trail running 47:45 [3] 5.5 mi (8:41 / mi)
Most of the run was focused on deer flies, who seem to have made it through the winter just fine. There are a lot of them all of a sudden, and they seem to be hungry.
Most of the time I was just trying to swat them, but my mind did wander and I fhave several questions that need further research:
1. After deer flies follow you for a while, do they have trouble getting back home (like dogs sometimes do)?
2. Or, is that not a problem, because it's not really the same flies the whole time. Rather, do they have a version of a relay race, each fly with you for a short distance before it returns home, to be replaced continually by new ones?
3. Do the flies sense when I am getting close to home (and therefore the meal is almost over) and increase their biting frequency?
4. They seem to hang out on my upper back, where coincidentally (?) it's harder to swat them. I assume that is because the air currents give them a free ride (the eddy effect). If I ran backwards, would they hang around my chest, where I could swat them at will?
More research is needed. Today's tally -- they got me several times, and I got about a dozen of them. In the long term, that's not a good ratio as their reinforcements seem to be unlimited.