During Saturday's NESCAC Championships at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, Conn., hundreds of runners battled strong winds and swirling rain in addition to the 6,000- or 8,000-meter distance.
But the NESCAC runners didn't expect the battle against Mother Nature to continue after the race.
In the wake of the meet, many league runners have contracted a rash, which Conn. College officials believe to be the non-contagious "swimmer's itch." Across the league, runners find themselves covered with bumpy red pustules and poison ivy-like itch associated with the rash, known officially as cercarial dermatitis.
"That's our best estimate as to what it is at this point in time," Ned Bishop, the Conn. College women's coach, said. "We don't have anything else that seems like a stronger possibility."
While coaches and school health officials have been scratching their heads, NESCAC runners have been scratching away at their legs and ankles, dubbing the rash "The NESClap."
"Most of us have it just completely covering our legs, from our upper thighs to our ankles," Tufts senior Peter Goransson said. "My legs have almost no 'bare' spots."
Goransson estimated that over 80 percent of his team had some form of the itching, with varying levels of severity. Bishop estimated that the overall figure is somewhere between 50 and 60 percent.
"There are some schools that I haven't heard from, and it seems to vary quite a bit from one team to another, so I'm just taking a stab at it," Bishop said.
The NESCAC runners have put together a Facebook.com group - "Victims of the NESCAC Rash" - and have posted pictures and advice on how to deal with the rash.
The course at Harkness Memorial State Park sits abreast the Atlantic Ocean and includes a marsh loop, which confines the race to single-file. Saturday's conditions, however, forced Conn. College officials to adjust the course through a newly mowed section of the marsh.
"We had gone through there a couple of times," Bishop said. "I didn't run in the [open] race, but I spent a lot of time down in that area prior to the meet several times that week. I have not had any outbreaks - knock on wood - of that rash."
As the day progressed and the rains continued, the water level in the marsh rose. According to Goransson, at the start of the varsity race at 11:00 a.m., there was a 50-foot stretch of the course in the marsh under water, and the water level was close to two feet. The steady rain worsened conditions for the 1:00 p. m. open race.
"By the time the open race started, the water portion of the marsh loop stretched at least 100 meters straight," said Goransnon, who ran in the open race. "And with the continuing storm conditions and tide coming in, it was knee-to-waist deep during the open race."
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), swimmer's itch is caused by parasitic larvae that live in both freshwater and marine water. Birds infected with the parasite can carry the larvae in their blood, which in turn infect snails. The snails produce a different species of larvae called cercariae, which search for a suitable host. Humans are not suitable hosts, and the larvae die after burrowing into human skin but cause an allergic reaction.
The CDC specifically cautions people against swimming or wading in marshy areas, where snails are commonly found, and cautions that larvae are more prevalent in standing water near shorelines.
The severity of the case is affected by the amount of time spent in the water as well as body parts exposed to the water. Runners who fell in the water have more serious cases, as have runners who competed in the deeper water of the open race.
Bishop noted that seven of his 12 runners that competed in the women's varsity race, which began at 11:45, have the disease, and two of them are suffering from severe cases. There are two other severe cases affecting two girls that competed in the open race.
"We have had a couple of cases that are really quite bad and others who have just a couple of spots that itch a little," Bishop said of his team. "There are other people that have nothing whatsoever."
The itching has caused NESCAC runners the utmost discomfort, although the symptoms are supposed to clear up within a week.
"It seems to be clearing itself up," Ethan Barron, the Tufts men's coach, said. "Swimmer's itch usually clears itself up within seven days, and we're about five days deep right now. A lot of guys are kind of through the worst of it."
The rash is increasingly concerning with the ECAC Championships approaching tomorrow.
"The itching seems to be a factor on people's sleep, and sleep is probably the number one concern that you want to stay focused on during a championship run," Barron said.
Bishop and the rest of NESCAC were blindsided by the outbreak.
"I have never ever heard of even a single person having anything like this occur," Bishop said. "There was no way in advance that anybody could have known that this was going to happen."
Bishop said that he doesn't believe the outbreak will affect Conn. College's relationship with Harkness or its ability to host NESCAC cross country meets. For the past five years, the Camels have hosted a September invitational at the state park without issue.
"To us, we see it as a very unfortunate, but one-time oddball event," Bishop said. "We'd like to understand it better, but given years and years of running out there in normal circumstances, nothing like this has ever occurred. We think then that it must be the product of highly unusual weather we had on Saturday and the water being as high as it was."
"I think it was a just a coincidence of a lot of factors coming together at one time," Barron said. "It was just an unlucky situation for NESCACs. It's something that we'll probably look back on in a few years and find it extremely humorous, but right now those inflicted now probably don't find it too humorous."
