The Happiest 5k on Earth

Yesterday the masses made a pilgrimage to Langley Park dressed in white and emerged as one big amazing messy rainbow in the first (of what I hope will be many!) Color Run in Perth with proceeds going to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

If you haven't heard of the Color Run, it's loosely based on the Hindu Festival of Colours (Holi) and the 5k fun run has had a massive growth in popularity since its origins in January of 2012. At every kilometre mark a 'colour station' is set up with a different colour and we were pelted with blue, pink, orange and yellow. At the finish line we also collected bags of colour (this time with additional inclusions of lime green, fluoro pink and fluoro purple) to add to the colour spectrum on our clothes and join in on the 'colour bursts' at the mini festival.

I'm loving that we're now getting more of these types of events after the success of the Mud Rush last year. Pretty keen to attempt the Warrior Dash in May. Is that too ambitious given that I leave for a 20-odd hour flight the next day before a 29 day Contiki?

Did you take part in the colour run (Perth or otherwise) and how amazing was it?!

Not cool, Robert Frost!

Sometimes we all need a little pick-me-up. Personally, V-day is looming and I'm feeling a little less perky than usual.

Cue Kid President and his awesome pep talk:

"We can cry about it, or we can dance about it." I'm putting my headphones back on <3

Five Minute Medical: Friction Burns 101

before : having fun

So I went away for the weekend and came back with ruined knees. I hit my left knee on the reef while snorkeling and while riding a body board being towed by a 4WD through shallow water (super safe, I know) I took a spill and got a nasty friction burn from the sand.

after : skinned knee

This post is for people like me who prefer to Google the answer to all their problems instead of seeking out someone who is actually trained in the field. In today's lesson I'm covering the treatment of friction burns (most common tends to be from carpet/rug/grass/astroturf).

When I looked up "how to treat a friction burn" I was met with (what I considered) reasonable advice: keep it clean, put some antiseptic, leave it uncovered and let it dry. The only thing was, 36 hours later my wound would not stop weeping. I took some more advice and put tea tree oil on my battlescar before bed and slept with my leg poking out from under the sheets. In the morning my wound was finally dry! 

So I put a band-aid back on and went about my merry way...

...Until lunch time when I discovered that the band-aid I put on was not absorbent enough to hold all the pus that had again started weeping from my knee. Time to seek out a new bandage and an actual brain.

When I spoke to the pharmacist he gave me a mini human bio lesson in moist healing:

1. Burns/wounds on the knees (and elbows/other areas of the body that move) are best to be kept moist whilst healing [I know this goes against all the times we've been told to give a wound oxygen to help heal and prevent infection]. When a wound dries/scabs over it is not like skin and does not have much/any elasticity, so when you bend the joint, the scab/new skin formed splits/breaks potentially causing further damage and hindering the healing process. Seems legit.

2. Keeping the wound moist while healing (especially with a large wound - mine is approx 3cm in diameter) reduces the severity of scarring because new skin cells grow better/faster in moist conditions. Apparently being shielded by a scab isn't the best environment for skin cell regeneration.

3. Healing time is greatly reduced compared to a wound that is left open to scab over.

And a little advice from me: invest in some good (large and absorbent) dressings that will properly cover your injury so you don't end up with an unexpected mess!

This is my knee tonight, after a body pump class and indoor beach volleyball game, approximately 2 and a half days since the accident.

I've followed the pharmacist's suggestion of vaseline and a non-stick dressing so we'll see how this bad boy fares up over the next week and a bit.

**UPDATE** A week on from the photo above and my knee is looking a heck of a lot better. New skin has grown in and I no longer have to wear a bandage :)

*Disclaimer* I in no way, shape or form claim to be a medical guru - take this advice at your own risk and if shit gets real seek an actual professional.