Runner vanished in the Bay area, no trace found. Update. He's been found. RIP: Philip Kreycik.

Just wanted to echo that the media is reporting that he was meeting family in Stockton, so Pleasanton would be on the way from Berkeley. He had run at the park once previously so knew some of the trails. That also might explain why he was running at 11 AM. As another parent of young children, I try to get in runs when I can so if I can tack a run onto another errand (that may be time-dependent such as picking up someone), then I will. Definitely don't have the luxury these days of timing runs for ideal conditions. He also was reported to police as missing very early (I think 2 hours after he said he would return), since he was scheduled to meet family and/or possibly had a work meeting. They're not releasing many details publicly.

It's very strange that he hasn't been found yet in what appears to be a pretty straightforward case of possible heat delirium/injury, so it raises a lot of questions of what could have happened. I knew Phil a little, we road bicycles in the same groups in Cambridge and rode together a couple of times. Nice guy, involved with Harvard Mountaineering Club and Harvard/MIT Cycling teams while in Boston, but no idea of his current life.

Bad Wigins wrote:

GettingFasterDude wrote:

I don’t mean to be gruesome. (cougars)

And I don't mean to offend either, but it would also be a good way to be legally declared dead while slipping away to start a new life. Debts, troubles, lots of possible motives, who knows.

Agreed

Crazy how many people strongly advocate running with a phone.

Running with a phone ruins the experience. Meanwhile, the risk of something going wrong on your run is tiny.

On balance, I'm more than willing to take that risk.

Family and friends often search for any clues they can find when a person goes missing- both on the ground and online. There's some theories on here and some outright mean comments that this persons family and friends are actually likely to see. I get that this is letsrun and we aren't exactly the community to "play nice" but more likely to "cut it to you straight". But we do not know a lot of facts in this case and it might be best to keep in consideration that loved ones are still looking for answers- even in places like this forum. I'm hoping they find him and he's alright.

srsly??? wrote:

Crazy how many people strongly advocate running with a phone.

Running with a phone ruins the experience. Meanwhile, the risk of something going wrong on your run is tiny.

On balance, I'm more than willing to take that risk.

How the feck does it ruin the experience? You can silence the phone and only use it to call in case of an emergency. I put mine in the flipbelt and don't notice it while running.

That's helpful context thanks for sharing. And if he is used to running in Berkeley he may not have realized how much hotter it was in Pleasanton and was not really prepared.

I do, often, so that my family can track me using the iPhone's Find My Phone feature, especially on longer runs. I'm not exactly old, but for their peace of mind, I do it.

Also, in our low-crime small town, a young woman was assaulted less than two weeks ago in a busy park, on a well-trod trail less than a mile from the parking lot. So it's not exactly outrageous that a bunch of women (I assume that's why you used "Karens") would advocate carrying a phone.

A dry 106 as a high is not all that hot for an experienced runner. I currently live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and we've had the entire month of July with highs in the 115-117 range. I find running 6-8 miles around 9-10am when it's 110 out to be much more palatable then when I was running in DC and FL, when temps may have only been 90 but humid. I'd take a dry 110 all day, every day over DC and FL temps. I assume he had shade on his run since he was in a park, which brings that temp down even more.

Also, running with a phone is a must, not for the safety alone, but for the podcast/audio book/music potential. I purposefully get the smallest iphone model possible so that I can run with it in my right hand...barely even notice it.

adad wrote:

On a side note, I don't know how a person can train to be an ultra runner while having a 1 and 3 year old at home. Having two kids at those ages were by far the most challenging of my life, mentally and physically.

I have two kids. Sometimes I find it hard to get away for 90 minutes on a Saturday unless it's at 6am or 9pm because the kids want to play, need help with homework, someone needs a ride, the kids have activities that we need to take them to, etc.

I know an ultrarunner who works full-time, has 4 young kids. He's always out training, doing 2-hour runs in the 5-9PM window, going to multi-day races on his own, while I assume his wife stays home with the kids... aside from the exhaustion of raising kids, I have no idea why you'd want to miss so much of that precious time when they are small.

My wife would throw a fit if I spent so much time out running while she was busting her butt with an infant and multiple toddlers, or if I took multi-day trips and left her alone because "daddy needs to run".

Needless to say, my 2021 goal is to crush my 5k PB.

[quote]RiyadhRunner wrote:

A dry 106 as a high is not all that hot for an experienced runner. I currently live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and we've had the entire month of July with highs in the 115-117 range. I find running 6-8 miles around 9-10am when it's 110 out to be much more palatable then when I was running in DC and FL, when temps may have only been 90 but humid. I'd take a dry 110 all day, every day over DC and FL temps. I assume he had shade on his run since he was in a park, which brings that temp down even more.

/quote]

The point is that you were accustomed and prepared for those temps. If someone usually runs withs temps in the 70s and were not expecting it to be over 100 they might not carry enough fluid or hydrate sufficiently for the conditions.

For those of you saying 100+ degrees isn't that bad for an experienced ultrarunner, you need to bear in mind that he was coming from Berkeley, where the temps have been in the 50s and 60s lately. A few days up into the 70s, but 100+ would be a HUGE difference for him. Add in direct mid-day sunlight- most of those trails look exposed- and those were some brutal conditions for someone who isn't used to them. But yes, 8 miles is not overly ambitious.

Here is some drone footage taken yesterday of the area. I appreciate that the search party has been looking up to 100m off trails, but unless you're checking under every single one of these scrub bushes and trees, it seems to me that it could be very hard to find someone curled up in a fetal position who wandered way off course looking for water/shade/help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMQHGeB6DtY

Let’s look at the two possibilities:

1.) over 300 volunteers searching in a radius that more than covers the area he was in and still not found but he’s out there somewhere

2.) the guy is gone in the wind to a new life in a different state or country.

Seems pretty easy to me. people tend to overlook the obvious I suppose

Stebbins wrote:

Here is some drone footage taken yesterday of the area. I appreciate that the search party has been looking up to 100m off trails, but unless you're checking under every single one of these scrub bushes and trees, it seems to me that it could be very hard to find someone curled up in a fetal position who wandered way off course looking for water/shade/help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMQHGeB6DtY

What is the 'red patch' of stuff in the brush near the bottom of the screen at the 1:30 timestamp?

If I were to bet on it, I'd say a mountain lion got him or any of his remains. They have been seen regularly in Pleasanton Ridge, most recently one was seen by search members this very week.

My bet would be that he took a wrong turn, broke an ankle, bitten by a rattlesnake, or suffered heatstroke and they're looking in the wrong place because he headed either north or more likely west into what is a large unpopulated region in the mountains.

adad wrote:

If I were to bet on it, I'd say a mountain lion got him or any of his remains. They have been seen regularly in Pleasanton Ridge, most recently one was seen by search members this very week.

If that was the case there would still be clothing or body remains. And as someone mentioned cougars are not out hunting in the hottest part of the day when no prey are active.

A rattlesnake bite is more likely but that wouldn't kill a health adult in a short time unless they were already weak from dehydration.

diablo valley wrote:

adad wrote:

If I were to bet on it, I'd say a mountain lion got him or any of his remains. They have been seen regularly in Pleasanton Ridge, most recently one was seen by search members this very week.

If that was the case there would still be clothing or body remains. And as someone mentioned cougars are not out hunting in the hottest part of the day when no prey are active.

A rattlesnake bite is more likely but that wouldn't kill a health adult in a short time unless they were already weak from dehydration.

A rattlesnake bite would leave clothing or body remains as well. My thought was if he passed out from heat stroke, disabled from a rattlesnake bite, etc, a cougar may have disposed of the body enough for these drones not to pick him up.

You need to know what to look for. If you're looking for a person who might have veered off trail you look for recent prints and any broken branches/twigs that would indict someone had recently gone off-trail on a forgotten, over-grown, path. It is rare to see someone going completely off trail. I have built interconnecting paths between trails through dense brush. (You can call them shortcuts; their intent is to give someone a faster out if they have gotten in over their head on a hike.) Anyone who has tried "trail-blazing" through California shrubs knows that you need tools (machete, pruners, shovel, pick, ax, saw). Trying braking through without any tools and you will end up a scratched up mess, with torn clothes, and absolutely filthy (shrubs are dust magnets).

Another thing to be aware of is that there is quite a bit of trash tossed just off trail by litter bugs. You look at what is around any "color" (trash) and if you see no broken branches or twigs then is something lightweight that was tossed there. Odd things I have seen just off-trail with no easy way to recover them for disposal are: running bra, regular bra, running shorts, regular shorts and pants, shoe bottoms (rubber soles), panties, boxer shorts, shirts, and used rubbers. Yes, clothing removed and tossed well to the side of a trail. Each of them must have a story why those items were tossed. And never any body anywhere to indicate any foul play.

adad wrote:

diablo valley wrote:

If that was the case there would still be clothing or body remains. And as someone mentioned cougars are not out hunting in the hottest part of the day when no prey are active.

A rattlesnake bite is more likely but that wouldn't kill a health adult in a short time unless they were already weak from dehydration.

A rattlesnake bite would leave clothing or body remains as well. My thought was if he passed out from heat stroke, disabled from a rattlesnake bite, etc, a cougar may have disposed of the body enough for these drones not to pick him up.

Someone with rattlesnake bite is not going to wander off trail. If they did they would not be really careful to wander off and leave no trace where they went. Twigs and branches would be broken, and prints would be found. Especially if going up or down a dirt slope. Try it someone and see if you can do it without leaving a trace of the path you took.