What was the most memorable moment you've experienced during a run, and how did it impact you?

Probably when I won a small local cross country league (in the age groups). That morning I'd seen Catherina McKiernon run away from the field in the senior race and I didn't usually front run but decided to just set off from right the start and see what happened. It was horrible actually. I felt like I was being chased the entire race (I was!) but I won and hadn't won before, think I'd finished 4th or something. They wrote about it in Athletics Weekly which was surprising.

I also think at that moment I realised I was a "sit and kick" athlete rather than anything else.

What is yours?

Ran the SW coastpath through mousehole to Porthcurno on a sunny early morning.

Cried as never ran anywhere that stunning

Ran some decent maras etc but never felt that overwhelmed with the world's beauty and life

Your title question and OP question are two different things! Nice question though.

Most memorable?

A lot of choices here. I am tempted to pick a near fight out in the woods of the old Washington state cross country championdhip course south of Seattle (when I ran it had been moved to Pasco) during a high school tri-meet. Instead I will name a college cross country meet which started on a Santa Barbara beach and where a collapse of the field occured in the sand - I remember jumping over runners once I had recovered.

Least memorable? Most 800 meter races - high school or college. Some here will understand what I mean - 800 is so intense that the mind focuses on the immediate and fails to create memory. In short, I crossed the finish line but do not remember how.

Fall of 1979. Running against traffic on fairly busy artery in Edmond, OK on a routine after college classes run.

Suddenly hard a noise and felt this intense extremely localized pain in my chest (sternum).

For a brief second I thought I'd been shot... but then I realized that same jackass in oncoming traffic had thrown something at me and hit me. Looked around on the ground for a second and found a cassette tape. Seeing the cassette tape laying there I was steaming mad... then I looked at the cassette tape... It was 'Barry Manilow's Greatest Hits...'. Then I understood.

I was running on the trail and saw a guy jerking off.

Despite living close Rocky Mountain National Park, I rarely ever went due to it being a tourist trap. But here I was after making a bold deicision to give it a try again. The sun was going to set inside the next two hours so now that I committed it was this or bust.

Annoyance #01: I found out a specific trail area, Timber Ridge, a place I formed good memories on, had burned in a wildfire that started due to bad tourist behavior. I was pissed it was gone.

Annoyance #02: To further set the tone, the current wave of tourists in this end of the park and in their vehicles on the road were in such a hurry and buzzing like angry hornets. So also misbehaving in my book.

Annoyance #03: I stopped at a next trailhead (Green Mountain) and parked. That's when this weirdo came out from between two cars half naked, sporting short lycra tights and began wiping himself with a towel in very grotesque ways that there are no laws on the books to prohibit other than vague "nuisance", "lewd & lascivious" and "disorderly" laws. He was wiping where the sun doesnt shine with a towel using two hands, front to back. Bending over. Putting his hands in his tights. No, it was not on purpose and not a joke. It was just gross. If an onlooker had seen me, they'd see me screaming WTF and "go somewhere else" in my car. I was very angered as there couldve been children around and what this guy was doing to himself was gross. So I left.

Annoyance #04: I arrived at the Onahu Trailhead, one I had previously passed on the way in. I kept telling myself I didnt come to RMNP to run on a trail that sounded like it should be in Hawaii. But the parking lot was empty and with the sun setting in the next 90 minutes or so, it was this or bust and I chose this (the Onahu). As I began my run, I was upset, basically kicking stones and pouting about bad tourists ruining the vibe.

I would soon find out that I didnt choose the Onahu, it instead chose me.

By about 1.0 miles in, I determined this was some "high quality running" in response to the trail and views. Then, a half mile later, I entered a new "viewable landscape" where beasts instantly scattered and ran off the trail. At first, naturally, I thought they were female moose. But then I saw them run behind a huge male elk, his king crown-like horns extending 3/4 down his back.

I define a "viewable landscape" as a segment in which you enter on a slight uphill, go down and then uphill again to the next "viewable landscape". Totally dependent on what you can see.

The beasts naturally know this pattern too. When they scattered from the viewable landscape I was running on, they went to the next.

Everytime I hit a new viewable landscape, there they were again. The king male getting upset and bugling sometimes before shifting out to the next area. After all, I was interrupting his dinner and bothering his women.

I would enter a new viewable landscape and they would move to the next. Repeat.

I unintentionally herded this group along the Onahu trail for few miles before reaching a large meadow area...where there was another group of female elk and more males in the same vicinity.

The trail led me above the meadow area below. I could no longer see the elk because of the tall grass but I could hear the males getting ready to fight. Bugle-ing back and forth across the meadow area.

This persists for the next half hour as I encircle the meadow area from above. Males bugle-ing. Crisp cool mountain air. Sun is setting. I still cant see them but I can hear them from opposite ends of the meadow. At various times, I would be running closer to one party and then later the other (still from above).

This was the full experience. I could feel the beasts and sense the tension in the vicinity. Being able to run along a trail above the meadow was key to the experience. I was concerned and therefore on high alert, but also safe. So much anticipation.

After the turnaround point, I noticed the elk were no longer in the meadow area below bugle-ing at each other. As I continued to run back, each new viewable landscape I entered came with extreme caution given what i had seen on the way out. I could still feel the beasts but I could no longer see them and would only hear them shuffling in the trees from a comfortable distance.

The experience was so primitive and yet so awesome.

High school track meet 20 years ago. It was 2 high schools and the score was tied with just the 4x400m relay to go. I was the anchor.

The first 3 runners on each time finish at the same time stride for stride. Everyone is looking at me to win the match for our neighborhood, our high school, our team!

I remember it like it was yesterday. As the baton was heading my direction a teammate says “you got this!” and I ran my fastest 200m 4x4 split ever at 21.x seconds. I didn’t look back and never saw or heard the anchor from the other team. I ended up winning even though my overall time was 51.x which means I slowed down considerably.

I still talk about this race at least once per year.

Sounds like a rather confusing experience.

ran into a pack of wild dogs in the middle of nowhere, a giant owl at a few apces no attack, confronted masked bow hunter, impaled on a tree, hit a guy wire full speed shoulder, fell down a small cliff bloody 5 miles out, ran away from muggers, ran over a pedestrian forcing into traffic hard, got very lost on a run started at 130pm and made it back at 1 am, mostly running in there with walking.....

with the wild dogs, i came to the top of a hill running a dusty trail in the hills miles away from civilization, and startled them and I instantly coming into contact.

having been bitten by dogs before, german shepard as a small kid, and others they can do real damage.
instantly attacked the dogs yelling insanely loud arms flailing, running, total madman, and the dogs didn't know WTF? and got the hell out of there, actually generating a dust cloud, exactly like in the cartoons, in this one off.

i learned to confront dogs and get aggressive, and pick up rocks, i was a pitcher and could do real damage.

the instant i ran into the dog pack, there was no time to think, and there was all time great adrenalin dump, of the kind you'd want to achieve in a race, maybe Hocker in the Olympics got close. afterward, i felt strange, high, superhuman. and i think that's what adrenalin is for, and the body does not dump it just any old time.

i did not crash energy wise, but at the time was very fit. suspect unconditioned individuals would be done for the day, with this kind of max energy output.

if you can train to dump super adrenalin in a race like that, you would have a tremendous advantage, i don't know how to do it on demand. certainly in races everybody that is any good, has the adrenalin pumping before the race, and performs much better than in training, where adrenalin isn't super high.

Most remarkable run… Well, there are remarkable races. Track, Road, Marathons. But I think it is the miles we do in training, with friends, at special places, in special
weather conditions, abroad or at home which we will remember. And just to start
thinking about it brings dozens of memories. Thanks for the question.

Most memorable was the end of my relay leg on a marathon relay getting to hand off to my son for the final leg.

Biggest surprise was going for a sub 3 marathon and coming through 20 miles on 2:40 pace. I faded terribly to 2:47 finish but it gave me the confidence to set my goals higher. Looking back the training showed the potential but that was the first time I had trained seriously so it made sense.

A couple years ago in June, I had to travel to Boulder for a conference. I had lived out west for a long time but had since moved back to the midwest, and I’m also a nerd who can’t help but feel like Boulder is a running mecca (to which I had never been). I tacked a few extra days on the front of my trip with the sole purpose of running as much as I could manage. I really puffed the importance of the trip up in my mind, while also trying to be realistic about the fact that I was likely to feel like crap because I wasn’t used to the elevation. I didn’t have a car, so all my runs would be straight from near downtown Boulder.

My first run was the morning after my travel day, so I had no expectation of feeling good. I had some strong coffee, bread, and cheese for breakfast and set out on the path that runs along Boulder Canyon Dr. I’m sure for the locals that’s about as boring a route as they can possibly find, but I was so relieved to be back in the mountains and felt really good for no reason that I can pinpoint. It was one of those days where you feel like maybe you could just go on forever. I got about 4 miles out before I figured it was smart to turn around since this was just day 1. Got back towards town and stopped at the park on the west side, took my shoes off, and iced my legs down in the river. I know it’s not much, but it was one of the purest experiences I’ve had in running – just me, nothing else on the to-do list, taking the time for nothing other than enjoying what it is to run.

I ran Mt Sanitas the next day, and then came down with a cold (thanks, dude ringing up my groceries) and had a crap remainder of that trip. Which is maybe part of the reason that first run feels precious in a small way – reminder to enjoy the good days when they come.

Speak of Adrenalin drops- Not really during a run, but after finishing Boston 2013 was in Lennox Hotel with club 200m from finish. Bombs goes off, we scattered. A few of us ran down the stairs from 9th or 10th floor, ending up in a suite on 2nd floor watching chaos unfold. 10min. later we ran back up to the room to prepare to evacuate. It was an hour or so later when we realized we ran down and up stairs with no pain nor soreness after a race that typically leave us recreational sub 3:00 hobby joggers near crippled . The power of Adrenalin!

As "alien observer" noticed, the title question and the questions in the first post are very different.

"What was your biggest surprise as a runner? When did you know that you were improving?"

1991 Houston Marathon. I had run the 1990 race in a respectable (for a female) but unexceptional 3:29. I knew I had gotten a lot faster in the intervening year, but I had no idea how much. I hit 20 miles still feeling great. As I was coming through the final 10K I kept noticing that the aid stations looked almost untouched, and that nearly all the runners around me were men who looked really fit. Both new experiences. I crossed the finish line and saw no other women around. I was one of the first non-elite women to finish, and the elites had all been escorted off. I stood around feeling dumbfounded by my 2:53 finish. Later on I would run faster, but it would no longer come as a revelation.

Running in the dark on a dirt trail (former railbed) through the woods on a wintry night, an owl swooped down and tried to steal my hat. They really do fly silently, I only heard the last "swoop" of wings just before I felt my hat being lifted off my head. The owl made a short screech, as if it was cursing because it turns out this was some big ape-creature's wool hat and not a rabbit or a squirrel, and he let go. I watched his gray shadowy form fly into the trees and disappear into the darkness.

I was running on the trail and say a woman sh1tting (?) and her husband (?) watching