First day off from school for the summer, and I wasn't the only teacher out enjoying it. Ran into one of the high school P.E. teachers in my district and his wife who were mountain biking on the early fire road portion of my run. Chatted with him for a couple of minutes but the deer flies were menacing so we both quickly moved on.
Climbed the fire road and once I hit the snowmobile trail into thicker tree cover, the deer flies' numbers lessened. A vengeful moment was had when I stopped to walk out on a fallen tree that goes out over a pond (a tradition that is done everytime I run this route), and I killed five deer flies within 10 seconds. Their lifeless bodies dropped into the water where they will no doubt be fish food.
Big climb, big descent, then back to another fireroad where I came across a pickup truck that had just pulled over. This is an experimental forest owned by the state, so only vehicles with special permission are allowed on the fire roads.
The guy from the truck was unloading equipment and I stopped to ask what he was up to. He was a scientist doing a study on ticks and Lyme disease. According to him, ticks over at a nature preserve in the town of Wells (about 45 minutes away and along the coast) have a higher percentage of Lyme disease compared to this area which only has a small percentage, and they were trying to find out why. He also expressed how happy he was to get out of the lab and be outside. Don't blame him. Was glad to learn that the Lyme threat must be considerably less in my area.
Very good run. Felt terrific throughout. Pace was faster than yesterday on similar terrain (about half of the trails were the same) and plus was a mile longer, and was very good for this route. Tomorrow will likely be a mountain bike day in the morning with a shorter run in the afternoon, but we'll see.
Ran 8.0 miles @ 8:40/mile.
Deer flies killed: 7
Technical trails and fire roads.
Very hilly.
Upper 60s, overcast, humid.
Asics Trail Attacks, shorts, short sleeved shirt.
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