Flashes of Panic

I know, nobody wants to read about this, but I’ve been unable to concentrate on anything for more than five minutes since Monday night due to either medication or annoying itching. I’ve also been unable to get more than two or three hours of sleep at a time. Needless to say, this is affecting my ability to get work done.

The initial theory was that it was “swimmmer’s itch” (I think there’s a joke in there, but I haven’t been able to drag it out yet) due to parasites infecting the ducks who nest near the marsh. Now there’s some suggestion that the water was full of bits of jellyfish pulverized by the storm. One college persists in thinking that it’s poison ivy (it’s not) and is warning everyone to thoroughly wash anything they wore during the race, including shoes. (Maybe I should throw out those spikes.)

The antihistamines aren’t having much effect at all, other than making me loopy and inattentive. (It took a while for me to notice this, since it’s not unusual for me to reach that state without medication.) Hydrocortisone cream hasn’t helped much either; I blob it on, then a few minutes later I’m scratching the same spots. Word is that a lot of college health centers are prescribing/dispensing oral steroids (hydrocortisone is a topical steroid) so there are going to be some runners with something to declare on their drug-testing forms at NCAAs (assuming they test there.)

Running hot water—as hot as I can stand—on my legs feels good in a satisfy-the-itch sort of way. Following that up with cold water subdues the itches for a few hours. The best way I’ve found for getting to sleep is with an ice pack to numb my legs.

If I’d known it was going to be this bad, I would’ve been at Health Services first thing Tuesday morning looking for serious treatment, but I keep thinking, “Tomorrow it’s going to be cleared up anyway, so why bother?”

A pointed out that the whole rash episode is serving as a sort of grand finale to the misery of the entire race day—a sort of up-selling of the whole experience. “You got the mud, the rain, and the wind, right? And then you top it off with a plague on all the runners for a week afterward!”

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