The Adventure Racing nationals were held in Tampa, Florida a few weeks ago and
some of the racers have gotten really sick; most agree that something in the Florida swamps is to blame and there's a
message board conversation going on about it, if you're curious, but let me offer the cliff notes:
- A handful of racers seem to be fairly ill, with fevers and rashes but nothing respiratory
- Nobody is on their death bed or anything, just a lot of serious
concern for their health and a hospitalization or two; some racers have been sick for 6 days or
longer
- Lots of tests for scarey jungle things like Denge Fever, West Nile Virus, Leptospirosis
- Intense antibiotic treatments seem to be working, with doctors
working under the assumption that it is Leptospirosis but nothing is
certain at the moment
There's also some dialogue about wearing long pants vs shorts in
the swamps -- the theory being that viruses and bacteria can infect
you more easily when you're wearing shorts (and have open cuts and
scratches from bushwhacking). The concensus seems to be to
wear long pants.
I spent several years in the Tampa area and can vouch for how the
humid climate is fertile terriritory for all kinds of things. We
raced through the same area as the nationals this past April at
the Talon Adventure Race
(we finished 3rd for coed -- and would've done better if we had known
we were near a podium finish with 3 hours of racing left -- but that's
another story); I drank a good bit of swamp water during the trek and
canoe legs and got cut up with ferns, grasses, even a barbed wire fence
or two. Suffice it to say that if I race in Florida again, it
will be in long pants.