So who has found a dead body while out running?

Brad Bennett.

And then he got called a 'jogger' in the newspaper.

Huck Finn wrote:

A buddy and I found a guy who had hung himself on a tree. It was early one Sunday morning at the beginning of a long run.

how far did you go for your long run?

Check.

I think 1996, on a 15 mile run with a small group in Portland, saw a db lying face down at the rivers edge under the east side of the Steele bridge. thrilling...

More importantnly, if you were on a tempo run or hard workout, would you even stop?

In college 3 teammates and I were doing a normal 11 mile loop that led out into the country. About 5 miles into it is this old abandoned barn on the side of the small, one lane road. As we got closer this guy was standing in the doorway on the side of the barn and he yelled, "hey guys, get a load of this", as he was standing there jerking off. We proceeded to drop a 2:10 half mile to get the hell out of there. I never ran so fast while laughing so hard in my life.

Our college was in a town that had a park visited mostly by the gay community. My coach like to take us there for early saturday workouts for repeats on the trails. One morning we were running easy warming up and came upon two guys butt slamming. They didn't even care we were there. One of my buddies puked on the spot.

Came across the following items in 25 years of running:

People having sex in a car.

A retarded dude masturbating on a not so isolated rail trail.

A dude taking a dump in the middle of a trail.

Found 20 bucks once.

Found a two foot long screw driver.

Seen a couple of dogs run over by cars.

Bloody tampons on the sidewalk.

Various types of underwear.

Seen a car speeding by with a flat rear tire with the cops chasing.

Came across a large bear in the woods.

But no dead bodies.

BTW. All of this occurred in New Jersey. Since I moved to North Carolina nothing interesting has occurred while out running.

Pamela Anderson's Left Nipple wrote:

More importantly, if you were on a tempo run or hard workout, would you even stop?

Depends how the workout was going. A dead body would be a great excuse for having to abort a workout that's going badly.

Another point, the difference between "found" and "potentially seen" would change my answer. Running in Minneapolis you regularly (not frequently, but enough that it no longer surprises me) see homeless people sleeping under the bridges near downtown. Some mornings in the winter (3 or 4 the last few years, so a long way from everyday) I've had to wonder myself if the body under the bridge has survived the night, but I've never troubled myself to go check. After all, if I'm wondering whether they've survived, it's cold out and I don't want to stop and lose my accumulated heat.

A few of us were running and had a guy die right in front of us. I tried to recesitate him while another ran for help. To no avail this cardiac surgen died in my arms in the middle of nowhere while his dogs watched. Very disturbing...

CHWest wrote:

found a woman who had killed herself in a park with my team

Your team killed themselves in a park?

Saw a woman get nailed by a cab in a crosswalk on Rock Creek near the Kennedy Center. Don't think it was fatal but it easily could have been. Didn't stick around because several people got out of their cars (including the cab driver) and there was nothing I could do to be useful.

More importantnly, if you were on a tempo run or hard workout, would you even stop?

- at LT pace, yes; but at V02 pace, no

(in fact mulling the "stop-for-dead-body ?" question helps define & control the pace much better than an HRM can)

In Chicago on the Lakefront path near Ohio street on a Saturday morning is busy as hell. Big training groups, bikes and tourist hicks.That section where triathletes swim . Last summer 2 people really stuck out as they crossed the path. It was really hot and the man and woman were dressed up, he had a suit and she had a dress with heals.

The walked to the edge of the water and dumped ashes in the lake and not all of it made it. There was dust in the air and we ran like hell to get away from it. If you run out there you see a lot of stuff, but that was the most bizarre for me.

I found a stolen car. I was running on a trail behind our school and saw a car that smashed into a tree. I ran up to it and saw no one was inside, but there was a gun pushing the accelorator down. i went and told my coach, cops showed up, confirmed it was a stolen car from the night before.

Monty Python's Fool wrote:

härföraren wrote:

I haven´t, but once I was piss drunk in Rome and fell asleep in a shrubbery. When I woke up, there was a dead junkie beside me.

"Bring me a shrubbery. Not to big mind you, about yeah high." - The Knights That Say Neeh

That is "knee".

Running in a state park just before halloween with a college xc team - we found an old man who lived by the park and hunted for gensing & mushrooms etc. He was laying face down and was quite a big man, we thought at first it was a halloween prank but we were about 2 miles from the rangers office and soon figured out he was actually dead. It seemed to take forever to get there and alert them. As soon as I began to describe him the park ranger knew who it was.

I'm in my 29th year of running in a relaively quiet town, but the following have been "witnessed" during my runs:

My college XC team smelled what later turned out to be the body of a missing man that was 10 feet from a country road.

I saw a car pull in front of a Harley that was going 50-55. The guy's head cracked like a melon and bled heavily in the road while I tried to comfort him, but he did not die until several hours later.

I've passed several couples engaging in sex acts.

I saw a deer get hit by a truck and fly about 100 feet through the air. After a couple of seconds it came to its senses and ran away.

During one of my late-night heat-of-the-summer college runs I saw 8-10 police cars swarm around a car driven by a gun dealer. I stopped and watched them pull several dozen guns of all types out of the trunk.

I saw a guy at a stop light beating the daylights out of his wife. His window was down, so I pulled him halfway out and beat him for a little while so as he could share in the hurt. Then I called the police.

I was attacked by dogs from two houses as once. The police and sheriff deputy both told me that, even though I fell in front of a car whose driver was quick enough to keep the wheels from rolling over me, I couldn't press charges because the dogs had not drawn blood. Note to self: get bit!

Recently, while running on a local college campus, I had several students jump out of a van and unload their airsoft guns on me.

A transvestite hooker in Manila once chased me and kept up with me for about a mile, and s/he was wearing high heels! I even upped the pace (sub-6:00) and s/he was still hanging on offering various services. I had no money so s/he said s/he'd take my watch. I only shook him/her off when the guards in the gated village pounced, after initially being shocked into inactivity with the scene.

At the top of a killer hill on my long-route (13 to 24 miles) I pass a cemetery. Does that count? Otherwise, the only dead body I encounter is my own, especially at the top of that g*dd*mn hill!