eaten alive

This may be good or bad, depending on the context. It occurs to me, however, that it’s almost always better to be eaten alive than to be eaten dead. Even so, the context in the case I’m thinking of is still a bad thing, with deerflies being the eaters, and me being the eatee.

Prior to a run on the towpath while back, friend Amy offered her repellant to me, explaining that it wouldn’t harm synthetics. And of course synthetics are all we run in these days. That’s funny, I said, I didn’t know that regular repellant did harm synthetics. Her stuff worked; the bugs stayed away.

Prior to a run on the Lester Rail Trail a week or so ago, I sprayed myself with my regular repellant. The stuff worked; the bugs stayed away. And as far as I could tell, it didn’t harm the synthetic clothes I was wearing. But it did harm my almost new Garmin Forerunner 305 wrist-piece and HRM strap. I noticed after my run that both had a kind of shiny film. I tried to wipe them off, tried harder to wipe them off, tried with several chemicals to wipe them off. The HRM strap now has a permanent sheen to it, with some areas where it looks like the plastic is melted. The wrist-piece also looks like it has areas where the plastic has melted (and this was from the deet, not the other chemicals). And some of the indicator lettering has been almost entirely cleaned off. At least it still functions.

So now I’ve got to watch it with that repellant stuff. Deerflies, however, can drive me completely insane. They did so the other day. I got out early, sans repellant, with the thought that I could get my run completed before they awoke. Since it’s nearly solstice, the sky was beginning to get light as early as 5 to 5:30 am, and I was only a few miles into my 11-mile run at that point in time. And that’s when they hit. I was on my usual semi-rural country roads and they were all over me.

Picture this: a country road, a peaceful summer morning. Off in the distance, a long-distance runner approaches. He seems to fit in just right with the environment; he’s just part of the scene. As he comes closer, however, we notice that this runner is making some wild-looking gestures. As he comes closer still, we can see him waving his arms like a crazy man. He’s even hitting himself on the head.

That was me. That was I. That was the author of this post. I wound up with big welts all over my neck and upper back. The thing is, this was a miserable excuse for a run anyway. It was hot and muggy already, and for whatever reason, the ‘ole legs were not moving as they should’ve.

Today’s long run was much better. I felt better, ran better, and I got out even earlier to beat those doggone flies to the punch. By the time it was getting light, I was done on the country roads and well into the subdivision part of the run.

Altogether today: 20 in 2:37.5.