How big a bug does it take to bring a runner down? Of course, it’s not so much size as the painfulness of a bug’s bite or sting. I’ve been stung by yellow jackets like the one below many times. While running down a residential street, I watched one leave a tree, fly straight to me and sting me on impact. It must have been flying stinger first. 
I’ve never been sidelined by a bug mid-run, but a runner recently told me how she inhaled a wasp and got stung inside her mouth. It was too painful to continue running.
A long time ago I was running in the woods and brushed a bush that had a wasp nest. I was stung three times on my lower legs. I kept going, but it was so painful, and I swelled up so much that evening that I couldn’t run for a few days.
Here in Spokane, when the warm days and cool nights of early fall arrive, the air fills with millions of small, bluish gnat-like bugs. They’re not harmful, but there are so many that after running you look like the front bumper of a car that’s been on a long trip. Mid-run stops are necessary to wipe their little bodies out of your eyes.
How about you? Got a good story about bugs bothering you while running?
Like I’ve said before…I was out running and dipped in the woods really quick for a potty stop. When I pulled up my shorts I also pulled up a bee into my shorts. I was 7 miles from home, so I flagged down a ride to home. By the time I got home my throat was swelling and my mom panicked and called the Fire Dpt. I was of course ok and haven’t been stung again so I hope I don’t have another reaction. I have more large animal and reptile encounters than a bug 🙂
That has a nightmare quality to it. No one wants something dangerous inside their shorts. Glad you survived.