I thought it was a thorn, stopped to check, saw no thorn and no blood. Odd, I thought - why did it feel like a thorn. Was able to run at 5:54 pace almost unaffected. First lap felt a bit odd, on the second I got used to it. Then I stopped and noticed the ring toe (for lack of a better name, the one right next to the pinky) was slightly swollen. Then all of a sudden it swelled a lot. I got concerned for a second. What if I had stepped on something deadly? But I was feeling fine, so I figured I'd just drive home and be prepared to pull over if all of a sudden I started feeling bad. Just in case gave Benjamin the cell phone and told him to call 911 if I was acting weird. But those turned out to be overprecautions as this was just a wasp sting, and I probably got only a portion of the poison. The sting lap was done in 2:46 (7:10 pace), so I figure about 0.2 seconds for the ground contact time. A wasp probably needs at least 0.5 seconds to do its job (does anybody know exactly?). So with those assumptions, and also assuming that the venom release happens at a uniform rate, I would have gotten only about 40% of the doze. So by now the swelling is very minimal, almost non-existent. This reminds me that Deena Kastor was once stung by a bee. Except not in the toe, but in the back of her throat. This happened during the Worlds Cross Country Championship in 2000 in Porgtugal in the first 100 meters of the race. She spat out the bee and kept on running. As the race progressed her throat began to close. She passed out, then got up and finished the race in 12th place. P.M. Made the magic drink for Top of Utah. Recipe: 1.5 liters of water, 2 table spoons of gotu kola powder (gotu kola is a native Sri-Lankan herb and has nothing to do with colas), 2 table spoons of hawthorn berry powder. Bring it to a boil and let it cool off. Then mix with 12 table spoons of honey and 1 tea spoon of sea salt. Poor in three 0.5 liter bottles. Serve the first at mile 10, the second at 15, and the third at 20.
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