WORKOUT – Ran outside 12.15 miles/1:45
Running 20 flat is one thing, getting your rear handed to you for 12 miles on hills and trail is quite another.
Since I run alone, I ran on a wooded trail today that I only run on weekends when it’s highly populated with hikers, bikers, and now high school cross country runners.
On the trail I came across a deer less than 10 feet away from me! Yeah, I’m from Alaska so I grew up seeing and eating plenty of them; I even shot one once. But that was a time long ago and in a land far away.
Now living in Southern California the only animals I see are Mickey Mouse and the cast of Jersey Shore.
So I was kinda excited to see Bambi and even yelled at a biker to look. He looked all right. Looked at me like I mental. NBD. no big deal.
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Last night my lifetime boyfriend JJ Lamario and I went to his favorite joint Chili’s for dinner. We had a gift card (thanks Niki and Byron!) so we shared the chicken fajitas and chips and salsa.
And of course, Jaymo had a Presidente margarita. Safe to say, he and the various Chili bartenders are all besties. It’s true. I saw their braided friendship bracelets.
That’s exactly what my husband looks like but with shorter, grayer hair.
Have you ever seen anything crazy out on your runs??
On one run, I saw both a dead possum and a car on blocks… but this was in Houston so that was probably just the norm.
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I used to live in Houston, and that sounds about right for the average run.
I saw a bloated dead rat once. It was big. Like, small dog big. Scary.
when running in VA a few weeks ago, I was alone running all through the wooded roads with the tall VA trees. I came down a road that dead ended down by a lake and saw a herd of deer. It was so peaceful and nice. I thought, if only I had my camera.
They were soooo close-they just stood there looking at me like “what’s this crazy sweaty lady looking at?”
I’m all about distance, but I don’t know how you do it!! Day after day seriously amazes me!! You are awesome!!
I haven’t seen anything crazy other than the DC “locals” who are largely crazy. Saw a guy with a foam goldfish hat today. He seemed really cool. I do like seeing deer which I saw a couple on my 7-miler this morning.
Do you remember that Pearl Izumi ad campaign that hated on Joggers? One of them was “Ever notice how it’s always runners who find dead bodies?” So creepy, thankfully I’ve only seen roadkill!
Saw a big fat crow picking up the renmants of a coon off the road in mid air. Pretty neat.
Once when I was in costa rica I saw a dead monkey- it was so creepy and sad.
I posted a pic on my facebook today of a caterpillar that was huge!!
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/photo.php?pid=4816441&fbid=426483463475&id=830858475
Was going to take it home to show my 4 boys but didn’t think it would work to carry it for 5 miles before getting home
I see lots of deer and foxes as well as toads!
hahah to the friendship bracelets! that made me crack up
the weirdest thing i’ve ever seen on a run? ummm nothing really comes to mind although deer running out at me always scares the living daylights out of me!
We see a lot of deer out here! I love seeing them. And last week I saw a guy running in the nude (all he had on was socks and shoes)!
yep, come across deer and snakes. one day, on a busy street came across a crawfish….that was weird.
ugggh I saw a garden scorpion on a 12 miler at a local forest preserve – was NOT expecting that – i didn’t know scorpions existed in the woods! ewwwww
I once saw a cow giving birth and stopped to watch for like five minutes. It was gross and amazing all at the same time.
A crab, hanging out on the running path, miles from the gulf.
Probably the craziest thing that happened to me so far also involved a deer. Before we moved away, I was running in our neighborhood in SC and literally almost ran into a deer. It was around 9pm and dark out, and as I was running all of a sudden I saw something coming from the corner of my eye. I pulled up and stopped quickly, and then a deer ran right in front of me. She was so close I could have reached out my hand and touched her, and if I hadn’t stopped we would have collided. My heart was pounding pretty fast for a few minutes.
Oh, and then there was the 5-mile race I just after we moved to Alaska, and we ran past a park in downtown Anchorage – where a man was walking a reindeer on a leash. That was pretty crazy to me, but maybe not to the native Alaskans.
I once scared up a turkey during a trail run that had been sitting in the tall grasses along the trail. I tried to back away and the thing circled around me trying to cut me off. I was squirting my water at it and yelling and ready for the thing to come for my eyes to gouge them out. It was actually quite hilarious once I got past the crazy thing!
I see a lot of fox? Not cool.
i feel like there are, but for the life of me all i can think of is the skunk i recently came across (yes, alive, and yes i googled “what to do if you cross paths with a skunk” when i came home). i wasn’t sure if i should run past, risking the potential spraying and tomato paste bath that would ensue… Luckily he went about his business, and I mine.
I was once running along the canal towpath here in DC and what I thought was a rock 10 meters away turned out to be a BIG TURTLE. It moved right before I ran past it and I screamed and jumped a mile high. This guy running behind me started cracking up. I spent the next minute trying to keep up with him and explain that I was just startled, not actually afraid of big turtles.
I saw a fox once and it made me so excited! I had never seen a fox out of the zoo before! (I haven’t seen a deer while running yet, but I’ve seen them while biking before)
Last week during my husband’s run he saw two teenage boys skinny dipping! I never see anything!
I have seen wild turkeys and a deer. My freakiest experience was when I ran over what I thought was a branch that turned out to be a snake….My shrieking definitely pierced the tranquil rail trail run….and freaked me out for the rest of the day!!
I use to run cross country. We would run in the craziest places. Cute photo of you guys!
There was a rattlesnake on the path the other day. Once it crossed and got into the brush I resumed running and told the family watching “that was pretty awesome”. Then the damn thing started rattling and I yelled behind me “NOT AWESOME ANYMORE!”
A little while later there was an older, very tan man running in split side shorts that showed his butt cheeks w every stride. Kilax kinda one-upped me on that one, but I thought it was still worthy of comment
I think the craziest thing I’ve seen is a random homeless guy lying out in the middle of the sidewalk, refusing to move, which the 2 police cars were stopped around him. The cops didn’t look to happy. Got to love running in the city!
A pair of dirty, used underware.
Ha, I just wrote the other day on my blog race review the craziest thing I ever saw… a lady, running a half-marathon in mid-August in Dallas (it was 96 degrees) with a jogging stroller… and… ready? Get this… a BABY DOLL in the jogging stroller. WHAT??? We’re all about to pass out from the heat and lack of water, and this lady is pushing a jogging stroller for the fun of it? With a creepy doll inside. I will forever be perplexed by that decision.
Last winter I use to see bees just chilling on top of a fresh coat of snow. I thought it was weird but I saw it at least 3 times
On the trails in Santa Rosa Plateau (beautiful place to run in Murrieta – not by yourself, though – if you’re ever on that side of the mountains), I saw a tarantula (harmless), dead snake, and we were scouted my a coyote. Which freaked us out – it kept it’s distance but it was watching us as we ran through that part of the field. I love those trails but they definitely require a buddy even on the weekends.
I was running in Acadia National Park in ME on the MDI marathon course last weekend and saw 2 dolphins in Somes Sound. It was pretty amazing!
Craziest things I’ve seen on a run/bike ride:
1) Walk of shame and the girl coming back to the driveway where she dropped her panties (Laguna Beach)
2) A dirty thong on the porch of one of the Newport Beach boardwalk homes
3) A couple taking their cat for a walk in a cat stroller (Irvine)
4) People running in those weird pogo stick shoes (Redondo Beach & HB)
5) Weed smoking hippies in the state beach parking lots of Huntington Beach at 8am
6) A suicidal squirrel that tried to cross in front of our bikes mere inches from our wheels (Irvine trail)
And plenty of strange running techniques. People watching is my favorite entertainment on runs!