Any scary/weird running experiences?

It was a blazing hot day in summer and I'd gone on a run with a friend. We had placed some sports bottles of water under a bush at the halfway point. When we got there, someone had found the bottles. They hadn't drank them. They had opened them and emptied them out on the floor. I looked around as I thought it must've only happened a few minutes prior, but couldn't see anyone around. We got out of there.

This was on a bike but could have been a run I suppose. I was biking up a hill near my house as the sun was setting and the fog was rolling in. The hill was pretty steep so I was really just focusing on getting to the intersection at the top of the hill, and once I made it there I turned right and started rolling home.

By the time I'd gotten to the top of the hill it had gotten significantly darker and as the fog rolled in it became difficult to see anything. I literally could not see the lines on the road. I started to panic because a car coming from behind might not be able to see me (I had a red blinky light but the fog was so thick it might not have helped), and I was on a cliffside road with no shoulder. Panicking, I cycled through the different modes on my front light and found that when the front light was blinking I could see the reflectors in the road flashing when I was maybe 10 feet from them. But when I passed one reflector I couldn't see the next one for a couple seconds until I got closer to it. Sometimes I'd pass a reflector and the next one would show up somewhere weird off to the side, and that would be a sign that I was about to run off the road (it was twisty).

Although I wanted to be cautious about descending, I was still afraid of getting hit from behind. Most of the time the cliff was on the left, so I'd just run into some rocks if I went off to the right, but there was one turn where I knew the cliff was on the right and I took it extra slowly there. So I basically went as fast as I could stand to when I saw the reflectors on the road, and made my way down probably averaging 10mph. I got really lucky and never saw a single car the whole descent.

BYU Alum wrote:

I was running out near Utah Lake in Provo, Utah back in the early 80's by myself. A pickup truck came down the small road in my direction and the passenger opened up the door as if to hit me with it. They did close the door and it prevented me from having to jump in the ditch. I guess that's what happens when a non-LDS BYU student/athlete goes running in the Provo area.

As a libertarian and a centrist, I find it hard to believe that a good, christian, conservative would ever threaten a runner like that. In any case, when I run in urban areas I am always sure to concealed carry my firearm.

HM guy wrote:

It seems like a lot of people are stumbling over dead bodies... obviously there's selection bias given the thread topic, but what are the odds of this happening to a lifelong serious runner at some point? Surely smaller than this thread would imply...

I ran past one in a large park in Madrid (Casa de Campo) about 11 years ago. Police were already there, so I just took a wide berth around them.

I was running through the nearby cemetery and I ran past a car. It's not uncommon to see a car parked in the cemetery, but normally I also see someone standing somewhere in the vicinity looking at a headstone.

In this case there was no one outside of the car. Inside the car, there were two dudes playing with each others' wieners.

This is the scariest one so far, Jesus.

HM guy wrote:

(snip)

5: Age 12, new to running, and decide to run 5 miles for one of the first times ever. Realized I had to sh!t 2 miles in, but back then I had this mentality that if I stopped for ANYTHING unplanned, be it a shoelace, a car, or... this issue, then the run didn't count and I'd be furious with myself for the rest of the day. So I kept on. My God, the last half mile was a race against nature. I couldn't speed up as opening up my stride would release the brown tides, but I couldn't stay the same speed as I might not make it to my porcelain throne. I somehow made it home in time, and that was the end of that mentality. This was the longest-lasting descent of terror I've had on any run.

Ha! Been there. You have to make that terrible calculation; running will get you home sooner, but at the cost of potential lost of sphincter integrity; walking gives you better clench control, but takes longer to get to the potty, and there's always the risk that your guts will decide to take matters into there own hands, a la "Bridesmaids": "IT'S HAPPENING!!!!"

BYU Alum wrote:

I was running out near Utah Lake in Provo, Utah back in the early 80's by myself. A pickup truck came down the small road in my direction and the passenger opened up the door as if to hit me with it. They did close the door and it prevented me from having to jump in the ditch. I guess that's what happens when a non-LDS BYU student/athlete goes running in the Provo area.

Were you running without a shirt and have "I'm not LDS" tattooed on your chest so they would know?

1. Running at night, felt like something was following me. Turned around and a very big white German Shepard was coming up behind me with fangs bared and not making a sound. I called nicely to it and it half circled me with fangs bared not making a sound at about 20ft away and ran off. That dog was evil!

2. Had a big rock land by me as I ran by residential street that all had tall brick walls. Was very close and would have caused damage if it would have hit me in the head.

3. Running by edge of town and went by a home for troubled kids and had a bunch of girls cat calling me.

4. Ran by a goth looking gathering at the edge of town with my doberman. People were not friendly looking and frowned at me as I went through them (they were all looking really weird goth style). I think they would have sacrificed me right there if I would not have had my dog with me (felt that way).

track chick wrote:

It was a blazing hot day in summer and I'd gone on a run with a friend. We had placed some sports bottles of water under a bush at the halfway point. When we got there, someone had found the bottles. They hadn't drank them. They had opened them and emptied them out on the floor. I looked around as I thought it must've only happened a few minutes prior, but couldn't see anyone around. We got out of there.

They could have poured them over their heads to cool off.

Kvothe wrote:

track chick wrote:

It was a blazing hot day in summer and I'd gone on a run with a friend. We had placed some sports bottles of water under a bush at the halfway point. When we got there, someone had found the bottles. They hadn't drank them. They had opened them and emptied them out on the floor. I looked around as I thought it must've only happened a few minutes prior, but couldn't see anyone around. We got out of there.

They could have poured them over their heads to cool off.

stealing someone else's water, even to drink is a huge ashole thing to do though

Random weird experience:

Crazy dude on the sidewalk starts yelling at me while I was stopped waiting at a red light. Said he knew what I'd been saying about him around town, and whether I was ready to fight. WTF? I think I told him I didn't know what he was talking about, and excused myself as I continued on my run.

5. Middle of town, had a poop attack. Had seconds to do something. Random house had a long driveway with bushes on the side of it. Hid in those bushes and took care of business watching cars go by 40 ft away and hoping no one was looking out their front window towards their driveway!

6. Was running by a park on the sidewalk. Road to the left. Grass to the right. It was making a left turn and I run upon a little girl lying face down in the grass not moving. I stopped, and looked around at her head and there was blood coming out of her nose and she isn't moving. I thought I found a dead child (3-4 years old). I looked to see if she was breathing and she was. I reached down and shook her shoulder and she woke up and started crying. She had been asleep! She was able to tell me she was at the park with her siblings so I picker her up and went looking for them. I found them a long ways away playing on some swings. Her siblings were probably only 7 years old or so. I asked where there mother was and they said that they were being baby sat and they lived up the hill by the park. I walked all of them back to the house (they were all way to young to be alone at a park - this was about 1984). I went up to the house and looked through the window by the front door and could see the baby sitter crashed on a couch asleep! I rang the bell and told the baby sitter what had happened and can't really remember what I said to her. I was going to go back and talk to the mom but I think I never made it back there. I should have. That was scary when I thought I found a dead child. I thought someone had thrown her from a car onto the grass. Was while I was in college.

blamb61 wrote:

BYU Alum wrote:I was running out near Utah Lake in Provo, Utah back in the early 80's by myself. A pickup truck came down the small road in my direction and the passenger opened up the door as if to hit me with it. They did close the door and it prevented me from having to jump in the ditch. I guess that's what happens when a non-LDS BYU student/athlete goes running in the Provo area.

Were you running without a shirt and have "I'm not LDS" tattooed on your chest so they would know?

So that was you in the truck. I should have known!

on one of my runs a horde of hot babes attacked me and stripped my clothes off.

I was attending a conference at the Alyeska Resort in Alaska. I decided to go for a trail run. The map showed a loop with a creek crossing with what appeared to be a ski lift chair that you just sat on and pulled yourself across. That looked like fun! I ran for a long time and the trail mostly disappeared because no one had been out it so far that year. I finally noticed a shelter on a small rise... ah! the creek crossing. I ran to it and my jaw dropped. It wasn't a creek. It was a roaring whitewater, snow melt river in a gorge 75 feet deep and 200 feet wide. There was a wire contraption with a wire floor about 6 foot by 8 foot and wire sides about three foot high that would hold maybe 6-8 people who would pull themselves across the gorge with a very thick rope inside this half-cage contraption.

I'd already been running for 90 minutes and I didn't want to turn back so I decided to test the cage. It seemed sturdy, although it obviously hadn't been used at all so far that summer. Looking down through the wire floor I could see the whitewater below. I sat for a while to work up my courage and started across. About ten feet out, the door to the cage swung open! I was standing right beside it. There was nothing holding me in the cage except my grip on the rope so I kept pulling. Eventually, I made it halfway across and discovered I was in real trouble.

I'd been steadily going downhill due to the sag in the rope. Now, halfway across, I had to pull the cage uphill to the other side. With 3-4 guys, it would have been easy, but it was just me to pull the entire cage. In less than a minute, I was sweating so hard I could barely see. I knew that if I lost momentum, I would just roll back down to the middle of the gorge. No one knew where I was and I was miles from the resort. I just kept putting one hand in front of the other. As I got closer to the bank, the grade became steeper, but I barely noticed. Pull. Reach. Pull. Don't lose momentum!

I finally reached the other side. I whooped for joy and sat for 10 minutes to contemplate the stupidity of what I had just done.

Good God - I guess that's one way to get some cross training in!

I know this is an old thread, but it's my favorite one on LRC and I like to bump it every now and then for new stories.

This sort of story why I am pro-2A and always concealed carry when I run! Keep these stories coming! I will always be prepared to protect my family from thugs roaming the trail!