2008 Indian-Celina Challenge

It’s official, my first DFL. It wasn’t even close, I left all competitors far ahead !! I did accomplish my goal though, which was to finish the marathon, so I am happy about one thing. The combination of high humidity & the hilly course, along with a couple issues did me in.

With a rain storm the night before, everything was wet, but the course did drain well. I felt like being in a moist, dense jungle in the tropics – no wind either. The 2 creeks were up so that insured everyone got their feet wet. The tall grass on top of the 2 dams, which had been bushhogged last week to about a foot high, had been cut down to a few inches with weedeaters since then – the organizers did a super job there. I also thought they did well for a 1^st time event: I could clearly hear all the pre-race instructions, the course was easy to follow, the sports drink at the aid stations was not watered down (& was ice cold), the volunteers were very friendly and there were no sponsor names all over their shirt. The start was 15-20 minutes late however – one thing that I noticed because I had already wished the event would have been scheduled to start an hour earlier anyway (to beat the heat).

After the terrible experience with insects during my training run on the course the Saturday before, I tried out some “waterproof” repellent this time. Actually it was a waterproof sunscreen with a little insect repellent thrown in. The first lap went well as I encountered very few insects – it must’ve been that were so many runners in front keeping them busy &/or well fed. On the 2^nd lap, there were a lot fewer runners & everyone was spread out quite a bit so the insects (mainly deer flies) did swarm. I think the repellent slowed them down though – they seemed not to bite/sting immediately, allowing a chance to swat them. No ticks or chiggers this time.

Below is a pic of a teeny tiny tick from my training run on the course last week that I discovered on my knee after I had already checked myself and had showered – not a deer tick as far as I can tell:

Not sure of my next warm/hot weather attempt. Right now I’m thinking about the 360 Minutes @ Muscatatuck, a special event put on by DINO that’s not too far of a drive from Louisville. It’s in July, a month in which I’ve only raced once ever (a 5k many years ago that I regretted). It’s mainly a relay event, starts very early and has a short loop format – allowing solo runners to easily complete whatever they wish, which suits me.