Running in my neighborhood and my shoe lace loops were too big so that my right foot got caught in the loop of the left shoe. I was running at about a 6 minute pace and fell right in front of a group of people having a party at their house. Scrapped both hands and my knees and my forehead. After they asked if I was OK, they all laughed their heads off.
Several years ago, I was only a couple of miles into a residential sixteen miler. It was getting dawn, but not yet light. I had some sunglasses on top of my head, but decided to go ahead and put them on over my eyes because they were slipping and light was beginning to infuse the sky. I started daydreaming about Steve Jones and his 2:07 in Chicago. Dim light, sunglasses, head in the clouds. Naturally, I turfed right in the middle of the street. Knee cut open, leg covered with blood. Since it was early, only one guy saw. He seemed not to care either way. I finished the run, then got staples in my knee.For about a week, I thought I was quite brave. Then it occurred to me that I was just a dumbass.
Sorry about the unrelated link. I told you was a dumbass.
Bought a pair of Sub-4 shorts in the early '80's by mail order. Put 'em on when I got them and headed out for a run on a beautiful, rainy summer day. I noticed that a lot of people were looking at me alarmingly as I ran. Looking down I realized the translucent quality of the white Sub-4 short. Ran the 3 miles home in record time.
I think I would have the most embarrassing "Lets Run posting moments"
A number of years ago, some cross country teammates and I went to Acadia National Park in Maine during fall break. One morning, I decided to a 10-mile out and back run on the park's main road. I ran out five miles, didn't see a soul and really had to take a crap. Thinking I was alone, I squatted behind a bush 10 feet from the road and let one rip. Well, who should suddenly round a curve and walk right in front of me but a hot babe. I held very still, pinched my butt cheeks and held my breath. It would've worked, too, if the dog she was walking didn't smell something suspicious and start barking at me. To cap it off, I had to pass her on the way back. That was one might quick mile.
those carriage trails in Acadia are an awesome spot to run - a little uneven footing but amazingly beautiful
they are. just watch out for the steaming piles.
Last cross country season my team was doing a speed workout right after school on the track. The football team was practicing in the middle of the track and the girls soccer team was getting warmed up for a game on a field adjacent to the track. I got to checking out the girls on one of our repeats while drafting off of my teammates. I tripped over a water cooler that the football team had on the track and broke my wrist. Then everyone who was running behind me fell on top of me.
Outdoor track conferences. I'm pulling a 10k, 5k double. It's the second day and I'm doing my strides before the 5k. My legs are just crap from the 10, and I'm barely picking them off the ground. I get a spike caught on the track and just bit it right in front of the whole field, and a bunch of other people.
Ran a shitty race too.
While running this summer, I stopped to take a dump. After doing the deed, I reached up and grabbed a leaf off of a smaller tree to use for t.p. Turns out the leaf I grabbed was actually from a poison ivy vine that had grown about 7 feet up the tree. Needless I had to take about a week off and had alot of fun explaining why to the guys.
I was running (decent pace) on a treadmill at a busy gym. They had all these mirrors all around and full-wall one just to my right (bout 10 feet away). So, I am checking out my form as I run merrily along. I looked straight only to be caught way off-gaurd because I was WAY to the right of the belt. Overcompensating, I went to the left... WAY to the left, and this time my left foot planted on the non-moving metal on the outside of the belt. I fairly rammed the consol and began to go down.
Make a note... when falling down on a treadmill, if you're gonna' go down to a knee, don't fight it. Try to simply roll off the side. Unfortunately, I desparately tried to impossibly get back up, but this is a lost cause. It only results in a bigger and better fall with all sorts of flailing rolling around before and after getting spit off the back.
The place basically (besides a few gigglers and "Oh my"ers) stopped as I got up and walked to the consol to turn it down so I could get back on and finish. It was at least 30 seconds of silence (other than my slapping feet, the hum of the treadmill (other people on treadmills had stopped), and the TVs that you normally could never hear) before activity began to resume. Needless to say, I wasn't checking myself out during this time.
In HS I went to track camp at the University of Illinois one summer. Craig Virgin hung out with the camp one day, and went on a run with us. Everybody was bunched up all around him on the run and I like a lot of people was trying to stay close to him so we could we'd run with an Olympian. Well the mass of people in front of my starts to split, some going left, some going right but unfortanately this doesn't register with me in time and the crowd was too thick for me to see the fire hydrant before I ran into at about 6:30-7:00 pace. Somehow despite just having smashed my nuts against iron (or steel or whatever it is) I managed to keep running and I think only a few people actually saw me do it. Luckily everything down there still works.
I had this exact same thing happen to me in the gym at my school. In my case, I was checking out my form in the reflection of a window when I went off to the side and after some bumping and fighting I ended up on the ground. Luckily there was nobody in there I knew and I just got back on and kept going. Treadmills....
JEH you have a flair for comedic writing. LMAO. This story is not embarassingly funny, just embarassing. When I was in high school XC at the state meet I ran 18:30 for a tough 5K course. I have to say tough or else I look like a wimp. Anyway, everyone of our guys was about a minute off his best time. The truly embarrassing part was in the last 200 I got passed by a member of my team who was usually slower than me. I looked behind me, only to realize there was nobody else behind me. Rather embarassing.
Oh man, JEH!! I was dyyyyyying when I read your post! That was just classic, I could really get a picture in my mind.
So many stories...but once I was leading my team in a workout during cross of mile repeats, and I thought I was such a stud. Anyway, I'm hauling ass up this hill and lost my footing and tripped over a tree stump in front of my whole team. Yikes.
Well, this didn't happen to me (obviously) but I think it was embarrassing for the guy I saw....Anyway, my track team was doing repeat 400's with the guys team, they would do their repeat during our rest period so while we walked to the 300m mark and back for our start they were rounding the 300m in full flight well, I don't know if it is normal but this particular guy wasn't wearing a jockstrap and his "friend" was peeking out from the side of his very short shorts, it kept this rythmic swing back and forth across the front of his shorts and all of our eyes were glued to his crotch, it was like an accident scene you can't take your eyes off it. To this day I don't think he knew why we were staring, he probably thought he was a stud runner.
JEH...nicely done.
My first indoor meet and my first varsity race. Coming down the back stretch on an equally embarassing 800 I noticed that I could only hear laughter rather than cheers. I didnt peice the "look at that kids dick" and the "hey fix your package" and the "hes running on three legs" untill i bent down holding my knees at the end of the race.
i added in the three legs bit
Something I've seen more than once, that I would think would be the most embarrassing moment not involving bodily functions, is the people who lose count of laps in a race and kick a lap early. It's like watching a tragedy and a comedy happening simultaneously.