Volo Bog is now on my sh*t list for places to run. Screw you and your pretty views!
Sigh.
Okay, I should actually thank Volo Bog for giving me a trail running experience worse than last Saturday’s.
What could possible be worse than running through this?
That would be running for 3 miles surrounded by this:
Bugs! Not nature (ha ha)!
Tell me, how many bugs do you see?!
Yeah, I had at least five of them buzzing around my face, hitting me in the face, shoulder, chest and hair for the 2.5 miles I stayed on the trails. It was HORRIBLE. And yeah, I had bug spray on.
We had really hot temps yesterday, so I drove to Volo Bog because it’s shaded. And it was right after it rained so that dropped the temp a bit. But… brought all the bugs out? It doesn’t help that it’s a freakin’ BOG. Probably no amount of bug spray could help me. Derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, Kim!
I was miserable the whole time, and escaped the trail at 2.5 miles to finish at 3 on the road, where the bugs followed me. But! I ran fast, for a trail, for me. Ha.
Gah, this makes me REALLY happy we were only dealing with mosquitoes at the muddy race last week!
I woke up today with a super itchy shoulder. Ouch –
I’m sure that’s the first welt of many. Well, at least my running backpack will cover it on my long run today… which will be on PAVED trails, hopefully away from standing water, and not in the deep woods.
Yeah, trail running and I are definitely in a fight.
Dang girl, that’s a heck of a welt! He got you good! I hate being bombarded by bugs on the run. Ever run into a swarm of gnats? UGH. But at least they don’t bite!
Ugh, yes I have! And when you are sweaty they stick all over you. It’s so funny… people seem so eager to run in the warm temps after the winter but one of the main things I am thinking about (besides struggling with hotter runs, ha ha) is all the bugs!
Oh no, I’m so sorry you had such a crappy run, Kim! This is like my worst nightmare. I hope that giant bug bite doesn’t get too itchy, and I absolutely hope you don’t have to run in conditions like that anytime soon. It will be fall soon, right? 🙂
It’s horribly itchy! I am trying so hard not to scratch it, ha ha 🙂
But yeah, only a couple more months of this! 🙂
Yesterday was a terrible day for bugs! I went to the beach and was swatting away flies and mosquitoes the whole time. So maybe less on the bog itself and more on the weather? Sorry this happened to you!
Ugh! How horrible to be doing that at the beach, where you probably went to relax! Ugh ugh ugh 🙁
I got bit by something nasty, large, and yellow/black today on my run. GO AWAY BUGS. Sorry they bothered you too. They suck!!
Ewwwww. Was that just in your hood, too? Or on the DPRT?
Neither! I was on the Singing Hills trail up in Volo to meet with my running club for a group run for the first time in like, forever. It made me remember how much I dislike crushed limestone!
Why don’t you like running on crushed limestone? I really like it, except after it’s rained a ton, or the horses were all over it (which they are often, on the Millennium Trail at Singing Hills). Which club do you run with? Singing Hills is right by my house (I run to there sometimes).
Because I’m not organized enough to have taken your advice and bought a pair of gaiters for my shoes, and the rocks in my shoes left me with a really nasty blister between my toes 🙁 Boo hiss!
Moms Run This Town, McHenry/Lake chapter. I didn’t know Singing Hills was right by your house! For some reason I thought you were much further from me, that was about 20 minutes from my house.
Oh yeah. Those little rocks can be SUPER annoying! That sucks they gave you a blister! Geesh!
Oh cool! Yeah, I just seem really far away. LOL. 🙂
Yuck! I guess anywhere called “bog” should be scratched off your list of trail running possibilities…hope that bite heals up okay – it looks pretty painful.
Definitely should be! Duh, Kim, right?!
I hope it heals, too. I look horrible with all these bites!
The bugs and I are in a huge fight right now too. They are so bad at our house that I can’t even work in the garden for 5 minutes. They also swarm me when I’m walking from my house to the garage. It’s miserable! Even full-chemical bug spray doesn’t completely keep them away. So, I definitely feel your pain! Nothing takes the fun out of a run quite as fast as being eaten alive! I guess it’s too much to ask for a hard freeze to kill them all?
GAH! That IS miserable! You poor thing! And why doesn’t this 1,000,000% (LOL) DEET do anything for us?!?!?!!?!??
I am going to train a bat to fly with me to eat them while I run! Ha!
A bat, that is BRILLIANT!!
That looks like a bad bite 🙁 Dang, those bugs were seriously awful. I would have bailed, too annoying, ain’t nobody got time for that!
Oh geez, that looks awful! I hope that welt has gone down by NOW! (Or maybe it has just gotten small and itchy. I feel like that always happens to me.) C’mon, YOLO bog! What were you thinking with all those bugs?