Wednesday, August 7, 2013

A Different Way to Carry a Camera or Smart Phone

I like to take my smartphone with me when I run. It functions as a camera and music player all in one with the added benefit of a map, gps, and phone if I need it (assuming there is cell service). I have a small Ipod Shuffle, but still find myself carrying the phone mainly for the camera on it. On long runs when I wear a pack it is easy to throw it in a front pocket. On runs where I carry nothing or a hand bottle it normally stays at home, until today.

Last night I found an old soft glass case. The kind with the clip on the side. I remembered reading this article on Anton Krupicka's blog a while ago. It is a FAQ and he states he carries a camera in a soft glass case tucked into his shorts. My phone was a little too wide to fit in the case, so I ripped the seam out and placed some Duct tape in the gap to make it big enough to hold my phone. Today on my 8 mile run I tucked it into my waist band on the side and off I went. It never bothered me and after a while I did not even notice it was there.

My biggest concern with this method is the moisture that builds up in that area, especially in the summer. My phone is in a waterproof case, so this is not an issue for me, but it is something you may want to consider before trying this out. Today's run was hot and humid and hard, so I generated a lot of sweat. At the end my phone and case were dry. The fake leather glass case did a good job keeping moisture away from the phone even through my shorts and shirt were fully soaked.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Wildlife - Bear on Copperhead Row

Over the past few months I  have been training pretty consistently for the Mountain Masochist 50+ mile race. Last year I started this race and DNFd at the midway point. I was very under-trained and went out way too fast. This years race will not be a repeat of that. Since I have been logging a lot of Hot and Humid summer miles I have seen a lot of wildlife. This includes the normal small game like squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, turtles, frogs, toads, birds. Nothing too interesting here. On a few occasions I have seen some picture worthy wildlife and in one case have a good story to go along with it.

The Copperheads

In early June I was out on a long run on the roads. There is an old road near my house that is closed to traffic and used as a running / bike path. I was on one of the seldom used and gated access roads. The days before had some very windy storms so there was a lot of blow down. I was wearing my subscription sun glasses, but they were steamed up so my vision was not perfect. As I ran along the road I got within 5 feet of the largest copperhead I have ever seen in the wild or captivity. I almost ran right over it due to the foggy glasses. Luckily I had my camera with me and snapped this picture. The average length is 2 to 3 feet according to multiple sources. This guy was at least 4 feet long. I wish I would have measured the leaf laying behind him for perspective. He did crawl away slowly once he saw / felt me.

A few weeks ago I was running on some dirt roads near my house and saw this copperhead from a distance. I had to stop and take a picture because he had just caught a rat. I would estimate he was a little over 3.5 feet long. A good size snake, but not nearly as big as the one above. I ran past him (or her) again 20 minutes later and the only part of the rat visible was its hind legs. I really wish I would have taken a second picture.





The Bear


While we were on our summer vacation a bear mauled our wooden swing set. We have a large black bear population where we live, so I was surprised, but it was believable, especially after we saw the teeth marks and black hair on it. So I had bears on my mind a few days later when I was on a long run. The road i was on is closed to traffic (same road as above) and I was on a very isolated part of it. I saw a bear running through the field beside the road. On the other side of the road is a canal, which is the boundary of a swamp. As the bear hit the road it started to jog right at me. It was not running hard, but just casually jogging. I put down my camera when it got 50 yards away and started to blow the whistle on my running pack. The bear did not even look and just kept coming. I think started to do a bear dance, yelling and jumping up and down. I finally got its attention, but it kept coming. I upped the intensity of the bear dance and finally it looked again and decided to jump into the woods. I can only assume it swam the canal and was off into the swamp. The picture was zoomed in pretty far, as I put the camera away at one point to start getting the attention of the bear. I was up wind of it, so it did not smell me. Bears have poor eye sight, so my best bet was yelling at it. In the end that worked well. Below are some pics from the swing set.