Clashes with Nature

I've started fitting in the occasional morning run again as part of an effort up my fresh air intake.  Now, I've run a lot in my life, but this morning I had the most traumatic running experience ever. Ever.

This is the closest picture of worms I could find - you know they're under there, somewhere, lurking...

I was running along nice as you please when I splashed through a tiny puddle {thanks to everyone watering their lawns in the early morning - it hasn't really rained here in months} and felt something wet hit my calf.  "No worries," I thought to myself. "I must have just kicked up some water."  But I looked down to check, and it wasn't water, it was a LONG, WET WORM stuck on my leg.  

Listen, I have no problem with bugs, snakes, etc., but slimy, legless things {e.g., worms, eels} really freak me out.  They are my Kryptonite.  You might like to point out that worms are harmless, but to me, they're so repulsive it hurts.

In the process of frantically trying to separate the worm from my leg, the poor, sticky thing {already quite dead, I'm sure} was flung from one leg to the other, then my arm, then my hands... it was a mess. My iPod went flying and I'm pretty sure I was yelling "ew! ew!" like a three-year old. Suffice it to say that the worm was no longer whole at the end of the ordeal.  Lord only knows how I finished my run without sprinting straight home to wash away the worm goo. 

It's a jungle out there, folks.