Ticks, horse flies and mosquitos oh my!

It's been a few weeks since I spent any serious time running in the woods, now I know why. I decided to go for a trail run in Grater Woods in Merrimack this morning. It felt like I was running in the Amazon. There was a heavy fog and high humidity (although the temp was only 65-70). I was dripping wet after about 5 minutes of running. Anyways, the plan was to run from the new middle school over into Amherst and explore the trails near Pond Parrish Rd. These trails (and woods) are still new to me so I haven't quite figured out the trails yet so every once in a while I stop to get my bearings and check my GPS watch. The problem is when you stop it's like a mosquito pit crew jumping the wall. They seem to come out of know where. They don't seem to bother me 'while' I'm running but boy, if you stop you risk bleeding out. So, no brainer, I decide to move on and guess my way instead. That's when the next insect assassin decides to attack..the horse fly (or some annoying close relative). These things amaze me. They have this ability to fly in circles around your head...while you're running. Think about it, how the heck do they do this? I'm running at 7mph or so and they're flying around my head. So first they need to fly as fast as me (I know, it's not that fast). But how do they hover AND fly at 7mph? On top of that they seem to know exactly where my hand, hat, water bottle or anything else in my hand seems to be coming from. I don't think I've ever made contact with a horse fly, ever. The other thing is they follow you for MILES. After about 2 miles of running I couldn't take it anymore. Between the horse flies and the rain forest like conditions I just wasn't having any fun so I turned around and headed back to the car. That's when I noticed (felt) the trifecta of this group, the tick, stuck to my lower leg. I HATE ticks. They totally freak me out. I brushed it off but it never really feels like it's gone. I got back to my car soaking wet, did a quick 'tick check' and headed home. While driving home I felt something moving on my leg. Figuring it was sweat rolling down my leg I pretty much ignored it until I finally extended my leg and saw another TICK. Damn little blood suckers. I stopped the car, got out and started brushing everything off like I was on fire. Man, I HATE ticks.
I'll stick to the roads for a while.

June Update

It's been a while since I posted last on the blog. June has been a little hectic and I haven't found the time to post about some of the happenings over the last month or so.
At some point I'll post a bit more info on some of the races but for now here's the summary post:

Volunteered at Pack Monadnock 10-mile Race. Someday I'll actually run this one.

Traveled to Wisconsin for 5 days to run in the Madison-Chicago 200 Mile Relay. My team place 5th overall. Lots of stories from this one.

Had a birthday and thought I was 45 (I'm not, I'm only 44).

Ran in the Mt Washington Road Race. I had an ok time (1:30) but was not satisfied with my result or effort.

Ran in the 1st two Mine Falls 5m Trail races (held every Monday night for about 10 weeks this summer).


In addition I've been working on my relay teams website and hope to have that completed in a few days.