Gnat Nasty

***Please be advised that the following blog post includes graphic images that may be disturbing to some readers.***

Gnat Nasty!  The good news... I ran 6 miles today.  I ran 6 miles today over and down hills.  And I didn't want to slit my wrists when I was done.  (I don't mean to joke about such horrible things.)  However, while I successfully ran 6 miles up and down hills.... I ate, snorted, choked, was blinded by, smashed on my face, drowned in my own sweat, you name it..... gnats.  Gross, Gross, Gross.  Don't get me wrong, I can handle gnats.  I'm an outdoorsy girl.  I camp, I hike, I lay in hammocks...  Outside stuff and me, we're cool. 

Masses of Anything and me, not so cool.  Like masses of people, ants, birds... you get the picture.  Things alllll fine in reasonable numbers.  This evening, the gnats were out in *Forces!*  In forces so great that this is what I saw when I looked at my reflection in my car window after the run.....

That's my neck... and those are gnats.  You see.  Please imagine for a moment what my shirt looked like from wiping the gnats from my face throughout my run.  I tried to capture that photo for you as well, unfortunately, my blackberry camera wouldn't capture that lovely sight for you. 

My belly aches when I run.  :(  It ached some while I was running this evening but it Really ached when I sat down to chill for the night.  It felt throw-up bad.  I suppose it's something I ate?  :(  I'm recovering.  From the gnats and the belly aches.  Could be a cause and effect thing going on there....  I did literally almost gag during my run from one or multiple gnats that I caught in my mouth like a frog catching a fly.  Not really, I didn't want the gnats.  Soooo Gross.