Ragnars and Photo facials

The last two weeks have been nutso.  Let's go even farther and say that the last few months have been crazy all leading up to the last two weeks of chaos.  The last few months I had been training for yet another Ragnar.  My 6th Ragnar.  And my last.  At least for a while.

Colorado- Copper Mountain to Aspen.  It was incredible, beautiful, stunning, gorgeous.  I lucked out and had two 6.5 mile runs during the day and a 3.5 mile run at night.  I had high hopes of getting most of my running in while I breathed in the scenery.  With a van full of lovely women, we had a grand time.  Rivers, lakes, streams, mountains, meadows, sun  rises and sun sets were near perfection.  It was the night time isolation, bear sightings, and coming down with a massive cold during my last run that threw me.

Night running is a funny little game.  I find that if I can find someone who has about the same pace as I do, I will just stick close by so I feel a sense of support in case some crazy goes down.  Which is what happened with the bear.  Megen was part way through her night run and we were not too far from her along a mountain road, while she ran a little way down the mountain out of sight.  I was driving and what turned out to be a cat jumped out from the bushes startling all 5 of us left in the car.  So, when the animal a few yards ahead jumped out and started lumbering across the road we all took a second to register what we were seeing!  Sure enough, it was a good sized black bear.  Megen later told us that she had heard rustling in the bushes, likely in the same place we had seen him running up the mountain.

My last run was mid morning and the weather was perfect.  Running along side a beautiful lush lined river, I was prepared for a sweet spot. Turns out I was unprepared for all of it.  About a half a mile in I realized I was getting a cold, and it was happening fast.  I texted my team to find me along the route and have ibuprofen ready.  Unfortunately, I was too far into my run and had to take a turn off away from the road and along a path by the river.  Which was GORGEOUS.  By then I was two miles in and my face was throbbing.  My teeth hurt, my throat was on fire and raw, and my body was less than happy to be moving at all.  I texted Jason, filled him in and said I was finished.  I couldn't go any further.  I was going to call it.  He responded that he believed in me, that I had trained for this and that he knew I could do it.  I cried and ran, and cried and ran some more.  And I spit.  A lot.  At that point my head was full and mouth continued to fill with junk.  So now I'm crying, spitting and running.  It was then that I looked toward heaven and told Heavenly Father I was so tired and I couldn't finish.  I turned my head and started to spit again when I very clearly heard the Spirit say, "don't spit."  For a split second I questioned the command (response, gift, guidance).  But I didn't spit.  And wouldn't you know it, my raw throat dissipated,  my teeth and jaw stopped throbbing, and I had the ability to breath.  I put my head down and busted out the last 4 miles.  I lasted through the finish line when the last of our people came across, but once I hit the car I was down for the count.  I dragged myself up to the hotel, then back to the car the next morning.  I slept through dinner that last night, and through the 7 hour drive home.  And then I slept for 4 more days when I got home.

Don't spit.  I've thought a lot about that guidance over the last few weeks.  Never would I have come up with that plan on my own, and I still wonder why it worked.  But when the Spirit says not to spit, you don't spit!  What a gift.  It wasn't how I had intended to finish the race,  It wasn't my plan.  It wasn't what I was prepared for.  But it worked.  And when life doesn't go according to my plan, and it isn't what I am prepared for, I will always remember "not to spit."

Last week I finally pulled the trigger and got a photo facial at my local dermatologist's office.  IPL "intense pulsed light" is the proper description.  Thrilled to finally have all of my sun damaged skin removed from my face, I was pretty excited.  Nettie had had the procedure done a few months ago, filled me in on how it was done and the results were gorgeous.

My results are not gorgeous.  They had the light turned up too high and burned the living daylights out of my skin.  I asked about pain levels beforehand and the esthetician assured me it was nothing too painful.  Ooooooh that was not the case.  I teared under my little eyelid tapes, and flinched each time she shot me with light.  It has now been 5 days and I look a lot like a I would imagine a leper would have looked like long ago.  I have blisters and dark patchy burnt skin that is now peeling.  After a lot of research on IPL gone wrong, I made contact with Megen's sister who is an esthetician up north and after seeing my photos, hearing my experience, and consulting with her office- she confirmed that it was a botch job.  I met with the Dr. the following day who started off trying to convince me that this was normal and would heal beautifully.  My ammunition was already loaded... although I spent a good portion of my morning preparing my mind and emotions so that I didn't lose it when I went in.  Thankfully, it all came out without unleashing angrily or emotionally.  I called him on his crap, reminded him that I had already received a second opinion and that I was no fool.  He of course apologized and spent 45 min with me trying to do damage control.  He asked lots of questions aimed  at revealing just how much damage I could do to his reputation, which he mentioned was of utmost importance to him.  What did he want me to do? Crawl in a hole for 2 weeks?  I am a walking billboard of his negligence! His girls didn't even ask for my medical history! I am scheduled to return for a follow up on Tuesday and still am not sure what my game plan is.  He has not offered to refund my $200.  But if I don't heal well, I think I might need to press the matter.

Longwinded.  I know.  It felt long when I was living it all!  Signing off,  here's to hope for healing!