Oh. That’s GROSS.

So you may or may not know that I got sunburnt last Sunday - I have a proper Cyclist’s Suntan coming on in fact. One that ends five inches above my knees, leaves the front of my calves lilly-white, and my shoulders likewise.

Anyway, in addition to my legs, I got my arms burnt. I thought they were OK-ish though, and with the addition of lots of Sudacrem seemed disinclined to peel.

WELL . . .

Prior to running home today, I had a look at the sky - a few clouds, but basically sunny. So with a long run ahead of me, and not wanting to repeat last Sunday’s mistake, I slapped on some sunblock.

I could tell that something was unusual straight away - my arms felt suddenly freshly burnt again, though this didn’t last.

A few miles into the run, I glanced down at my arms - just above the elbow the skin seemed to have gone all bumpy . . . like the heat rash I used to get as a kid. But different.

I ran my hand lightly over these bumps, and it came away wet . . . .

Closer inspection of the sunburnt skin above my elbow showed that it was covered in tiny, fluid-filled blisters. Ew!

What had happened was that I was going to lose a layer of dead skin to sunburn after all, and the sunblock I’d applied had sealed the sweat pores through this dead layer. So as I ran, the sweat had no-where to go, and pooled under the dead skin in blisters.

I mean really. Yuck. I can’t wait for this Ironman madness to be over, and I can have regular skin complaints like normal people.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/28/2010
• Time: 16:49:50
• Total Time: 3:01:30.00
• Calories: 2540
• Distance: 22.2 miles
• Average Pace: 8:10.46/mile

Filed under: Run

Tags: blisters, gross, skin complaint, Sunburn, sweat, yuck