What was the most memorable moment you've experienced during a run, and how did it impact you?

Probably beating my first Olympian.

The elk story reminds me a little of a farm fable, although I suppose these are wild elk.

I see a lot of animals on my daily runs which is nice. I would imagine the elk you saw just wanted to be left alone and for all of the herd to be safe and well, that's why they made that noise. You don't need to be cautious of elk's cries. They're peaceful creatures but even an elk has its breaking point. They can be quite noisy actually.

Animals are wary because they need to be. It's a shame we can't all peacefully co-exist.

Here's to more runs with lovely animals.

Open image

Ran my PR 800 split (1:51) as part of an indoor 4x800 — my last one ever indoors — and my dad flew out at the last minute to watch, and it was on the anniversary of his mom's death.

Nutted. The answer to both.

I still have a mental snapshot of running through the trees in the early morning sun, with the mist and everyone's breath visible at the OSU jamboree (XC race). Silence except for the everyone's feet pounding in a stampede. One of those rare races where you feel great start to finish, I set my 8k PR that day.

I guess the easy answer is my first race. I had never done anything sports related at all, but I trained for, and raced in this road race and I had success. I loved the sport from that point on. I loved the competition, the big crowds, the adulation. I was hooked. But...

I distinctly remember going for a 10M run during my 20's and I had one of those days where you just feel like it's all gas, no brakes. I just felt like I could go and go and go.. and I remember finishing that run thinking, there's no way I can ever give this up. No matter what job or career I my end up in, I NEEED to have time for THIS!

That's held true. When I am away from running/T&F I am usually pretty unhappy, when I am around it, I am at peace.

Literally lived out these Bob Seger lyrics:

Against the wind
We were runnin' against the wind
We were young and strong, we were runnin' against the wind

Had track practice in HS one day when we were running laps around the building. Remnants of a hurricane were passing through so it was much windier than any other practice. Upon rounding one corner of the building, a gust hit me head on and I made no forward progress. Maybe only lasted 1-2 sec but I'll never forget that.

was on a easy run and some guy yelled "fa gg" out of his car cause i was wearing splits.

Got a Forrest blowie and gowie.

Coach had me run anchor on our 4 by 400 team because of an injury. I usually ran the mile and 800 but had pretty good wheels. He said you are anchor because we will get you a 60 yard lead and I want you to go out fast from the start and then hold on. I did and pulled away from the other teams. Except Johnny Lam Jones caught me on the start of the backstretch flew past me like a rocket. This was two weeks before he ran 45.5 anchor leg at Texas State Meet and made up greater than 60 yards on those guys. That summer he ran in the Olympic 4 by 100 for Gold. So glad I could help his career! Ha!

On vacation in Italy, I decided to do a morning trail run. I was slightly lost, the trail was muddy and steep. I slipped and fell backwards, with my elbow landing on a sharp rock, which created a big gash. A piece of flesh was indented like the pop top on a soda can, but the soda leaking out was blood. I took off my shirt to make a tourniquet, and walked (carefully) back about 3 miles to the B&B. Eventually spent 6 or 7 hours in an ER waiting room and got a few stitches. Cost about $100. About a week later we thought it might be infected because my arm was red and swollen all the way up my shoulder. But it turned out fine. No running for the rest of the trip.

I didn't feel that great when I got up in the morning but ran a mountainous 10K anyway. After I crossed the finish line I felt really weird. Not winded or exhausted but like a cold sweat and really anxious. Walked around for 45 minutes but still felt weird. There were some firefighters there for medical so I checked in with them. They felt my pulse (they thought it was OK), and hooked me up with some oxygen. They didn't have an EKG and suggested we call an ambulance. That sounded expensive so I said "no thanks". I still felt weird so after a while I agreed. The ambulance came and when they hooked up the EKG I was off to the ER. My right ventricle was pounding away over 190 BPM and the EKG looked like a row of pine trees. They knocked me out and shocked my heart back into a normal rhythm. I had been in a state of ventricular tachycardia.

My racing days were over. I now have an implanted cardiodefibilator that will shock me if needed. But I do jog now and take a beta blocker.

Lessons: With my insurance, the ambulance call was $100 copay. Pretty cheap considering the alternatives. I also had a habit of using caffeine supplements before races. Respect (don't abuse) your body.

Not reading all that

My most memorable run was getting hit by a car back in 2020. It came out of no where and I have been paralyzed since.

Good God. So sorry to hear that. If that's some joke, it's sick. If true, hard to imagine. All my best.

take care

It was not you that had the problem, it was him!

It's essential for LRCers to provide thoughtful and substantial responses to foster meaningful discussions. When answering questions, aim to write at least two sentences that comprehensively address the topic and offer valuable insights.