The Ragnar Wasatch Back was a great event, as usual. The start and finished lines were changed this year. While I never really had a problem with the start line, the change at the finish line was 100% better than last year.

I was runner #1, starting in the first group at 5:00AM in Logan. Well, the entire group took a one mile wrong turn up a HUGE hill. Then the people at the beginning realized they were going the wrong way, and turned around…and took the rest of us back on course with them. So instead of 6.9 miles, my guess is most of us went more like 8.2 or 8.4.  This of course, was a big bonding point among all of us who started at 5AM for the rest of the race.

Leg #2 was 8.3 miles, mostly downhill. Due to another course alteration, instead of being on pavement entirely, it started on a dirt trail, crossed a snow field (which was totally fun!) and then joined up to the pavement with the expected 7+ miles downhill. This leg is the reason I wanted to be runner #1. It’s the road from Snowbasin Ski Resort to the highway, and it’s absolutely beautiful.

Leg #3 was from Oakley to Kamas, and included a one mile section that I run at least once a week, if not more. That part was fun, but it was kind of boring otherwise. SR 32 just isn’t that interesting of a road, especially at 3:00AM.

Our team came in just over 32 hours. We had a great time, of course.

Starting Sunday evening (after recovery from the above), I began honey application again. Now that I’ve got it more down, it’s going easier. Still finding master improvement in my lymph nodes, hoping I’ll start see some massive improvement in the flakes on my scalp in the next day or two.

Well, life’s been busy. I’ve been getting ready for the Ragnar Wasatch Back relay, and so for the last two nights, I didn’t have time for honeying my head.

And it’s obvious. The spot on my eyelid was there again today (I did a quick treatment just there this morning), and my head is starting to get worse again. My lymph nodes had started getting smaller (it’s been apparent to me for a while that their swelling is related to the sep. derm), but are now regaining a little bit of size and firmness. So, starting Saturday (after Ragnar), I begin honey treatment again. I wish I could have kept it up this week, but I couldn’t. So, updates will start again over the weekend!

Just another day. Actually, my scalped itched a whole lot today, but I think it’s because my skin was healing.

Application tonight didn’t go so well. I didn’t thin out the honey as much as I have for the past two nights, and it was too sticky. My hair got too firm, too fast and I wasn’t able to get much onto my scalp. But, I did what I could. No massive improvement, but I’ll go again tomorrow.

My eyelid, of course, still looks amazing with no sign of sep. derm.

You’re going to think my blog as been abducted by acai-berry-make-money-while-loosing-weight amber. Seriously.

But this honey is amazing.

So, a recap of washing the honey off. Way easier than expected. I don’t know why, though, because obviously honey comes off anything with warm water.  It comes right out of your hair, even.

After rinsing the honey off, I could still tell where the sep. derm on my eyelid had been. But Chris couldn’t. The scales/flakes were completely gone…after one application! (I’m going to continue treating the spot for the next week, at least). After tonight’s application and rinse, I can hardly feel the sep. derm spot. Crazy.

I could tell last night there was an improvement in my scalp. Tonight, I started at the bottom and treated most of my scalp, since that’s where the sep. derm has been for a few months…pretty much everywhere. Application is still hard, since you can’t look at your own scalp. But I just sectioned my hair and used the honey mixture liberally to try and get it all over, massaging each section for…well, at least a minute in a half. I tried to do more like 2 – 3 minutes, but I got bored.

What surprises me is how honey gets everywhere during this process! Sitting in one spot, I had honey drops everywhere.

Anyway, even just rinsing off after one application on my whole scalp, there’s a marked improvement. The scales and itching aren’t completely gone, but it really is already better.

So, I’m going to talk about something besides running. I know, it probably seems like there’s very little else in my life. But I have a full life, with lots of joy, laughter, trials, and pain.

Trials. About four years ago, I developed a condition on my scalp called sephorrheic dermatitis. It kind of sucks. I’m not exactly the prime candidate for this condition. Along these lines, the traditional shampoos that are supposed to help really haven’t done much for me. I’ve controlled it for most of this time with an over-the-counter soap that I use on both my face and to wash my hair, and it’s been controlled, but never gone away. Well, the soap has gotten nearly impossible to find. So I’ve been rationing myself a little; instead of washing my entire scalp with it, I’ve only been washing my face with it. I’ve gone back to the shampoos that don’t work on my scalp. My scalp has gotten increasingly worse over the last few months.

Well, in further proof that the shampoos just don’t work for me, the condition has, for the first time, showed up on my face. It’s on one of my eyelids. It’s not very pretty, but at least it’s kind of hidden while my eyes are open. And I’m trying to remember that no one but me and Chris know it’s there, and they’re likely not going to notice.

As the modern medicine treatments have done very little for me, I decided to look at other options – of which there are lots, because apparently the modern medical treatments don’t help a lot of people.

This is the most promising I’ve seen - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11485891 That’s right, an actually medical study looking at the effects of applying honey to sephorrheic dermatitis as treatment. And it seems to work!

So over the next few months, I’m going to try to chronicle the honey treatment. If it’s working, if it’s not, what’s hard about it, what’s good…I hope to include it all.

Day 1: I mixed a heaping tablespoon of raw honey with about half a tablespoon of warm water. It basically just thins the honey a little. I started on my eyelid. I found that I actually dipped my finger in the honey and reapplied it three or four times while rubbing it in for about 2 minutes. And it dripped down my nose and felt like I was crying. My eye feels stuck open a little. After just rubbing it in, my eye looks sparkly, but the seb. derm spot looks…better! Already!

I also then tried the most affected (most itchy, most annoying, most painful) spot on my scalp. I didn’t want to do my whole scalp at this time, because I want to see how hard it is to wash it after leaving the honey/water mixture on my hair for 2 – 3 hours. While applying, it actually seems to be easier than I thought it would. I started with a very small area, but when getting more on my fingers, I found myself applying to a bigger area.

So…here goes. And let’s hope the honey helps.

(Full disclosure – I’m also going to change a medication which I just figured out I started at the same time the seb. derm developed. It’s not supposedly a side effect of the medication, but I’m concerned about the correlation between them.)