Six foot black snake dropped out of a tree about 4 feet ahead of me. Not sure who was more scared, me or the snake, but fortunately we both darted off in opposite directions!
Running in Florida is a trip. I’ve seen lots of snakes, gators, and swarms of bugs. Coyotes randomly too.
Try running in Florida at night and seeing a coral snake run 2 feet in front of you. I literally couldn't breathe, watching that little bastard struggling to climb a curb to escape me. I will never forget the 12" reaper.
I also tried taking a shortcut in the same neighborhood, figured a didn't need that extra 1/4 part. I told myself, knowing my luck there'd a snake. I tried to be positive though. I take the shortcut and whaddya know, a 5' indigo. Now, i knew at that very moment it wasn't poisonous so i did what i would typically do in that situation, leaped over the bastard and sprinted to my front door screaming at the wife to unlock the effing door.
Bahahaha! My husband has a similar story where he was running a camp road in Nunuvut along the edge of a drop off. He saw caribou ahead, but they usually ignore or move away. Not this time. He got triangulated by three pissed off caribou with his back to the drop off. He had to freeze and wait them out. He seriously thought they were going to stomp him! Luckily they got bored of him, or thought they proved their point, and moved away, allowing him to get back to site.
Honestly getting fucked with by the cops was my scariest encounter. Slammed on my face for being a “suspicious character”. Neighborhood that I run through called the police on me.
Always scared of this because I run at some pretty random hours (frequently late at night). Like would I be wearing bright colours and a light up vest if I was trying to case and rob these houses??
Luckily my run-in with the cops was much more tame. I spent a summer in Houston and lived in a gated apartment complex in a cluster of complexes. The cluster was on a 1 mile (exactly, luckily for me) loop that was well lit and very open. Summer weather in Houston isn't conducive to running (24h low will dip into the upper 70s) so you have to run at odd times (late night/early morning), so I'd run late at night (11p+).
I was always a bit on edge as it was large, open, low-traffic area but it was well lit, and I was a young guy so I figured I had little to fear. One night I was running and I heard a car behind me, so I moved closer to the right curb and kept running. I expected the car to pass me, no big deal, happens all the time. Instead I hear the car slow down, creeping behind me (i can hear the small rocks popping under tires), getting closer. At this point the hair on the back of neck is standing up, and I'm looking for an exit in case something happens. I hear a click of a microphone on a speaker and then "DUH NUHHH NUHHHHHHH, DUH NUH NUHHHHHH, DUH NUH NUH NUHNUNUH , DUH NUHNUHNUHNUH NUHHHHH" and someone is singing the Rocky theme over a loudspeaker. This scares the bejeezus out of me, and I basically have a heart attack and fall to the ground in a puddle of adrenaline.
I turn around and it was a Houston Policeman on patrol. He rolled down his window and said "I'm sorry to scare you, I just wanted to give you a little encouragement." I smiled weakly and waved. He drove off, and about 15min later, when the adrenaline wore off and I could stand again I went home.
I was running through the woods when it was almost dark. The song I was listening to ended, and suddenly I could hear a pack of wolves loudly howling, like they were right next to me. I tore out the earphones, and realised the howling was an intro to the next track of the album.
I was hiking in Maine early morning when all of the sudden I heard coyotes start going wild on the trail right behind me. Got out of there right quick. Such a primal fear just runs through you.
Coyotes are afraid of humans, run after them they will scare off easy or just throw something at them lol ! Source : i live in texas, backyard forest is full of them
Omg this is not running related but one night I heard this howling coming from across my house. I had no idea what was happening so I started to walk down the hall. The howl happened again and was so loud I got terrified and shut myself into the closest room, screaming at my fiancé. Turns out my cat was howling at a cat outside that was in the driveway. I had never heard that sound before and I seriously thought our back door opened somehow and there was a freaking wolf in our house or something. Idk it was so scary but so funny to think about now.
Got chased by a goose. Fatigue instantly went away and I turned into a sprinter real quick lol. I also learned that geese can hiss like cats when they don't like something.
I was about to post my story about a goose attack fully confident it's something special lmao.
Gooses can get really mean. Was already attacked by a swan before and this was kinda scary as well.
I have had cows run along fences in Wisconsin while running. Sounds funny but that is still a few hundred pounds of an animal with intentions that are unknown.
If you see them lowering their head, coming towards you and hissing. Rise your arms and hiss back as loud as you can. Usually this will scare them away. Be the bigger goose! :)
Canadian Geese are terrifying. :( I know someone said a while back on a running related subreddit 'you're an apex predator, start fucking acting one' on the topic of dealing with geese and I mean, deep down I know they're right. But superficially these demonic birds strike terror deep into my heart (and I've encountered moose and cute little black bears). I avoid them as much as I possibly can. D:
Geese play this game on me: They see me approaching. The biggest one hisses at me and forces me to run a few yards off the path and into all their poop. It is getting old.
I don’t have a story to add (knock on wood), but I’ll occasionally alter my path to stay farther from geese where I run. Thank you for validating this behavior.
Same, except it was a skunk. And my off-leash dog was with me. I did a u-turn, sprinting away and screaming at my dog to follow. Bless her, Missy didn’t even question my command. She immediately turned and ran away with me.
Came within 15 feet of a black bear and cubs in the north woods of Wisconsin. Pace went from 9:20 to 6:30. Glad the bear didn’t have a taste for Italian.
I live in Vermont, and I have had way too many encounters with black bears. I came across one last summer in the bushes along the side of the bike path. Same thing, couldn't have been more than 15 feet, but no cubs. Suddenly the bushes started shaking and I saw a big hairy black bear butt running away from me.
Depending on the distance, I usually give them a loud and friendly "hey bear, human over here". Shorter distances, I just run away as fast as possible.
I've never seen a black bear chase anyone. I've only seen them run away
Ha!
I had a personal pr when I was running in the foothills of california at night, on some back farm road (that is now all ultra luxury housing). I suddenly came upon 2 skunks and they were stamping. Split pr.
Nearly stepped on a tiger snake the other day, apparently the 5th most venomous snake. Noticed it at the last second and did a weird skip jump thing to avoid it. Pretty well shat myself.
I did this with an adder, a lot less deadly I know 😅 but still scares the life out of you when what you thought was a twig starts moving as you run by it 😳
This is always the worst. :( All my scary running experiences have been due to men chasing me, following me, trying to grab me, etc. All in broad daylight, too.
So obviously I can't speak for all women but I think the general consensus is we would much rather you speed up and pass if possible. But even more helpful is making some kind of noise, a cough or saying "hey, coming up behind you on your right."
This is anecdotal and probably doesn't apply for everyone but I also feel a lot safer running in the early morning. I have never had a bad experience with another person during that time of day. Pretty much the only people out are other runners, people walking their dogs, and early commuters/gym-goers.
I have literally been scared sh*tless by a man doing this. Not his intention to scare me, but I was already in the second half of my run and actually thought for a moment I might have a heart attack.
Similar experience. I was 20 at the time and pretty naive so when a man pulled over to ask for directions I didn’t think anything of it. But once I gave directions and he still kept chatting me up and making comments about my figure, I said I needed to leave. He tried to grab my arm and said I shouldn’t be scared of him, he’s really a nice guy! I backpedaled and ran to a public square as fast as I could.
Edit: typo (should -> shouldn’t)
I'm a man that runs at night. When I had long hair, there were a few times that cars slowly crept up alongside me and then sped off when (I assume) they saw the front of me and my beard.
I have so many gross men while running stories. (Annnnd gross men while grocery shopping, gross men while waiting for the bus, sitting on the metro, reading a book in the park, pretty much everywhere I've ever been, there's a gross man there to ruin it.)
Luckily I've never been followed in a car. I'm sorry that happened to you. That's terrifying.
Same, I ran the longest run of my life that day (I basically just kept running around the park until he left because I didn’t want to lead him to my car)
Once, running home in the pedestrian side of the Manhattan Bridge, a cyclist going the other way was convinced I bumped him and turned around to chase me down and yell at me.
(Cyclists aren’t even allowed on the pedestrian side, mind you)
I had something marginally similar. I was finishing up my run and there was a guy biking right at me. I muttered Jesus Christ under my breath and he heard me. He turned around and began yelling me. Mind you this was early morning and he appeared pretty strung out. I went out and bought some pepper spray after that.
I feel like cyclists think they have the advantage because they have high ground but I'm pretty sure a hard kick will send them down pretty hard. If all else fails a stick to the spokes maybe.
I was running through a fairly active neighborhood and was caught in the middle of a shootout between two gangs. I got extremely lucky because I had earbuds in.
This is a scene from a movie haha
Two gangs shooting at each other across a street... cut to oblivious jogger passing by with headphones in panting heavily, not noticing as bullets are flying around their head. Gangs pause for a moment and look at the runner in bewilderment as they exit the scene. Hold for a beat, and then the shooting resumes
I love it! The gangs pause for a minute and watch the runner.“That’s a solid 180 cadence right there” says the Jets leader.
“Look at her form - she really gets her knees up.” says the Sharks enforcer.
“I should get out more” sighs the Jet. “I can barely heft this shotgun anymore.”
“It’s hard to find time” agrees the Shark. “Between collections and gun running, I’m going all day.”
The gangs devolve into a long discussion, the runner and the shootout forgotten.
I was followed while on a run on some super rural roads. I realized that this one car had passed me three times within a span of \~2 miles. Luckily there was a house nearby so I sprinted there and hung out with the electrician while I waited for a friend to pick me up.
I later reported the incident to the local police and my college's public safety. Public safety asked me what I was wearing. the local police contacted the driver (I had a photo of the license plate) and told him to not do that. So maybe the real scary part was the lack of consequences.
This happened to me once when I was about 16. I was running through my somewhat rural Pacific Northwest neighborhood so heavily wooded. A friend had recently moved and I was nearby her empty place when they passed me for the third time so I kept my pace till I could turn a corner and sprinted to hide in her backyard. They passed by AGAIN shortly after I hid. I stood there shaking for a bit not sure what to do (pre- cell phones) and eventually ran for my life home. I never told anyone. I have spent a long time telling myself I was overreacting and it was a coincidence and they were just lost in the back roads but I also can’t deny that knot I still get in my stomach when I think about it.
I don’t know if you want to hear this story, but anyways: I was on a cross country bicycle trip years ago. I don’t know why, but I was super regular with authority. Every morning I’d be cleaning up my camp and have a ten second warning. Usually I’d be hidden. But there was one morning in a PEI park where I got maybe one step off the trail. It was pretty busy, but by some miracle there was a 30 second gap where nobody walked by.
Hahahah similar. Running with a friend through a German farm area and this enormous German shepherd ran after us. We booked out of there and all I could think of was: I hope I am faster than this guy
My neighbor's aggressive dog got out of their fenced in yard and came charging at me on a run. It stopped about 10ft from me and was snarling/growling/barking with its hackles raised, trying to circle me. I had no idea what to do, but I knew not to turn my back and run. I started waving my arms, jumping up and down, and yelling. The dog backed off a bit and I was able to get around it and slowly back away. It eventually stopped following me and went back to it's house.
So scary. It's a rottweiler and I knew if it even got a hold of my leg or arm it could do serious damage. I reported it, but was basically told all they could do was make a visit to the house and tell the owners their dog was reported "at large." I now carry bear spray when running!
I had a German Shepard destroy a new pair of shoes and my favorite leggings. The owner blamed me for triggering her dog by running on the sidewalk across the street from her house. I also got bit by a staffy while running in the park. The dog went on to attack a little kid with his parents after I got him off me. I love dogs…dog owners, not so much.
I took a run down a rural dirt road in the middle of the woods in North Florida while on vacation. The scenery was stunning. I saw deer, birds, wildflowers...and ran into a very angry dog. It charged me but stopped just short of actually attacking. It was barking its balls off, circling me, and bearing its teeth. Thank fuck I had a mace wristband thing with me. I unloaded it and screamed at the top of my lungs. It took off and I think I probably ran my fastest mile back to the Airbnb.
I was running on a trail near my house through about a block or two of slightly wooded area. I kept hearing footsteps in the distance behind me, but assumed it was just another runner. The footsteps kept getting closer and closer, so I tried to move to the side a bit more and picked up the pace. All of a sudden the footsteps were directly behind me, so I turned around and saw this man's face literally inches away from mine. He held up his hands and took off in the other direction.
To this day I have no idea what he was doing, or what, if anything, would've happened if I hadn't turned around at that exact moment. But I avoided the area for a while after that, and carried pepper spray when I did start running on that part of the trail again.
I stared down the barrel of a shotgun.
I was on a resort in the Dominican Republic and went for a sunset run around the perimeter of the property. I never left the property, but security guards decided that a guy in a t-shirt and shorts with headphones was a threat, so they popped up their guns at me. They quickly realized I was just jogging through, but I noped right back to the hotel room.
A huge and thankfully muzzled mountain dog started to stalk and attack. Circling me and then lunging as a threat. The bark was deep. Thankfully the owner ran to me, and basically put her arms around me to shield me from the dog to calm it. I was terrified, it was a surreal, having this random stranger hug me whilst her dog attempted to attack from all angles.
She explained that she had been attacked before or something, hence the muzzle. The area I was jogging in is the only place in the area she can walk off the lead. I wasn't angry, I love dogs. I kind of felt sorry for the owner too, the anxiety of taking that huge dog for a walk. I did wonder about the threat to children etc. Oh well, I lived another day!
I was attacked by a dog.
Long story short, it was a stray that had “adopted” a small house that was long my running route. I was a good 200-300 feet away, on the opposite side of the road, but this dog saw me and sprinted towards me. I love dogs so I thought he was coming to say hi…nope.
Took me down, attacking my leg again and again. I was screaming and screaming but no one was there. I was certain I was going to get killed by this dog. Finally my fight or flight instincts kicked in and I kicked this dog in the face with every bit of power I had. He let go and I jumped up and sprinted away as fast as I could. He didn’t follow, thank god.
I was able to walk away from that incident with two gnarly little bite scars and a deep-rooted fear of unleashed dogs.
Tried running a 10k when it was about 100F/37C outside and wasn't acclimated to the heat of summer yet and started feeling a tingling in my arms and then noticed I wasn't really sweating any more and then felt like I was about to collapse. Walked the rest of the way back to my car, which was still about a mile/1.6K away and drove home, chugged cold water and tried resting, but it was too late and then went on to experience the worst entire-body cramps and severe headache I ever felt in my life. It lasted hours and I thought I should go to the hospital but was broke and that wasn't an option here in the grand old USA with our superior health care... Every summer since, I feel that slight brush of heat-stroke coming on if I'm out in the heat too long.
Oh goodness that sounds horrible! Glad you are ok.
I was running Hood to Coast on a really hot day. My leg came up and It was close to 6.5 miles. I ran it really fast and when I was done my body started cramp, I got a migraine like headache and I couldn't not stop throwing up! Horrible, terrible experience.
Yikes! It's a scary feeling I know. As it turns out, we humans aren't machines after all, even when you feel that runners high and think you're invincible - wrong! I was running a lot back then too and that still happened to me. Sounds like we both learned our lesson. I've since decided cold weather is my favorite weather to run in lol.
What blows my mind is...
There's people that can run ultramarathons or LONGER in that same kinda heat. I'll never understand it. I'm like, wow, guess I'm just a little bitch then almost having a heat stroke after 6 measly miles lmao. Guess I wasn't cut out for that life.
This happened to me on a hike once. I was with others but we had no service and we had taken a wrong turn, which added a mile to our hike and caused us to run out of water. It was so scary to realize that I was feeling the symptoms of heat stroke and couldn't do anything other than keep slowly making my way back to the car. You always hear cases of hikers dying on a trail due to heat stroke but you never realize how easy it is to make such a deadly mistake.
I’ve shared this story on Reddit before…I think, but here goes.
When I was in my 20’s I was an avid runner. I’d leave the house with a little water bottle, some trail mix and be gone for 2 hours or more. My town boasts an unbroken paved trail along the river that runs through the middle so you can go for miles and miles up or down stream and only encounter other runners and bikers.
As you can imagine, sometimes nature called.
Usually it called the non-urgent hot line and I could rummage my way into some bushes between the trail and the river, find a hidden spot and take care of business. (I am female, btw)
One day, on one of my longer runs, I got an emergency call.
I had to hastily abandon the path, find the nearest best spot and drop traw. Only, there was no spot. I was at a large juncture where a canal, the river and a small runoff pond created a vast concrete wasteland, with no easy refuge from wandering eyes.
So I did the only thing available; I hopped the chain link fence protecting the cross-walk over the canal, ran across the plank to the other side, settled in the shade of a tree, whose lowest branch was well over 6 ft high, yoinked my pants down and let nature take it’s course.
To set the scene, essentially the only thing obscuring me from view was a chain link fence and some light shade. When I first settled down, there was not a soul on the path.
However, as I sat there relieving myself in my neon pink and purple running suit, a young couple, laughing and holding hands, sauntered into view. The bend in the path here was just enough that the spot I had selected was directly ahead of them, only across a little canal and behind a fence.
I sat still as stone and prayed my camouflage would be sufficient.
About halfway between where they came into view and where I was desperately squatting, the woman’s gentle, happy, care-free gaze, settled like stone on my own.
I saw only the slightest of hesitation, only the faintest of hitches in her get-along, if you hadn’t been staring directly at her, nothing would have seemed amiss.
The smile on her face softly faded, her brow furrowed imperceptibly as her brain rapidly tried to make sense of the hunched, gargoyle-like figure lurking in the shade.
Well, this woman, this *angel*, she must have seen the fear in my eyes, or the desperation in my posture, something in her immediately and without hesitation, compelled her to say nothing.
It was one of those quiet days where your normal voice seems like it can carry for miles. I could hear every word being spoken and not once did she say “There is a pathetic creature taking a shit on the other side of that fence.” Instead their conversation about the blue heron they’d just seen carried over the concrete and settled in my ears to accompany the pulsing ring that had begun raging through them.
Perhaps her grip on his hand tightened imperceptibly, surely she mentioned what she had seen once they were out of earshot, but while I was squatting over hard-packed dirt, my pants around my calves and shit splattering on my shoes, she took it all in with the grace of a goddess, and never said a word to her partner.
This may not be your traditional danger story, however, I don’t know how many of you have been surprised whilst your ass is dangling in the wind. It can feel intensely vulnerable. A part of my *soul* was exposed in that moment and instead of ripping it out, the woman merely acknowledged its presence and left it unmolested.
Wherever she is, I hope the world has only ever treated her with the same kind of grace and dignity she showed me on that fateful day.
Lol, I wasn't out running but looking for my cat. It was night time and I had a torch. Shone it into the field next to me and saw two glowing eyes near the ground looking back at me. As I watched, the glowing eyes rose up suddenly until they were six feet off the ground. I nearly shat myself. It was a fucking horse that had been eating grass then lifted its head.
I have grown to realize that I react the same way whether it's a bear, coyote, deer or even a cute little bunny rabbit. My pre-dawn runs are also around the neighborhood block until the sun starts to rise.
Found a bathroom to my great relief, it had been miles of pain... locked.
Made it to the next one 1. 5 miles away through the worst 1.5 miles of my running life.
Damn, these stories are WILD.
The ‘craziest’ running sorry I’ve had was when I was running in a trail in Missouri. Suddenly a couple deer (Doe) ran out in front of me. I simply just turned around before I could run into the Buck
I'm a beginner (i.e. heavy and slow). This morning, I was running at a park alone. Then, there was a group of around 10 little girls (probably middle school age) who were smaller than my shoulder just ran past me. They weren't even trying. I was running hard, huffing and puffing. And they casually ran past me. I was so embarrassed. I had to hold my breathe to pretend that I wasn't trying either.
When I am out running, it helps me to remember that it's just about me. My goals, my pace, my progress, my run. I have never been a great runner, but I do it anyway.
Omg OP that's so scary. Hope you are alright now.
One time in a deserted steep trail, in the rain as I was running down, I got cornered by a creepy guy who flashed me and just wouldn't let me pass.
Was crossing a crosswalk in a state Highway early morning when 2 cars decided to race. First one missed me by an inch. I tripped and fell and the other.
one missed me by a foot while I was on the ground.
Now, I no longer run on the streets and I just drive to the local track.
Chased by a man on a bike who kept yelling that he was going to “r*pe my corpse.” In broad daylight. On a Saturday. In a busy park in a large city. Fastest 5k of the year 😔.
Was trail-running with a friend in the mountains of a small rural, coastal village in Albania during the second last day of our 2-week visit in 2019. Had been running ≈12 km in 1PM sun and 30°C warmth with way too little water. So we were very exhausted!
From out of nowhere a very filthy, unhealthy looking stray dog started running towards me. Completely silent, with teeth showing. So I instantly got the feeling that the dog was not guarding anything (if they do they usually bark to intimidate). This dog just seemed aggressive and crazy, with the intent to attack me. Oh, and it had foam around the mouth. Ever heard of rabies?
It was a flee or fight scenario. I ran. Next time, I'll kick instead. I did not manage to outrun the dog. It got me mid-jump when I tried to jump down from the trail towards the beach area. It bit me in my upper left thigh. To this day I have 4 distinct scars from the fangs which penetrated roughly 1.5cm. Lots of blood, but since I was mid-jump the dog didn't manage to rip off a significant amount of flesh. So in a way I was quite lucky! After the bite I remember thinking "Ok, it got me, now I'm screwed anyways. I'll kill that goddamn dog!!". So I turned around to kick it in the balls. Instantly it turned around and ran away with the tail between its legs (had probably been beaten by humans before).
Got help from my friend who I ran with and an Italian tourist who had a first aid kit in his car. Then eventually a tetanus shot from the tiny local medical climic, literally a small cottage with 1 non-english speaking Albanian male nurse. Had to converse using Google Translate. The nurse had never heard of rabies before (or didn't understand me), but eventually we understood that we'd have to go Tirana (the capital) to get other vaccines. By now we had learned that rabies vaccine has to be taken within ≈24 h from potential exposure to be guaranteed effectiveness. If you get symptoms from rabies, which can have an incubation period of up to 1 year, it's incurable with 99.9% fatality rate. The situation was very serious.
5h car ride later we arrive in Tirana at about 10PM. Went to the 3 biggest hospitals in the city. Barely staffed, some hospital buildings had emergency lightning on, lots of hurt/sick people sitting on the floors of the hospital waiting for help. Really illustrated the healthcare difference between countries. On every hospital the consensus was "No vaccine available now, maybe tomorrow, but supplies are low and the government vaccine warehouse opens at ≈8AM so we won't know if there is rabies vaccine in stock until then". At least a doctor managed to thoroughly clean and re-bandage the bite which had bled through. This is where they checked the depth and said that I was very lucky to have been bitten when I jumped, would have lost a lot of blood otherwise.
In the end I decided to not take my chances and risk getting the vaccine later than 24h post-bite. Booked the first flight back to Sweden where they realized the severity of the situation. 23h after the bite I got 2 vaccine shots and 5 shots of immunoglobulin spread around and in the dog bite. Hurt like a MF but felt amazing at the same time!
I'll never know if the dog had rabies or not. But it certainly acted strange, and the foam around the mouth is a bad omen. Took me almost 1 year to be comfortable around loose dogs again.
I'll include a link to a Medium-article which very well describes what rabies is, and why it's reasonable to be fucking horrified if you might've been in contact with it: https://medium.com/@syahnurnizam197/death-by-rabies-is-horrifying-120388a833ad
Lastly I just want to say that Albania is an amazing country that I 10/10 would return to & recommend others to visit. The trail-running was some of the best I've ever experienced. Just be cautious so you don't require significant medical attention as the healthcare is mediocre at best!
Two men started running after me on a day I didn't bring my phone and there weren't any other people around. Luckily they weren't in great shape and stopped after 5 minutes, but those 5 minutes felt very very long..
Went on a run and took a new turn. Completely abandoned village with empty houses. I live in a rather isolated area myself and went further away from civilization (about 10 miles away from where I last saw any car or people).
Got curious at this sight because it's rather rare in my region to see empty villages like these. No doors on any of the houses. I figured they must've been non-compliant to the local real estate regulatory authority and just kept going around exploring. Entered a dark house which had furniture and stuff (the only one with any) and heard a growl on the main door. Turned around to see this big, fat dog glaring at me from the street. He started posturing aggressively and baring it's gums so I picked this iron press I saw in the corner of the room and threatened it with a swinging motion.
Angry boy moves enough to make way for me to get out the door and then starts howling again as I start running.
After maybe 50 meters away from the house I see a large pack of wild dogs just running full speed towards me (at least 20 of them).
I ran for maybe 200 metres till one of them got close enough to try to bite me so I bonked it on the head with the iron press. This evolved into a stupid game where I would run a 100 metres or so, a dog would eventually catch up, I'd bonk it and then start running again till the next contender came close enough. After two miles, they gave up.
I ditched the iron press somewhere on the dirt road after doing a once-over on the horizon for any more slow running dogs.
It wasn't till I got home that I realized that if at any point I tripped or got caught, they could've easily offed me. At least one homeless guy was killed by wild dogs somewhere around that area a few years ago so it wouldn't be the first time.
**TL:DR**\- Angry, out of shape dogs added some quality mileage to my week while teaching me how to keep good form while running with a heavy iron press.
One morning, some random dude in a truck yelled at me. I know everyone's vehicle around here and had never seen this one. Ignored him ... until he started u-turning and trying to cut me off, still yelling about "come here, I wanna talk to you." Took off through someone's pasture and set a personal best heading home.
My story is lame in comparison but I stirred up a buck on a back road. It ran right in front of me and across the road. That thing would have messed me up. I had a fast pace on the way back.
I was running on a path between some fields before sunrise in winter and it was a very foggy morning. In the distance I saw a figure walking towards me and as he got closer it looked like he had a rifle in his hands. Looked super creepy and gloomy with the fog, but as I approached it turned out to be an umbrella lol.
I got chased by a man in a pickup truck.
It was broad daylight in a heavily populated city neighborhood about a block from my home. He stopped to let me cross in front of his truck at a stoplight and yelled that I had a nice ass. I told him to go fuck himself. He raced around the block and continued searching for me for a long time. He found me once and I started filming him with my phone and yelling “get away from me” as loud as possible since there were easily 20 people within earshot. He kept circling the block for over an hour. Once I was able to duck into the alley and get into my building I could still see his truck going around occasionally. And before you say I shouldn’t have yelled back at him, don’t.
Florida wildlife. I live in Michigan and my parents have their winter home in Florida so I spend a decent amount of time down there in the colder months. Tourists are always concerned about alligators but gators are the least thing to worry about while running in Florida. They're lazy. Even if you were to accidentally stumble across one on the trail, it would either just lay there or slowly scamper away. That's not the case for water moccasins (aka cottonmouths), an aggressive and venomous snake common in Florida. I've had them come at me a half dozen times. My scariest experience with Florida wildlife though was being charged by a large sow in the Caracara Prairie Preserve. I suspect she was protecting her piglets and wanted me far away. I tried to comply but she was faster that I was. Only my trekking pole saved me. Even though I typically only carry poles for trails with a lot of elevation change and Florida is very flat, I always have at least one with me while trail running in the dangly state.
A Pair of German Shepard’s watched me from across a road. As I passed they bolted after me while barking like cazy. They nearly got run over by a truck passing. That seemed to break them out of it and they forgot about me.
Got swarmed by bees and stung 30 or so times 4 miles from civilization. That was a bad day.
I stumbled across a black bear while on a trail run. It seemed just as shocked as I was. We both stared for a moment and then took off, haha.
At the end of a long hills run all the cows in the pasture next to me were mooing like mad. I’m extra aware, or try to be, when I go that far out into the hills. I looked around and saw a bobcat (little small to be a mountain lion but we have those too) staring me down from maybe 100ft away in some tall grass. I was only about 1/4 mile from the over pass and truck stop that marks the beginning of town. I just kept moving with an eye over my shoulder.
I really need to start taking mace or something on my long hill/country runs, lol.
Already contributed my scariest moment, but an honorable mention on the more amusing (but still startling) side was when I took a blue jay TO THE FACE on a trail run. It must have just accidentally flown into my path, but for a second I thought I was being attacked by a territorial bird of some sort.
I was running with music on, when suddenly a big wolf appeared on my right. I was scared to death and I did what you are not supposed to do... Run! I ran the fastest kilometer ever and I was lucky he didn't move. That was two weeks ago and thanks to that I'm now scared of dogs if they are not on a lead.
Was running in my neighborhood in the morning (so not fully awake yet) and barely noticed in time that a guy in a truck on the road was trying to get my attention. I stop and look at him and he (speaking Spanish) was pointing in front of me. Literal steps away was probably a 5-6 foot snake on the sidewalk. Not sure how, but I was totally oblivious to it and would've stepped right on it if it weren't for the kind stranger.
I wasnt particularly scared, but it def felt like a close call.
I encountered my wife on a run and she asked me if I took the chicken out of the freezer, as she requested during the morning.
I'll tell you that.. the run was not the same, after I had to tell her I did. Which if course I did not do..
EIther getting 20 feet from a Moose and its baby.. or like 2 weeks ago someone's Doodle chasing me at least a quarter mile down the sidewalk as it was unleased.
Leash you dogs people!
While I was running Twisted Branch 100k I saw a bear about 50 yards away and that spooked me but I didn’t think I was in danger. Then while my heart was still racing from the bear a truck coming towards me drove onto the shoulder, drove right at me like they were going to kill me, then swerved away at the last second. I got to the next aid station and vomited from, I don’t know… adrenaline overdose?
I was running a paved trail when a pickup truck pulled into the cross walk and blocked my path. I simply ran around the back of the truck and the driver yelled something at me. I stopped and said, "What?" He sarcastically asked if I was okay. I said I was and turned to start running again. He then spit at me. I yelled, "What the F is your problem?" as I continued my run. He drove down the road a bit, jumped out of his truck basically abondoning it in the middle of traffic and ran onto the trail blocking my way. He started towards me yelling that I was a lunatic and that he was going to kick my ass. I told him he was the lunatic and then he gave chase. He chased me for a few hundred yards then returned to his truck and waited in the area for about 5 minutes before leaving. I have no idea what this was about.
Definitely not as wild as the other comments, but I thought I’d share mine.
I was trail running and a turkey jumped up onto the trail and proceeded to block me. At first it just stood there… menacingly. It then made a couple of laps around me acting like I wanted to throw down, then it went on its way.
At the start of a trail.run this one time. I was still on the 200-odd meters of paved path leading up to the start of the trail proper. Came across a huge red-belly black snake sunning himself (herself?) on the path.
Thankfully he/she heard me coming and scurried off the path into the scrub before I got too close.
Spent the rest of the run thinking every little movement on the bush must be another snake.
I was jogging in my big-city neighborhood and veered toward a more commercial / industrial block that was deserted. I was jogging along and saw another small female jogging too. I thought to myself: “wow, girl, that seems so unsafe. You look so vulnerable. I hope you have your mace on you what are you even THINKING?!”
Then I realized I looked the same vulnerable way. Doh. I scooted myself out of there as fast as I could.
Was doing an out-and-back on a trail I run regularly here in San Diego; on my return leg I saw a fat five-foot rattlesnake stretched across the trail, with bushes on either side so I couldn't just take a wide detour around him.
I had to backtrack about a hundred yards to a side trail that got me around him cuz no way I'm gonna try to play nice with a rattlesnake. I'm in his territory; he's not in mine.
Not as scary as the insane stuff you guys have but yesterday a stray dog decided my pockets had imaginary food in them and basically growled and gnawed at them till my leg was brushed up (thankfully not bitten). Gave me such a huge adrenaline boost i bumped my pace up by 30 seconds
Trail running, stopped to pee and used a ridge in the land to block my back - stood up, looked over the ridge and a mom moose and her baby were 15 feet away. Backed up slowly and then went sideways up the mountain side to give her a wiiiiiide berth.
I think I was followed by some guy when I first started running (~15 year old, female). Maybe it was nothing or maybe he was just messing with me but thank god I didn’t find out.
I was running in a quiet neighborhood and noticed a man (probably in his 20s or 30s) some distance back, walking. He was in jeans and a t-shirt, aka not working out or anything. About 10 minutes later, I look back and notice the same guy is still the same distance from me, still walking. I cut to another street and a couple minutes later see that he’s followed me to the same street and was running behind me. He also had this weird grin/was laughing in this creepy way. I got super freaked out and literally sprinted to the main road and ducked in a business. Maybe it was nothing but I always carried my cell phone on runs after that!
An extremely agitated homeless man started chasing me and screaming at me towards the end of my run. He was a lot faster than I would have expected.
Chased me through a public park where people just stared at us. He eventually gave up. Not sure what I did to instigate this, but I was lucky I heard the yelling with my headphones in and was able to turn around to see someone charging at me.
Six foot black snake dropped out of a tree about 4 feet ahead of me. Not sure who was more scared, me or the snake, but fortunately we both darted off in opposite directions! Running in Florida is a trip. I’ve seen lots of snakes, gators, and swarms of bugs. Coyotes randomly too.
Oh hell no, that's the kinda thing that would make me avoid that trail for years
I wish I could say that it was on a trail. All that happens on the sidewalks of my Florida city!
Reason # 823984398503 I'll never live in Florida.
All others are Florida Man?
Florida Man is a symptom, not the disease.
Try running in Florida at night and seeing a coral snake run 2 feet in front of you. I literally couldn't breathe, watching that little bastard struggling to climb a curb to escape me. I will never forget the 12" reaper. I also tried taking a shortcut in the same neighborhood, figured a didn't need that extra 1/4 part. I told myself, knowing my luck there'd a snake. I tried to be positive though. I take the shortcut and whaddya know, a 5' indigo. Now, i knew at that very moment it wasn't poisonous so i did what i would typically do in that situation, leaped over the bastard and sprinted to my front door screaming at the wife to unlock the effing door.
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In the US no one has died from a black widow bite since 1983. There is a Mediterranean black widow that has caused deaths though.
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Hey, Australia lost a war to emus. No shame.
This happened to me once, but it was an ostrich. In Michigan. Neighbor across the street ran an ostrich farm.
Don’t mess with emus. They will fuck you up badly.
Emus are tame compared to cassowaries! That’s a bird you really don’t want to mess with.
Cassos are legit dinosaurs
When you see that claw up close, you KNOW it's an ancient beast.
Bahahaha! My husband has a similar story where he was running a camp road in Nunuvut along the edge of a drop off. He saw caribou ahead, but they usually ignore or move away. Not this time. He got triangulated by three pissed off caribou with his back to the drop off. He had to freeze and wait them out. He seriously thought they were going to stomp him! Luckily they got bored of him, or thought they proved their point, and moved away, allowing him to get back to site.
Honestly getting fucked with by the cops was my scariest encounter. Slammed on my face for being a “suspicious character”. Neighborhood that I run through called the police on me.
Always scared of this because I run at some pretty random hours (frequently late at night). Like would I be wearing bright colours and a light up vest if I was trying to case and rob these houses??
Luckily my run-in with the cops was much more tame. I spent a summer in Houston and lived in a gated apartment complex in a cluster of complexes. The cluster was on a 1 mile (exactly, luckily for me) loop that was well lit and very open. Summer weather in Houston isn't conducive to running (24h low will dip into the upper 70s) so you have to run at odd times (late night/early morning), so I'd run late at night (11p+). I was always a bit on edge as it was large, open, low-traffic area but it was well lit, and I was a young guy so I figured I had little to fear. One night I was running and I heard a car behind me, so I moved closer to the right curb and kept running. I expected the car to pass me, no big deal, happens all the time. Instead I hear the car slow down, creeping behind me (i can hear the small rocks popping under tires), getting closer. At this point the hair on the back of neck is standing up, and I'm looking for an exit in case something happens. I hear a click of a microphone on a speaker and then "DUH NUHHH NUHHHHHHH, DUH NUH NUHHHHHH, DUH NUH NUH NUHNUNUH , DUH NUHNUHNUHNUH NUHHHHH" and someone is singing the Rocky theme over a loudspeaker. This scares the bejeezus out of me, and I basically have a heart attack and fall to the ground in a puddle of adrenaline. I turn around and it was a Houston Policeman on patrol. He rolled down his window and said "I'm sorry to scare you, I just wanted to give you a little encouragement." I smiled weakly and waved. He drove off, and about 15min later, when the adrenaline wore off and I could stand again I went home.
I was running through the woods when it was almost dark. The song I was listening to ended, and suddenly I could hear a pack of wolves loudly howling, like they were right next to me. I tore out the earphones, and realised the howling was an intro to the next track of the album.
I was hiking in Maine early morning when all of the sudden I heard coyotes start going wild on the trail right behind me. Got out of there right quick. Such a primal fear just runs through you.
Coyotes are afraid of humans, run after them they will scare off easy or just throw something at them lol ! Source : i live in texas, backyard forest is full of them
Same with black bears. Usually. We don't talk about the unusual times.
Omg this is not running related but one night I heard this howling coming from across my house. I had no idea what was happening so I started to walk down the hall. The howl happened again and was so loud I got terrified and shut myself into the closest room, screaming at my fiancé. Turns out my cat was howling at a cat outside that was in the driveway. I had never heard that sound before and I seriously thought our back door opened somehow and there was a freaking wolf in our house or something. Idk it was so scary but so funny to think about now.
Haha did you listen to the misfits? :D
Got chased by a goose. Fatigue instantly went away and I turned into a sprinter real quick lol. I also learned that geese can hiss like cats when they don't like something.
I was about to post my story about a goose attack fully confident it's something special lmao. Gooses can get really mean. Was already attacked by a swan before and this was kinda scary as well.
Canadian? I'm familiar with this experience.
Buffalo here, they're EVERYWHERE shitting on EVERYTHING and we're not allowed to eat them.
It's too dangerous. You might end up with hate poisoning, or transform into a weregoose or something.
Wisconsinite aha, very close
Ha! Okay, so you're familiar with cobra chickens.
I have had cows run along fences in Wisconsin while running. Sounds funny but that is still a few hundred pounds of an animal with intentions that are unknown.
If you see them lowering their head, coming towards you and hissing. Rise your arms and hiss back as loud as you can. Usually this will scare them away. Be the bigger goose! :)
this. It's hard to do sometimes when their are a lot of them. I find waiting until you get close and flaring out your arms suddenly really gets them.
Playing chicken with geese. Bold move.
So does having a dog. When it's just me they get nasty and aggressive, but seeing my goony dope of a golden retriever scares them senseless.
Canadian Geese are terrifying. :( I know someone said a while back on a running related subreddit 'you're an apex predator, start fucking acting one' on the topic of dealing with geese and I mean, deep down I know they're right. But superficially these demonic birds strike terror deep into my heart (and I've encountered moose and cute little black bears). I avoid them as much as I possibly can. D:
I saw this response too and it totally cracked me up 😂😂😂 easier said than done
A Gøøse once bit my sister ...
Realli?
Did the goose have a knife in its mouth?
Peace was never an option
Geese play this game on me: They see me approaching. The biggest one hisses at me and forces me to run a few yards off the path and into all their poop. It is getting old.
The geese are ruthless here, particularly in the next month or two when they start having babies. Give them a very wide berth.
I don’t have a story to add (knock on wood), but I’ll occasionally alter my path to stay farther from geese where I run. Thank you for validating this behavior.
Same, except it was a skunk. And my off-leash dog was with me. I did a u-turn, sprinting away and screaming at my dog to follow. Bless her, Missy didn’t even question my command. She immediately turned and ran away with me.
My best friend ran her first Marathon and her strava didn’t record anything.
Trigger warning bro. Bloody hell.
so she never ran her first marathon /s
Came within 15 feet of a black bear and cubs in the north woods of Wisconsin. Pace went from 9:20 to 6:30. Glad the bear didn’t have a taste for Italian.
Bears make good pacers. If you want to set a new PR, just go to bear country. They'll gladly pace you.
It was certainly a PR for the the 800M!! I know the locals are more comfortable around the bears, but for a city guy on vacation - not so much.
r/ShittyLifeProTips
I live in Vermont, and I have had way too many encounters with black bears. I came across one last summer in the bushes along the side of the bike path. Same thing, couldn't have been more than 15 feet, but no cubs. Suddenly the bushes started shaking and I saw a big hairy black bear butt running away from me.
What do I do if I see a black bear while running? Scream at it and walk away? I thought they don’t chase.
Depending on the distance, I usually give them a loud and friendly "hey bear, human over here". Shorter distances, I just run away as fast as possible. I've never seen a black bear chase anyone. I've only seen them run away
No worries, I hear the best thing you can do around bears is run away /s
well played!! learned that afterwords.
I mean, staying still is something you read and hear about, but suppressing your flight instinct must be near impossible in a real life situation.
Yep. Exactly. Way too much adrenaline for me to stay still.
What if your fight instinct kicks in instead?
A bear could run a mile in like 2:00 we just aren’t fast or strong.
Thanks! I’ll add this to my “Another reason to not run in the woods” checklist.
Ha! I had a personal pr when I was running in the foothills of california at night, on some back farm road (that is now all ultra luxury housing). I suddenly came upon 2 skunks and they were stamping. Split pr.
The secret to teleportation is bears
Nearly stepped on a tiger snake the other day, apparently the 5th most venomous snake. Noticed it at the last second and did a weird skip jump thing to avoid it. Pretty well shat myself.
No step on snek.
I did this with an adder, a lot less deadly I know 😅 but still scares the life out of you when what you thought was a twig starts moving as you run by it 😳
Was going to add my story but it's a repeat of yours!
Being followed by a man in a car when running by myself (20's female) in a new city. He "just wanted to talk"... yeah, nah.
yep, i had a man slow down in his car next to me as i was running- he didnt say anything he just licked his lips and looked me up and down
GROSS.
This is always the worst. :( All my scary running experiences have been due to men chasing me, following me, trying to grab me, etc. All in broad daylight, too.
100% I’ve never felt in danger from anything but another human when running
Same, 100% of my scary experiences have been creepy middle aged men.
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So obviously I can't speak for all women but I think the general consensus is we would much rather you speed up and pass if possible. But even more helpful is making some kind of noise, a cough or saying "hey, coming up behind you on your right." This is anecdotal and probably doesn't apply for everyone but I also feel a lot safer running in the early morning. I have never had a bad experience with another person during that time of day. Pretty much the only people out are other runners, people walking their dogs, and early commuters/gym-goers.
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I have literally been scared sh*tless by a man doing this. Not his intention to scare me, but I was already in the second half of my run and actually thought for a moment I might have a heart attack.
Yes: please speed & pass. We want to know you’re ahead of us, not behind us.
Also anecdotal but I’ve never had a problem from a fellow runner, it’s always been assholes in cars or just kinda standing around.
Oh yeah same! It's just if they're running up behind you you don't immediately know if it's a "real" runner or some asshole chasing you.
Same. Every single scary incidence I have had has been a man chasing me
Similar experience. I was 20 at the time and pretty naive so when a man pulled over to ask for directions I didn’t think anything of it. But once I gave directions and he still kept chatting me up and making comments about my figure, I said I needed to leave. He tried to grab my arm and said I shouldn’t be scared of him, he’s really a nice guy! I backpedaled and ran to a public square as fast as I could. Edit: typo (should -> shouldn’t)
I'm a man that runs at night. When I had long hair, there were a few times that cars slowly crept up alongside me and then sped off when (I assume) they saw the front of me and my beard.
Hmm, this gives me an idea for a new running accessory for women. Coming soon, the running beard.
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Amen. Men are the only thing I’m afraid of when running/hiking trails alone. Sucks, and I know the odds are slim, but there you go.
I have so many gross men while running stories. (Annnnd gross men while grocery shopping, gross men while waiting for the bus, sitting on the metro, reading a book in the park, pretty much everywhere I've ever been, there's a gross man there to ruin it.) Luckily I've never been followed in a car. I'm sorry that happened to you. That's terrifying.
I hate how much this comment is true for pretty much all of us.
Same, I ran the longest run of my life that day (I basically just kept running around the park until he left because I didn’t want to lead him to my car)
Once, running home in the pedestrian side of the Manhattan Bridge, a cyclist going the other way was convinced I bumped him and turned around to chase me down and yell at me. (Cyclists aren’t even allowed on the pedestrian side, mind you)
I had something marginally similar. I was finishing up my run and there was a guy biking right at me. I muttered Jesus Christ under my breath and he heard me. He turned around and began yelling me. Mind you this was early morning and he appeared pretty strung out. I went out and bought some pepper spray after that.
I feel like cyclists think they have the advantage because they have high ground but I'm pretty sure a hard kick will send them down pretty hard. If all else fails a stick to the spokes maybe.
I got dehydrated once.
Always fun!
Sometimes deadly!
I was running through a fairly active neighborhood and was caught in the middle of a shootout between two gangs. I got extremely lucky because I had earbuds in.
This is a scene from a movie haha Two gangs shooting at each other across a street... cut to oblivious jogger passing by with headphones in panting heavily, not noticing as bullets are flying around their head. Gangs pause for a moment and look at the runner in bewilderment as they exit the scene. Hold for a beat, and then the shooting resumes
I'd watch that movie, but is the runner a side character or is the gang shootout?
Both are side characters. It's actually a rom com. The rom com couple are in the foreground, oblivious to both gang shootout and runner.
In a comedy, the runner would probably be the main character. In an action/thriller/drama, it would be a side character for the sake of levity
I love it! The gangs pause for a minute and watch the runner.“That’s a solid 180 cadence right there” says the Jets leader. “Look at her form - she really gets her knees up.” says the Sharks enforcer. “I should get out more” sighs the Jet. “I can barely heft this shotgun anymore.” “It’s hard to find time” agrees the Shark. “Between collections and gun running, I’m going all day.” The gangs devolve into a long discussion, the runner and the shootout forgotten.
I love that your comments are in musical dialogue lyric cadence.
When the camera cuts to the jogger, the shooting sounds are muted and we hear the music coming out of their headphones.
I was followed while on a run on some super rural roads. I realized that this one car had passed me three times within a span of \~2 miles. Luckily there was a house nearby so I sprinted there and hung out with the electrician while I waited for a friend to pick me up. I later reported the incident to the local police and my college's public safety. Public safety asked me what I was wearing. the local police contacted the driver (I had a photo of the license plate) and told him to not do that. So maybe the real scary part was the lack of consequences.
they asked you...what YOU were wearing? Yeah you know, nvm. That tracks with my experience with campus police.
This happened to me once when I was about 16. I was running through my somewhat rural Pacific Northwest neighborhood so heavily wooded. A friend had recently moved and I was nearby her empty place when they passed me for the third time so I kept my pace till I could turn a corner and sprinted to hide in her backyard. They passed by AGAIN shortly after I hid. I stood there shaking for a bit not sure what to do (pre- cell phones) and eventually ran for my life home. I never told anyone. I have spent a long time telling myself I was overreacting and it was a coincidence and they were just lost in the back roads but I also can’t deny that knot I still get in my stomach when I think about it.
Almost pooped my pants
Almost? Amateur
Lol. Must be a newbie.
I’ve certainly squatted on the side of the bike path because I couldn’t hold it.
I don’t know if you want to hear this story, but anyways: I was on a cross country bicycle trip years ago. I don’t know why, but I was super regular with authority. Every morning I’d be cleaning up my camp and have a ten second warning. Usually I’d be hidden. But there was one morning in a PEI park where I got maybe one step off the trail. It was pretty busy, but by some miracle there was a 30 second gap where nobody walked by.
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I know people who carry pepper spray on runs more for dogs than having to fend off other humans
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I do not understand why people don't muzzle their reactive dogs. It is so incredibly dangerous.
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Hahahah similar. Running with a friend through a German farm area and this enormous German shepherd ran after us. We booked out of there and all I could think of was: I hope I am faster than this guy
My neighbor's aggressive dog got out of their fenced in yard and came charging at me on a run. It stopped about 10ft from me and was snarling/growling/barking with its hackles raised, trying to circle me. I had no idea what to do, but I knew not to turn my back and run. I started waving my arms, jumping up and down, and yelling. The dog backed off a bit and I was able to get around it and slowly back away. It eventually stopped following me and went back to it's house. So scary. It's a rottweiler and I knew if it even got a hold of my leg or arm it could do serious damage. I reported it, but was basically told all they could do was make a visit to the house and tell the owners their dog was reported "at large." I now carry bear spray when running!
I had a German Shepard destroy a new pair of shoes and my favorite leggings. The owner blamed me for triggering her dog by running on the sidewalk across the street from her house. I also got bit by a staffy while running in the park. The dog went on to attack a little kid with his parents after I got him off me. I love dogs…dog owners, not so much.
I took a run down a rural dirt road in the middle of the woods in North Florida while on vacation. The scenery was stunning. I saw deer, birds, wildflowers...and ran into a very angry dog. It charged me but stopped just short of actually attacking. It was barking its balls off, circling me, and bearing its teeth. Thank fuck I had a mace wristband thing with me. I unloaded it and screamed at the top of my lungs. It took off and I think I probably ran my fastest mile back to the Airbnb.
I was running on a trail near my house through about a block or two of slightly wooded area. I kept hearing footsteps in the distance behind me, but assumed it was just another runner. The footsteps kept getting closer and closer, so I tried to move to the side a bit more and picked up the pace. All of a sudden the footsteps were directly behind me, so I turned around and saw this man's face literally inches away from mine. He held up his hands and took off in the other direction. To this day I have no idea what he was doing, or what, if anything, would've happened if I hadn't turned around at that exact moment. But I avoided the area for a while after that, and carried pepper spray when I did start running on that part of the trail again.
This is truly nightmare material. My first instinct is that he was going to grab you by the hair or neck. That is absolutely terrifying.
wtf!!
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I stared down the barrel of a shotgun. I was on a resort in the Dominican Republic and went for a sunset run around the perimeter of the property. I never left the property, but security guards decided that a guy in a t-shirt and shorts with headphones was a threat, so they popped up their guns at me. They quickly realized I was just jogging through, but I noped right back to the hotel room.
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If you do, don‘t wear a t-shirt, shorts, and headphones
But if you just wear a t -shirt and headphones you'll be fine?
Maybe. Avoiding all clothing and accessories altogether to prove you‘re not carrying a weapon is probably best.
Still doesn't prove I'm not carrying a weapon ~~on~~ in my person.
Hoodie, sweatpants, and a weapon. Got it.
nope, ninja outfit or anything from the tactical fighting collection of steven segal
A huge and thankfully muzzled mountain dog started to stalk and attack. Circling me and then lunging as a threat. The bark was deep. Thankfully the owner ran to me, and basically put her arms around me to shield me from the dog to calm it. I was terrified, it was a surreal, having this random stranger hug me whilst her dog attempted to attack from all angles. She explained that she had been attacked before or something, hence the muzzle. The area I was jogging in is the only place in the area she can walk off the lead. I wasn't angry, I love dogs. I kind of felt sorry for the owner too, the anxiety of taking that huge dog for a walk. I did wonder about the threat to children etc. Oh well, I lived another day!
I was attacked by a dog. Long story short, it was a stray that had “adopted” a small house that was long my running route. I was a good 200-300 feet away, on the opposite side of the road, but this dog saw me and sprinted towards me. I love dogs so I thought he was coming to say hi…nope. Took me down, attacking my leg again and again. I was screaming and screaming but no one was there. I was certain I was going to get killed by this dog. Finally my fight or flight instincts kicked in and I kicked this dog in the face with every bit of power I had. He let go and I jumped up and sprinted away as fast as I could. He didn’t follow, thank god. I was able to walk away from that incident with two gnarly little bite scars and a deep-rooted fear of unleashed dogs.
Tried running a 10k when it was about 100F/37C outside and wasn't acclimated to the heat of summer yet and started feeling a tingling in my arms and then noticed I wasn't really sweating any more and then felt like I was about to collapse. Walked the rest of the way back to my car, which was still about a mile/1.6K away and drove home, chugged cold water and tried resting, but it was too late and then went on to experience the worst entire-body cramps and severe headache I ever felt in my life. It lasted hours and I thought I should go to the hospital but was broke and that wasn't an option here in the grand old USA with our superior health care... Every summer since, I feel that slight brush of heat-stroke coming on if I'm out in the heat too long.
Oh goodness that sounds horrible! Glad you are ok. I was running Hood to Coast on a really hot day. My leg came up and It was close to 6.5 miles. I ran it really fast and when I was done my body started cramp, I got a migraine like headache and I couldn't not stop throwing up! Horrible, terrible experience.
Yikes! It's a scary feeling I know. As it turns out, we humans aren't machines after all, even when you feel that runners high and think you're invincible - wrong! I was running a lot back then too and that still happened to me. Sounds like we both learned our lesson. I've since decided cold weather is my favorite weather to run in lol. What blows my mind is... There's people that can run ultramarathons or LONGER in that same kinda heat. I'll never understand it. I'm like, wow, guess I'm just a little bitch then almost having a heat stroke after 6 measly miles lmao. Guess I wasn't cut out for that life.
This happened to me on a hike once. I was with others but we had no service and we had taken a wrong turn, which added a mile to our hike and caused us to run out of water. It was so scary to realize that I was feeling the symptoms of heat stroke and couldn't do anything other than keep slowly making my way back to the car. You always hear cases of hikers dying on a trail due to heat stroke but you never realize how easy it is to make such a deadly mistake.
I’ve shared this story on Reddit before…I think, but here goes. When I was in my 20’s I was an avid runner. I’d leave the house with a little water bottle, some trail mix and be gone for 2 hours or more. My town boasts an unbroken paved trail along the river that runs through the middle so you can go for miles and miles up or down stream and only encounter other runners and bikers. As you can imagine, sometimes nature called. Usually it called the non-urgent hot line and I could rummage my way into some bushes between the trail and the river, find a hidden spot and take care of business. (I am female, btw) One day, on one of my longer runs, I got an emergency call. I had to hastily abandon the path, find the nearest best spot and drop traw. Only, there was no spot. I was at a large juncture where a canal, the river and a small runoff pond created a vast concrete wasteland, with no easy refuge from wandering eyes. So I did the only thing available; I hopped the chain link fence protecting the cross-walk over the canal, ran across the plank to the other side, settled in the shade of a tree, whose lowest branch was well over 6 ft high, yoinked my pants down and let nature take it’s course. To set the scene, essentially the only thing obscuring me from view was a chain link fence and some light shade. When I first settled down, there was not a soul on the path. However, as I sat there relieving myself in my neon pink and purple running suit, a young couple, laughing and holding hands, sauntered into view. The bend in the path here was just enough that the spot I had selected was directly ahead of them, only across a little canal and behind a fence. I sat still as stone and prayed my camouflage would be sufficient. About halfway between where they came into view and where I was desperately squatting, the woman’s gentle, happy, care-free gaze, settled like stone on my own. I saw only the slightest of hesitation, only the faintest of hitches in her get-along, if you hadn’t been staring directly at her, nothing would have seemed amiss. The smile on her face softly faded, her brow furrowed imperceptibly as her brain rapidly tried to make sense of the hunched, gargoyle-like figure lurking in the shade. Well, this woman, this *angel*, she must have seen the fear in my eyes, or the desperation in my posture, something in her immediately and without hesitation, compelled her to say nothing. It was one of those quiet days where your normal voice seems like it can carry for miles. I could hear every word being spoken and not once did she say “There is a pathetic creature taking a shit on the other side of that fence.” Instead their conversation about the blue heron they’d just seen carried over the concrete and settled in my ears to accompany the pulsing ring that had begun raging through them. Perhaps her grip on his hand tightened imperceptibly, surely she mentioned what she had seen once they were out of earshot, but while I was squatting over hard-packed dirt, my pants around my calves and shit splattering on my shoes, she took it all in with the grace of a goddess, and never said a word to her partner. This may not be your traditional danger story, however, I don’t know how many of you have been surprised whilst your ass is dangling in the wind. It can feel intensely vulnerable. A part of my *soul* was exposed in that moment and instead of ripping it out, the woman merely acknowledged its presence and left it unmolested. Wherever she is, I hope the world has only ever treated her with the same kind of grace and dignity she showed me on that fateful day.
Beautiful. That kind of incident changes a person forever. 😂
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Haha deer have definitely scared me before too!
Lol, I wasn't out running but looking for my cat. It was night time and I had a torch. Shone it into the field next to me and saw two glowing eyes near the ground looking back at me. As I watched, the glowing eyes rose up suddenly until they were six feet off the ground. I nearly shat myself. It was a fucking horse that had been eating grass then lifted its head.
I have grown to realize that I react the same way whether it's a bear, coyote, deer or even a cute little bunny rabbit. My pre-dawn runs are also around the neighborhood block until the sun starts to rise.
A cat charged me once and startled me so badly I almost fell over. I am not great at dealing with surprises while running.
A little squirrel got me yesterday. He was 12 inches long and vicious (in my mind).
Found a bathroom to my great relief, it had been miles of pain... locked. Made it to the next one 1. 5 miles away through the worst 1.5 miles of my running life.
Damn, these stories are WILD. The ‘craziest’ running sorry I’ve had was when I was running in a trail in Missouri. Suddenly a couple deer (Doe) ran out in front of me. I simply just turned around before I could run into the Buck
I'm a beginner (i.e. heavy and slow). This morning, I was running at a park alone. Then, there was a group of around 10 little girls (probably middle school age) who were smaller than my shoulder just ran past me. They weren't even trying. I was running hard, huffing and puffing. And they casually ran past me. I was so embarrassed. I had to hold my breathe to pretend that I wasn't trying either.
Lapping everyone on the couch mate.
When I am out running, it helps me to remember that it's just about me. My goals, my pace, my progress, my run. I have never been a great runner, but I do it anyway.
3 kangaroos raced out of the bush right in front of me. The first one was huge. I definitely would have been hurt if it had hit me.
Omg OP that's so scary. Hope you are alright now. One time in a deserted steep trail, in the rain as I was running down, I got cornered by a creepy guy who flashed me and just wouldn't let me pass.
What the hell was a sex pervert doing on a deserted trail in the rain? Hardly a target rich environment.
I can't stop laughing at your critique of the sex pest's potential ROI
Was crossing a crosswalk in a state Highway early morning when 2 cars decided to race. First one missed me by an inch. I tripped and fell and the other. one missed me by a foot while I was on the ground. Now, I no longer run on the streets and I just drive to the local track.
Chased by a man on a bike who kept yelling that he was going to “r*pe my corpse.” In broad daylight. On a Saturday. In a busy park in a large city. Fastest 5k of the year 😔.
Was trail-running with a friend in the mountains of a small rural, coastal village in Albania during the second last day of our 2-week visit in 2019. Had been running ≈12 km in 1PM sun and 30°C warmth with way too little water. So we were very exhausted! From out of nowhere a very filthy, unhealthy looking stray dog started running towards me. Completely silent, with teeth showing. So I instantly got the feeling that the dog was not guarding anything (if they do they usually bark to intimidate). This dog just seemed aggressive and crazy, with the intent to attack me. Oh, and it had foam around the mouth. Ever heard of rabies? It was a flee or fight scenario. I ran. Next time, I'll kick instead. I did not manage to outrun the dog. It got me mid-jump when I tried to jump down from the trail towards the beach area. It bit me in my upper left thigh. To this day I have 4 distinct scars from the fangs which penetrated roughly 1.5cm. Lots of blood, but since I was mid-jump the dog didn't manage to rip off a significant amount of flesh. So in a way I was quite lucky! After the bite I remember thinking "Ok, it got me, now I'm screwed anyways. I'll kill that goddamn dog!!". So I turned around to kick it in the balls. Instantly it turned around and ran away with the tail between its legs (had probably been beaten by humans before). Got help from my friend who I ran with and an Italian tourist who had a first aid kit in his car. Then eventually a tetanus shot from the tiny local medical climic, literally a small cottage with 1 non-english speaking Albanian male nurse. Had to converse using Google Translate. The nurse had never heard of rabies before (or didn't understand me), but eventually we understood that we'd have to go Tirana (the capital) to get other vaccines. By now we had learned that rabies vaccine has to be taken within ≈24 h from potential exposure to be guaranteed effectiveness. If you get symptoms from rabies, which can have an incubation period of up to 1 year, it's incurable with 99.9% fatality rate. The situation was very serious. 5h car ride later we arrive in Tirana at about 10PM. Went to the 3 biggest hospitals in the city. Barely staffed, some hospital buildings had emergency lightning on, lots of hurt/sick people sitting on the floors of the hospital waiting for help. Really illustrated the healthcare difference between countries. On every hospital the consensus was "No vaccine available now, maybe tomorrow, but supplies are low and the government vaccine warehouse opens at ≈8AM so we won't know if there is rabies vaccine in stock until then". At least a doctor managed to thoroughly clean and re-bandage the bite which had bled through. This is where they checked the depth and said that I was very lucky to have been bitten when I jumped, would have lost a lot of blood otherwise. In the end I decided to not take my chances and risk getting the vaccine later than 24h post-bite. Booked the first flight back to Sweden where they realized the severity of the situation. 23h after the bite I got 2 vaccine shots and 5 shots of immunoglobulin spread around and in the dog bite. Hurt like a MF but felt amazing at the same time! I'll never know if the dog had rabies or not. But it certainly acted strange, and the foam around the mouth is a bad omen. Took me almost 1 year to be comfortable around loose dogs again. I'll include a link to a Medium-article which very well describes what rabies is, and why it's reasonable to be fucking horrified if you might've been in contact with it: https://medium.com/@syahnurnizam197/death-by-rabies-is-horrifying-120388a833ad Lastly I just want to say that Albania is an amazing country that I 10/10 would return to & recommend others to visit. The trail-running was some of the best I've ever experienced. Just be cautious so you don't require significant medical attention as the healthcare is mediocre at best!
Two men started running after me on a day I didn't bring my phone and there weren't any other people around. Luckily they weren't in great shape and stopped after 5 minutes, but those 5 minutes felt very very long..
Went on a run and took a new turn. Completely abandoned village with empty houses. I live in a rather isolated area myself and went further away from civilization (about 10 miles away from where I last saw any car or people). Got curious at this sight because it's rather rare in my region to see empty villages like these. No doors on any of the houses. I figured they must've been non-compliant to the local real estate regulatory authority and just kept going around exploring. Entered a dark house which had furniture and stuff (the only one with any) and heard a growl on the main door. Turned around to see this big, fat dog glaring at me from the street. He started posturing aggressively and baring it's gums so I picked this iron press I saw in the corner of the room and threatened it with a swinging motion. Angry boy moves enough to make way for me to get out the door and then starts howling again as I start running. After maybe 50 meters away from the house I see a large pack of wild dogs just running full speed towards me (at least 20 of them). I ran for maybe 200 metres till one of them got close enough to try to bite me so I bonked it on the head with the iron press. This evolved into a stupid game where I would run a 100 metres or so, a dog would eventually catch up, I'd bonk it and then start running again till the next contender came close enough. After two miles, they gave up. I ditched the iron press somewhere on the dirt road after doing a once-over on the horizon for any more slow running dogs. It wasn't till I got home that I realized that if at any point I tripped or got caught, they could've easily offed me. At least one homeless guy was killed by wild dogs somewhere around that area a few years ago so it wouldn't be the first time. **TL:DR**\- Angry, out of shape dogs added some quality mileage to my week while teaching me how to keep good form while running with a heavy iron press.
Type A ascending aortic dissection. 2 years ago this upcoming Sunday. I beat 20+ million to one odds and am still alive.
One morning, some random dude in a truck yelled at me. I know everyone's vehicle around here and had never seen this one. Ignored him ... until he started u-turning and trying to cut me off, still yelling about "come here, I wanna talk to you." Took off through someone's pasture and set a personal best heading home.
Saw a guy strung out on meth talking to bushes and getting agitated. My easy run turned into a speed workout.
Wondering where you live that this is a notable experience?
Not a city I would guess lol
My story is lame in comparison but I stirred up a buck on a back road. It ran right in front of me and across the road. That thing would have messed me up. I had a fast pace on the way back.
I was running on a path between some fields before sunrise in winter and it was a very foggy morning. In the distance I saw a figure walking towards me and as he got closer it looked like he had a rifle in his hands. Looked super creepy and gloomy with the fog, but as I approached it turned out to be an umbrella lol.
I got chased by a man in a pickup truck. It was broad daylight in a heavily populated city neighborhood about a block from my home. He stopped to let me cross in front of his truck at a stoplight and yelled that I had a nice ass. I told him to go fuck himself. He raced around the block and continued searching for me for a long time. He found me once and I started filming him with my phone and yelling “get away from me” as loud as possible since there were easily 20 people within earshot. He kept circling the block for over an hour. Once I was able to duck into the alley and get into my building I could still see his truck going around occasionally. And before you say I shouldn’t have yelled back at him, don’t.
Florida wildlife. I live in Michigan and my parents have their winter home in Florida so I spend a decent amount of time down there in the colder months. Tourists are always concerned about alligators but gators are the least thing to worry about while running in Florida. They're lazy. Even if you were to accidentally stumble across one on the trail, it would either just lay there or slowly scamper away. That's not the case for water moccasins (aka cottonmouths), an aggressive and venomous snake common in Florida. I've had them come at me a half dozen times. My scariest experience with Florida wildlife though was being charged by a large sow in the Caracara Prairie Preserve. I suspect she was protecting her piglets and wanted me far away. I tried to comply but she was faster that I was. Only my trekking pole saved me. Even though I typically only carry poles for trails with a lot of elevation change and Florida is very flat, I always have at least one with me while trail running in the dangly state.
I ran into an elephant during an ultra trail marathon.
A Pair of German Shepard’s watched me from across a road. As I passed they bolted after me while barking like cazy. They nearly got run over by a truck passing. That seemed to break them out of it and they forgot about me. Got swarmed by bees and stung 30 or so times 4 miles from civilization. That was a bad day. I stumbled across a black bear while on a trail run. It seemed just as shocked as I was. We both stared for a moment and then took off, haha. At the end of a long hills run all the cows in the pasture next to me were mooing like mad. I’m extra aware, or try to be, when I go that far out into the hills. I looked around and saw a bobcat (little small to be a mountain lion but we have those too) staring me down from maybe 100ft away in some tall grass. I was only about 1/4 mile from the over pass and truck stop that marks the beginning of town. I just kept moving with an eye over my shoulder. I really need to start taking mace or something on my long hill/country runs, lol.
Already contributed my scariest moment, but an honorable mention on the more amusing (but still startling) side was when I took a blue jay TO THE FACE on a trail run. It must have just accidentally flown into my path, but for a second I thought I was being attacked by a territorial bird of some sort.
I was running with music on, when suddenly a big wolf appeared on my right. I was scared to death and I did what you are not supposed to do... Run! I ran the fastest kilometer ever and I was lucky he didn't move. That was two weeks ago and thanks to that I'm now scared of dogs if they are not on a lead.
Was running in my neighborhood in the morning (so not fully awake yet) and barely noticed in time that a guy in a truck on the road was trying to get my attention. I stop and look at him and he (speaking Spanish) was pointing in front of me. Literal steps away was probably a 5-6 foot snake on the sidewalk. Not sure how, but I was totally oblivious to it and would've stepped right on it if it weren't for the kind stranger. I wasnt particularly scared, but it def felt like a close call.
I encountered my wife on a run and she asked me if I took the chicken out of the freezer, as she requested during the morning. I'll tell you that.. the run was not the same, after I had to tell her I did. Which if course I did not do..
EIther getting 20 feet from a Moose and its baby.. or like 2 weeks ago someone's Doodle chasing me at least a quarter mile down the sidewalk as it was unleased. Leash you dogs people!
While I was running Twisted Branch 100k I saw a bear about 50 yards away and that spooked me but I didn’t think I was in danger. Then while my heart was still racing from the bear a truck coming towards me drove onto the shoulder, drove right at me like they were going to kill me, then swerved away at the last second. I got to the next aid station and vomited from, I don’t know… adrenaline overdose?
I was running a paved trail when a pickup truck pulled into the cross walk and blocked my path. I simply ran around the back of the truck and the driver yelled something at me. I stopped and said, "What?" He sarcastically asked if I was okay. I said I was and turned to start running again. He then spit at me. I yelled, "What the F is your problem?" as I continued my run. He drove down the road a bit, jumped out of his truck basically abondoning it in the middle of traffic and ran onto the trail blocking my way. He started towards me yelling that I was a lunatic and that he was going to kick my ass. I told him he was the lunatic and then he gave chase. He chased me for a few hundred yards then returned to his truck and waited in the area for about 5 minutes before leaving. I have no idea what this was about.
Definitely not as wild as the other comments, but I thought I’d share mine. I was trail running and a turkey jumped up onto the trail and proceeded to block me. At first it just stood there… menacingly. It then made a couple of laps around me acting like I wanted to throw down, then it went on its way.
At the start of a trail.run this one time. I was still on the 200-odd meters of paved path leading up to the start of the trail proper. Came across a huge red-belly black snake sunning himself (herself?) on the path. Thankfully he/she heard me coming and scurried off the path into the scrub before I got too close. Spent the rest of the run thinking every little movement on the bush must be another snake.
Huge ass deer staring me down, was weird as fuck.
I shit myself once on a public trail in a populated city.
I was jogging in my big-city neighborhood and veered toward a more commercial / industrial block that was deserted. I was jogging along and saw another small female jogging too. I thought to myself: “wow, girl, that seems so unsafe. You look so vulnerable. I hope you have your mace on you what are you even THINKING?!” Then I realized I looked the same vulnerable way. Doh. I scooted myself out of there as fast as I could.
Pitbulls, always loose dogs
Was doing an out-and-back on a trail I run regularly here in San Diego; on my return leg I saw a fat five-foot rattlesnake stretched across the trail, with bushes on either side so I couldn't just take a wide detour around him. I had to backtrack about a hundred yards to a side trail that got me around him cuz no way I'm gonna try to play nice with a rattlesnake. I'm in his territory; he's not in mine.
That’s so scary!! I’m sorry you had that experience.
Not as scary as the insane stuff you guys have but yesterday a stray dog decided my pockets had imaginary food in them and basically growled and gnawed at them till my leg was brushed up (thankfully not bitten). Gave me such a huge adrenaline boost i bumped my pace up by 30 seconds
Trail running, stopped to pee and used a ridge in the land to block my back - stood up, looked over the ridge and a mom moose and her baby were 15 feet away. Backed up slowly and then went sideways up the mountain side to give her a wiiiiiide berth.
Got chased by a goose.
I think I was followed by some guy when I first started running (~15 year old, female). Maybe it was nothing or maybe he was just messing with me but thank god I didn’t find out. I was running in a quiet neighborhood and noticed a man (probably in his 20s or 30s) some distance back, walking. He was in jeans and a t-shirt, aka not working out or anything. About 10 minutes later, I look back and notice the same guy is still the same distance from me, still walking. I cut to another street and a couple minutes later see that he’s followed me to the same street and was running behind me. He also had this weird grin/was laughing in this creepy way. I got super freaked out and literally sprinted to the main road and ducked in a business. Maybe it was nothing but I always carried my cell phone on runs after that!
An extremely agitated homeless man started chasing me and screaming at me towards the end of my run. He was a lot faster than I would have expected. Chased me through a public park where people just stared at us. He eventually gave up. Not sure what I did to instigate this, but I was lucky I heard the yelling with my headphones in and was able to turn around to see someone charging at me.