What is the strangest and/or stupidest thing you've ever done on a run with your team?

One time our varsity group took a break in the winter to play on a frozen lake. Two guys fell through the ice and died.

I'll try to add some humor to the thread after that buzzkill.

Our team would often go on long runs on Forbidden Drive in Fairmount Park. About a half mile into the trail, you run across a semi-busy road. All automobiles are required to yield to runners and horses crossing the road.

One morning as we neared the intersection, another XC team stopped us and proposed we combine teams to form a giant 30-40 person single-file line. We then proceeded to cross the road in a slow motion walk, as if we were all 90 years old. Maybe this story doesn't come across as very funny reading... but it was ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS at the time. From the first guy to the last, it probably took about ten minutes for us all to cross the road. Cars were honking, people were freaking out, but no one was about to run over a bunch of high school kids. They had to sit there and take it while we all laughed like the b@stards we were.

During the summer on that same trail, we would often stop our runs half-way to go cliff jumping at Devil's Pool. If only we knew then how nasty that water is/was...

When I was a senior in high school me and a few people hid out once the run started, hopped in my car, and drove past the team while one of the runners stuck his head out the window and yelled "F**k you motherf***ers!" and flicking off the entire team. We then went to a neighborhood pool, hopped the fence and swam for a little to give us the appearance that we had been out running. Hopped back in the car and drove to the school and jogged for five minutes before meeting back up w/ the team. We got caught and suspended, but it was worth it.

Another time a few teammates and I were out on a run and stopped while one of the runners took a dump in a porter potty. We then proceeded to pelt rocks at the porter potty, and tried to push it over. He came screaming out of the potty without pants on and waited until we had cleared away before he reentered and finished his business.

I didn't run up to my potential in high school, but I made sure to have fun with my teammates!

on the way home for thanksgiving break, my friend and i needed to get our run in for the day. we stopped at what seemed like a cool park/ lake area. it was about 4pm or so, and getting dark. we figured we'd run around the lake (what we assumed was 3-4 miles). it ended up being a lot longer, and since it was really dark and tough terrain, we didn't want to turn around, so we swam about 10 minutes across the lake to get back to the car--shoes and all--in november! it was cold. we had 1 small hand towel in the car, and then drove another 5 hours home.

once when i was in grad school, i went for a run leaving from my apartment into the hills near my house. i hopped a fence into some private property that has a ton of acreage. i go up this steep hill, take a turn, and am faced with a herd of cattle running down this trail. i jumped into a tree and climbed it, and stayed there until the cows went down the hill. i turned around, and went back to my apartment and had some cereal. all that before student teaching one morning!

would you have liked it if they had done that to you? treat others as you would like to be treated, asshole.

My sophomore year in high school, some of my cross country teammates (mostly seniors) did not take the season seriously. Twice a week we would go on an eight mile run that would pass an apple orchard at the 1.5 mile mark (it was out and back.) Half the team would stop, eat apples, throw them at each other, climb trees and sit around until we returned on the way back and follow us back to school. A couple of seniors threatened us if we told the coach we would get beaten up. Someone did tell the coach, and he ended up getting assaulted and going to the hospital with a broken nose and a concussion. All sophomores were hazed. On one run we found a cat as we crossed a bridge that was about 75 feet above a river. A senior forced a sophomore to grab the cat by the tail and drop it into the river. He did and got pretty scratched up as he held the cat over the river. I was about the only runner that was serious and was top man, but our team finished second to last at district. I transfered to a different school the next year and qualified for state the next two years.

ghost of MacTarnahan wrote:

On one run we found a cat as we crossed a bridge that was about 75 feet above a river. A senior forced a sophomore to grab the cat by the tail and drop it into the river. He did and got pretty scratched up as he held the cat over the river.

You wonder how people do things like The Holocaust and then you read this kind of a thing and it all makes sense. I recently read The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín and this kind of behavior runs throughout the entire novella. It really is scary.

Is Devil's Pool really that gross? It feeds into the Wissahickon, so you shouldn't get too much nasty stuff. I don't know where its water comes from though.

Adding my own story: One time in high school we were screwing around by a river and decided to build a raft and float down to the Delaware River. It took us like half an hour to build this thing out of trash, and at the end 2 guys rode it for about 100 feet before getting stuck.

Funny how I can think of hundreds of weird high school runs, but barely any from college.

freakin' douchebag.

I wasn't on my college team for this one, but i heard about it when I joined.

One day the team was going to go out for an 8 mile run. Before hitting some trails, the run went past a strip mall. The run would then end coming back the same way. One day a kid on the team decided to get an haircut at the place in the strip mall while the rest of the team went for the run... apparently coach noticed and wanted to know why his hair was so much shorter than it had been. To this day, the run is now called "haircutters."

We once led our entire boys team on a run through the local mall from one end to the other. The mall is rarely busy, but it was still a pretty odd thing to do.

RockofGibralter wrote:

No one wanted to take it back because we were afraid we would get caught

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So we, well just the senior, ruined some kids childhood.

Actually, I'm pretty sure it was everyone on your team's fault, everyone who was there at least. You guys were too afraid to take it back. If you had stepped up and taken the bike back, with a perfectly reasonable explanation (your d-bag teammate stole it), the kid's childhood would've been untouched.

I college about a week after the indoor season ended we'd go out for an easy run, 5-6 miles, go straight to the sanctioned college bar, and proceed to drink pitchers of beer. We'd play quarters, beer roulette, and other games and act pretty stupid. Then we'd traipse through the library or other buildings before finally heading to the showers and dinner. Those were early nights because no one felt like going out after all that nonsense.

After reading all this stuff, I now understand why this nation is so screwed up!

The worst we ever did was to do a fartlek through the mall.

At UMass back in the day we had Derderian's loop, a 10+ miler in the woods.

We'd hit Puffer's pond at the 9 mile mark. In September it's hot. We'd run the trail 'round the pond, culminating with running right off the cliff without breaking stride, about 35 feet to the water.

I'd go feet first. Mike Quinn, 16th NCAA XC in '77, would dive in head first. Ballsy guy, he was, fearless.

Back several years ago I was running with two others towards a park on hilly road. As we were running facing traffic we hear a motorcycle behind us. He must have been trying to impress the girl behind us. He swerved just in front of us and than kept going. About two miles later we were cutting thru the parking lot to head back down the hill and we saw the motorcycle parked in an isolated area. Folded neatly on the bike was the clothes of the biker and his girl. They were about fifty feet away (getting busy) so we took all of the clothes and ran away with them. About a half mile later we threw them over a cliff. Never knew how they got home, but we did not run that route for almost a year.

former runner wrote:

Back several years ago I was running with two others towards a park on hilly road. As we were running facing traffic we hear a motorcycle behind us. He must have been trying to impress the girl behind us. He swerved just in front of us and than kept going. About two miles later we were cutting thru the parking lot to head back down the hill and we saw the motorcycle parked in an isolated area. Folded neatly on the bike was the clothes of the biker and his girl. They were about fifty feet away (getting busy) so we took all of the clothes and ran away with them. About a half mile later we threw them over a cliff. Never knew how they got home, but we did not run that route for almost a year.

Great story! I think the lesson is that chicks dig dudes on motorcycles who show off in front of scrawny, chicken-legged distance runners?

I can remember back in middle school/ high school the x-country team hunting down a deer, killing it, placing its head on a stick and chasing the girls xc team with it. The police got involved an a lot of the xc members go in deep trouble, another time we told are coach we where going to Dunkin donuts to grab coffee and hot choclate and we came back with 2 donut' boxes one had the real donuts in it the other had a squirell in it. And we placed both boxes on the ground and sat behind a tree waiting for some one to open the wrong box, we waited and waited and finally some one did and it scared the crap out of the, def have a lot more stories then those to share on request.

Schloppy - No Bridges