Humidity or Deer Flies
I thought getting out the door was the hard part.
The other day I went for a trail run near my house. I checked the thermometer before I left. It read a pleasant 72 degrees. As I started my run, I quickly realized that it may have been a pleasant 72 out, but the humidity was somewhere around 113%. I was drenched with sweat in about 5 steps. I should have just taken a shower with my running clothes on before I headed out.
The upshot of this was a grouchy start to my run, but I soon realized it was part of the deal today. Oh well. I can deal with it.
About 5 minutes into my run the buzzing began. I had discovered a new form of torture: deer flies. After about 10 minutes, I was ready to give the secret codes to the enemy. Every few seconds I'd get a loud buzzing and then a fly would crash into my head. One snuck up on me, landed on my arm and bit me. Those bites hurt. I missed him, but I managed to take care of two others on my run.
Needless to say, it wasn't the best run of the summer. But when it was all said and done, I felt like i had accomplished something. Usually, getting out the door is the hardest part for me. On this day, I had a few other obstacles to deal with. I guess it's not all rainbows and candy after all. At least it gave me good blog fodder...
- Ryan
Comments
Re: Humidity or Deer Flies
by Sparkplug
on Jul 20th 2007, 4:20 pm
No deer flies for me this morning! Instead I got drenched as the rain poured down on me while I ran. It may not be all rainbows and candy, but at least we can feel tough for running through humidity, deer flies and rain :-)
Stopping off places
by Bette
on Jul 21st 2007, 3:02 pm
My girlfriend and I plan on going to Mt. Washington tomorrow. We want to disperse her daughters ashes from the mountain. First, is this allowed? Second, once you start driving up the mountain, is there anyplace to pull off,or do you have to go all the way to the top?
Re: Humidity or Deer Flies
by Howie
on Jul 21st 2007, 9:33 pm
Bette, yes this is allowed. There are numerous places to pull off to the side of the road once you're underway. I hope you have a peaceful day with the weather you're hoping for.
Re: Humidity or Deer Flies
by Ed's Buddy
on Jul 23rd 2007, 11:21 am
Ryan, don't run at home in 72 degrees and high humidity. Run at Great Glen in the rain. No deer flies, no black flies, no horse flies. Maybe a bear or a moose, but no flies. Hey, did you send a deer fly to Conway? One followed me all the way across Crystal Lake this morning when I was trying to swim. Man, that bug bugged me. I practically drowned.
Re: Humidity or Deer Flies
by Ryan
on Jul 25th 2007, 5:20 pm
Ros...I mean, Ed's Buddy, I did tell the deer fly to go somewhere, but it wasn't Conway Lake.
Re: Humidity or Deer Flies
by elk
on Jul 28th 2007, 4:08 pm
Believe it or not, I miss humidity and deer flies, okay, NOT deer flies....Sue, remember trying to go horse backriding with deer flies buzzing us?
Anytime, you guys need perfect weather 24/7/365, c'mon out to So Cal. But you'll get homesick!
Re: Humidity or Deer Flies
by Sue W
on Jul 31st 2007, 8:16 pm
ELK,
yes, I remember deer flies chasing and circling our heads as we rode ponies on trails in Arlington, VT. Deer flies often seem to buzz around one's head like their in some kind of pesky orbit. I have two strategies. 1.) hold my hand out to the side of my head and hope I catch one of the circling orbiters. 2.) Hold one fist above my head and hope they choose to circle that instead. Sometimes they do. I'd rather have them circling my fist in the air than my head--more than half their annoyance comes from their pesky buzzing. They are amazingly persistant. Perhaps deer fly season is time to switch to biking--I think they have a much tougher time keeping up, unless one is on a very technical (read slow riding) section. Running with one's fist in the air gets old fast!
Crazy Moose Draw was named when John Frado, the trail designer, had a very close encounter with a very mad moose.
