I had a fun little weekend.  I was asked to work at the Syracuse Half Marathon on Sunday.  It was kind of ironic because I had tried to sign up to run the race, but it had been sold out.  Then two days later, an email arrived in my inbox inviting me to provide physician coverage during the event.  Weird.

The race went off without a hitch.  There was extensive EMS coverage on the course in addition to the little blue tent that we had set up in the exhibit hall where the finish line was.  Other than some sprained ankles and requests for ice packs, my morning was mainly spent getting to know some of the local EMT’s and Paramedics.  It was certainly much different than my usual race experience of essentially living with the runners for a week at a time.  I’m glad that I got to gain additional experience in race medicine and event planning.  Plus, I now have this awesome picture of myself in the blue tent looking very official with my very own walkie-talkie…

On another note, I have submitted my first paper to a peer reviewed journal!  It was the first of my two papers about the ancient Incan remedy, coca.  It was submitted to the Journal of Ethnopharmacology since it very much focuses on coca from an anthropological perspective.  I have no idea how long it will take for the journal to make a decision about acceptance of the article, but hopefully they won’t keep me waiting for too long.  So please wish me luck!