I was going for a walk/run today at my usual time and despite it being a reported 28ºC, it actually didn’t feel that warm, so I was looking forward to a pleasant outing to start my week’s exercise.
Then it happened, so swiftly and unexpectedly I’m still not sure what happened.
I was walking on the trail between the two staircases separating Hume Park and Lower Hume Park. It’s fairly short, so it only takes maybe five or six seconds to traverse. Midway through I felt a prick on my right leg and my first thought was an accursed mosquito had chosen to dine on me. I swatted at whatever it was and that’s when I noticed two things:
- Whatever had done this and was flying off into the brush was BIG. I couldn’t tell what it was except it looked to be about two inches long.
- The pain suddenly hit in a way that was also BIG. Whatever the critter was, it packed a wallop.
I briefly entertained the idea of ignoring the bite/sting and press on, but the jolts of pain convinced me otherwise. I didn’t want to aggravate the spread of venom through vigorous activity, so came home with a little under 2 km clocked. Once home I wiped the wound with a cold cloth then put some Polysporin on it.
It doesn’t seem to be hurting now, but I’m also not moving my leg as I type this.
This is what it looked like after I applied the cream:
I can now add bugs to my list of The best worst running conditions.
