Shoebacca wrote:
but at least the date went well.
go on.....
Shoebacca wrote:
but at least the date went well.
go on.....
Although I've been attacked numerous times by creatures both human and animal while out on training runs over the years, there was only incident I feared I might not make it home from: One Summer morning while in high school I went for a distance run, my route including a crossing of New York City's Triborough Bridge. I was almost at mid-span when one of those Summer thunder storms that appear out of nowhere boiled over the horizon. One minute the sky was blue and bright, the next it looked like night was about to fall. The temperature dropped about 10 degrees, a gale-force wind blew in, churning up the previously placid East River below me into white-capped swells, then frighteningly close lightning bolts ripped the black sky and were followed by deafening thunderclaps that sounded like massive explosions. It was like being caught in the middle of a bombardment. The only thing separating me from a 140-foot fall to the river below was a 3-foot high wall on the pedestrian path's outer edge. I was afraid I'd be blown over the side by the gale if I continued running, but I was also afraid that if I stayed where I was and hunkered down by the wall I'd get struck by lighting.
I continued running, out of fear more than anything, at what must've been race pace, and within minutes the storm cleared out as suddenly as it had appeared.
A dude just died last month on a trail run near Golden, CO from a rattlesnake bite. Awful. Young guy.
A race rather than a run, but my first meet of the season this year a few weeks into the season as I was training through. It was about 90 at the time of the gun but the course had no shade anywhere. I went out super hard and Pr'd through the 5k. Shortly after 5000m I started feeling not good. I vaguely remember slowing down to a walk and then all of a sudden I woke up in an ice bath. I was later sent to the ER with an initial blood sugar count of 39. They didn't get my temperature but the doctor estimated that it was anywhere from 106-107.5 at the time due to how I acted and my sugar levels.
Anyways, when i woke up in the bath I remember feeling that the world was ending. I was screaming and crying and acting really euphoric. I've had nightmares about that situation a few times since it happened and I genuinely feel lucky to be alive and training again.
I've got three, and I'll list them in order of increasing awfulness.
1. A few months ago I was on a long run with one of my good friends and training partners. We were on a two-lane road in the middle of nowhere and I wasn't paying as much attention to traffic as I should have been. I didn't notice a car that was either refusing to yield or had a distracted driver, but my friend threw me to the ground beside the road. In retrospect he probably saved my life.
2. The summer before my senior year I had the most painful run of my life. The night before I had been at a party (although I didn't drink). Additionally, I had just finished my two-week break from running after the season ended. One of my local rivals and I met up for a 10-miler (in retrospect an awful decision) at 11:00 am in early July. It was 90 degrees when we started and 102 when we finished, and we both suffered from pretty nasty heatstroke. The last few miles were brutal; I don't think we went 400m without stopping in the shade for upwards of 5 minutes.
3. I was on an easy run on a dirt road in the country, and three dogs attacked me. Comically, as they shredded my shorts their hillbilly owner said 'He don't bite'. In retrospect I should have demanded at least enough money to replace my shorts, but I was too stunned to at the time. I don't run alone on that road any more.
South side of Chicago. ?
Only time I ever felt like this was my senior year of high school during basketball season. A friend and I decided to do a 7 mile out and back (so 3.5 out and then turn around). It was well below freezing, and we had done a 12 mile run earlier in the week without a good base to do it. Exactly half way out, so at the turn around, my knee went from feeling great to on fire. I couldn't bend it at all and we had to walk back the 3.5 miles in cold weather. We were in shorts and shirts, while running it didn't feel too cold, but walking sucked, and it was a back country road without any cars on it. I kind of hobble-ran certain parts of it to try to warm up and save time, but it couldn't have been for more than 50 meters at a time.
I never really felt like we were going to die, but frostbite was a severe concern with it getting darker and colder. My friend was pretty miffed about the whole thing, and I learned the valuable lesson of not trying to double your weekly mileage between one week to the next.
ALSO: Ran in Alto Hospicio, Chile one time. Besides the dogs attacking anything that moves, we ran up along a small dirt path that went parallel with the highway. It climbed a little hill up to a cement wall that cut the path off while we were about 40 feet above traffic. My friend grabbed the wall and swung out around it, meaning that his body was out above the traffic for a second while making the move around the wall. With how sweaty my hands already were, I was so scared that I was going to slip and fall onto the highway. The rest of the run went great, we got to look out over Iquique and the Pacific Ocean from on top of the mountain, but we had to pass the wall again on the way back. I made sure that we never ran that route ever again!
There was this one time on an extremely cold day in the forests in altitude of Alberta in Canada where the highest temperature was like 3 degrees. A close friend and i was just planning to do easy 8 miles on the trails but i accidently stepped on a loose area of snow on the way back and fell down a ditch. The ditch was too steep to climb and too deep to help. We shared a phone but it conveniently ran out of battery. My friend hurried back to get help while i have to stay down the ditch.
It was a very scary experience because daylight was running out (there wasn't much sunlight on that day, probably only 8 hours) and i knew i can freeze to death in my shirt and flimsy trackpant. It was so cold i was shivering all the time my friend was running back for help. I was developing frostbite on my exposed skin and the wait feels like forever. I was close to passing out until i was finally rescued. The worst part is that the ditch is really wet and it has an inch or two of water at the bottom. Asked the friend later how long did i waited for, and he said 40 minutes. Still can't believe i almost died in 40 minutes.
Had a similar situation at Starkey Park at about 5 pm one hot September day. Left the horse corral to the bike trail got to about mile 7 where the hiking trail cuts in and figured I would take it right back to the corral not knowing it crosses paths with the horse trail which is literally beach sand. After doing a couple circles around the horse trail I finally was able to find my way back to the hiking trail and was on the right path until I come face to face with a wolf about 50 yards away. After backing away slowly and trying to cut around through dense leg slicing palmetto I go back the other way only to find myself in the same lost situation on the horse trail. I somehow circle around back to where I saw the wolf and decide to go for it (it's getting dark at this point). I sprinted to the opening where the power lines are and trudged through ankle deep Florida swamp to get back to the bike trail. Looked like I just been through a tour in Vietnam with blood covering my legs and a new appreciation for life but I made it. Scariest run of my life.
I've had a few runs where the last bit was pretty damn uneasy. One time though I was about a mile away from home and I didn't have food on me, as I went for a short run, honestly no more than 4 miles. I stopped on the side of the road, climbed up a steep grade and sat and meditated for 20 minutes or so. The morning was beautiful, the winter scenery was picturesque, and then..I felt the faintest signs of low blood sugar. Immediately, my heart rate picked up at the thought of blood sugar being low, and not having sugar on me. I tried remaining calm but the terror in my mind was going off. Only a mile away, but the last mile was a steady uphill, and one last steep climb off a trail to my parent's house. I was power hiking the final hill off the trail, almost in tears with fear and just how real the moment became. Once I got home I checked my blood sugar and I was starting to run low, not dangerously low, but I was getting there. Lesson learned. If you're a diabetic or if you're prone to low blood sugar, NEVER, I repeat, NEVER leave your house without fast acting sugar on you.
December 2016 in Tallahassee, FL. Ran Club XC the day before and a long run in the morning at Tom Brown State Park. Had a late flight from the Tallahassee airport so teammate and I decide to take advantage of some free time and head out for a quick shakeout run. We started when the sun was about an hour away from sunset. From the airport you can run along the main road out to a trail head for the Apalachicola National Forest. We get about 1.5 miles out and make it to the trailhead and dip in. The soft surface is nice and the trails are slightly winding. We make a note of what turns we're taking and we get spit out on a road that we take for another half mile or so. It's starting to get dark so we flip and head back. Somewhere along the way we make a wrong turn on the trails and by our watches we should've hit the main road. We stop in our tracks and look at each other and decide to just head towards where we think the main road is. After a few more minutes we start to hear the highway noise and we get spit out on the highway about a half mile past where we should've been. We trudge back to the airport and just accept the fact that we got lucky to have not gotten more lost as the sun was setting.
July 2017 in Portland, OR. Was flying back to the East Coast after a trip to the PNW. Decided to do a short shakeout from the hotel near the airport at 10pm. Probably a really bad idea because I didn't know the area and I just ran down the main road. Turned around once I saw a bar fight on the next block. My lessons learned are don't do runs in unfamiliar territory after sunset.
In college, my coach dropped the distance crew off at a state park in NC, during a spring break training trip. Long distance guys were to do 60 minutes...Mid D just 45. Umstead state park is huge, with two sections that look exactly the same (a dam on either side). We ending up running for nearly 2 hours and 30 minutes, Not at all as planned, most of us had not run more than 1:45. We were in a group of 5 or 6 guys, so I really don't think anyone was too worried. One guy did whine constantly, and things were a little tense around the 1:45-2:00 mark. A few years later, I would I move there and learn the trails like the back of my hand.
I had a calf strain in the middle of an out and back run and had to walk the last 3 miles back with a limp.
It was terrifying.
once was out do do an easy 4.5
i dont drink alot
it was 90-100 degrees or so
super tired, beginning of summer so not too fit
decided to take a shortcut through some private farmland
got lost, went into woods
didn't want to walk near someone's house because i was scared theyd get mad for some reason (in retrospect i think i had heat exhaustion, not making good decisions)
wandered in woods for 2 hours or so with nothing but 1 inch split shorts
get out, cut up and dirty, tired on a random road ~ 1 mile away
now im still 1.5 miles away from home
start running back
my neighbor drives by and waves hi. they had no idea what had just happened
started drinking water a bit more after that
but i still dont drink enough as i should.
Spent a semester studying abroad in Budapest. First morning there, I go on a run to get my bearings in the city (living on Pest side) hoping to do 20 mins up the Danube river and back. M dumb ass crosses the Ráckevei-Duna thinking I have crossed the Danube itself, so instead of running north with the river on my right like I thought I needed to, I'm now running south with the river on my right. I end up spending much of my run in the industrial district of Csepel (still going the wrong direction) where giant German shepherds glared at me behind chain-linked fences in this industrial wasteland.
Sample street:
I'm also running on a sunday, so for better or worse there is not a soul in this area except me and the German shepherds. By now I'm nearing 40mins total and still no idea where I am. Finally I stumble out onto a main street and start asking around for directions. Unfortunately, my Hungarian language skills at this point consist of the formal elnézést, beszélsz angolul? (pardon me, do you speak english?) and nothing else. I'm also wearing quite short shorts and its about 0 C out...and old man points and laughs at me, probably mocking my shorts. Finally at the Csepeli cemetery, I get pointed back in the direction of Pest, which I am informed is about 10km away. 1hr 45 mins after the start of my planned 40 minute run, I made it back. After that, stuck to the much more traditional running routes, Budapest is actually a quite good city to run in.
tl;dr pay close attention to your bearings running in a new city
I did a solo Pemi loop (31 miles on 8 mountains in New Hampshire) in September. It was rainy and chilly, but I decided to pack light so I could run the whole way . The first 10 miles weren't too bad, but above the tree line the rocks got slick, and I fell repeatedly. The worst fall was an uncontrolled slide down a rock face on top of Mount Lafayette, which I arrested just in time to slam face first into a bush.
Despite all the falls, I was making pretty good time, hitting the half way in about 4 hours. Then I ran out of food and bonked, and with ten miles to go I pulled out my phone and realised my map had deleted itself. Fortunately the trails weren't hard to find, because nobody else was out that day. I found my way back to the car about ten hours after starting, completely depleted, and drove to a McDonald's where I bought 6 cheeseburgers.
In retrospect I made a lot of major mistakes and got lucky that the weather didn't turn. A twisted ankle in the wrong place and I probably wouldn't make it back. Of course, I didn't tell anyone what I was up to. What an idiot.
Not as bad as some of these, but this is my worst run. Day before senior year XC started two teammates and I were halfway into an 11 mile out and back when I started looking around for a bathroom. Being that we were on a limestone path there wasn't anything formal but fortunately there was a rather hidden section of trees I could duck into. As I was coming out my foot slipped on a culvert (one of those semi circle sewer drains) and my knee came down with all my body weight on protruding piece of metal. My friends saw me stumble out from the bushes and their expressions went from confusion to panic as they saw the blood trickling through my fingers and down my leg. Eventually they helped me to a nearby parking lot where one of them waited with me and the other went to find a phone. The gash wasn't very wide but it was deep enough to see some cartilage/bone. I took my shirt off to try and stop the bleeding, but it soaked through and had started making little rivers in the cracked asphalt parking lot. I It was at this point I became delirious and apparently said some things that freaked out my teammate but I don't remember any of it. Luckily a patrolling cop drove up to the parking lot and called an ambulance. Showed up to the first day of practice on crutches with 8 stitches. 7 years later, still have the scar and that shirt is stained beyond repair.
Low-Income Runner wrote:
South side of Chicago. ?
in the baddest part of town, and if you go down there, you better just beware of a man named Leroy Brown.
Once I went running with a friend during a storm. It had rained pretty heavily right before we met, and the skies were turning light so we figured the worst had passed, and went out for our run. Unfortunately what has come was only just the edge of the storm, and soon we were getting walloped by the main front. Worse, we were doing an out and back, so there was no way to cut the course short. Severe lightning strikes, and the heaviest rain I've ever seen came down, to the point where we were contending with having to run through standing water that covered our shoes. If we'd jumped into a pool with all our clothes on, we couldn't have been more thoroughly soaked.
Somehow we made it back, but the rain was so heavy that I actually had some difficulty pulling out in my vehicle because the road had turned into a small river. It was the only time I've truly been scared while on a run, and since then I take no chances. If the skies look iffy, I take a rest day or run inside. Tempting fate once was enough for me.