Linky no worky

1) Been flashed w/ hooters
2) Saw a guy riding a unicycle in downtown Berkeley at midnight wearing a full body pink spandex suit that covered head-to-toe.
3) Saw an escaped psychiatric patients roaming the streets

Was this before or after the rogue cows wandering around Archer Road?

I one time was riding up Wolfpen gap and saw a magazine on the side of the road. No big deal i thought, until i noticed another, and another. Looking back I quickly realized that there were 15-20 of the same magazine littered on the side of the road. Upon closer inspection, I found out what kind of magazine it was.


If you guessed incestual porn, you were correct.

---

___________________________________________________

http://www.wandertechnologies.com

Was running with a group in a forest that has lots of squirrels, which are somewhat acclimatized to us. One of them stopped in our path and my buddy John tried to dodge but the little guy stepped right in front of his foot and Johnny kicked it about 10 feet in the air before it landed and ran into the woods.

---

-----------------------------------------------------------
"Chrissie wins because she trains really f'ing hard and races really f'ing hard and was blessed with a huge f'ing motor" Jordan Rapp

Guy running a little ways in front of me has a car honk at him...he turns to look/yell and trips...falls on a raised sprinkler head which pierces his side. BUT WAIT , there's more. The car that honked at him, going in the opposite direction, was his wife. As she's watching him fall, she goes up over the curb and slams in to a light pole. Knocked her head on the steering wheel due to not wearing a seat belt.

They both went to the hospital in the same ambulance. Both were going to need minor medical attention, but could you imagine their interaction over the next few days?

---

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This guy: http://pixyland.org/peterpan/ on the Santa Ana river trail in Yorba Linda.

A bald eagle just about went head on with me. It wanted something on the sidewalk near where I was riding by and just appeared in front of me. Must have come from the trees off to the side. HUGE bird, 6' - 7' wingspan.

Nothing strange people-wise, though. Bunches of people in spandex and other tights is about it.

I was on a ride last year when I came up on a guy on what I thought was a very tall bike. As I got closer it was a clown on what I'm guessing was a 6' tall unicycle playing the air drums. It was more than I could take in. He was just pounding away on his imaginary drums. This was on a back highway in Indiana where there isn't much traffic with the nearest town probably 8 miles away. I wish I had a camera because my wife still doesn't believe me, and to this day when I picture it in my head I can understand why.

At a stoplight I saw a group of punks run out of their car and bash out the windows of the car in front of them with a crobar (sp?).

Pretty freaky, I looked at the plates and ran the fastest I could home to call the police.

A guy in the middle of a huge field next to a farmhouse (but not a crop field) sitting with no shirt on (I assume he had pants) banging away at a full drum set. He was a hundred yards or so from the farmhouse and several hundred feet off the road, just smack dab in the middle of the field.

He had long rocker-dude hair, was going to town on the drums, shaking his head etc... Had to stop and just laugh. Had to be a chore to get that huge set of drums all the way out there.

---

______________________

Was attacked not once, but twice, by red-winged blackbirds on a ride in the country. Happened about 2-3 miles apart and both times the bird dive bombed me and pecked at my helmet. I mean, I know these are territorial birds, but I really mean no harm. . .

narc

---

-All You Haters Suck My Balls-

Running - I was at Shepared Park in Mesa AZ changing clothes in my car from work to run clothes. A couple was having sex in the car next to me. I waved, she waved back since she was on top and continue to go at it. They ignored my requests to join in though.

I found a full unopened bottle of Yeagermeister in NC on a run one day. Stashed that in the bushes did a threshold effort home, got in the car and drove back to retrieve it. Yeager goes well with breakfast I discovered.

Out riding one weekend day I see this guy running carrying a wooden pole with flags on it. About 3 hours later I'm still riding and I come across this same guy about 20+ miles as the crow flies from where I had previously seen him. I asked him what he was doing, where he was going. He was a native american on a prayer run. He basically was heading out on a 40 mile prayer run shirtless in shorts and sandals with no water or food carrying a wooden pole with flags. I almost crashed my bike when i realized how far he was running. If you took the roads from where I first saw him to where he was heading is a 4.5hr RT ride. As the crow flies about 40 miles running.

I used to ride on the reservation most of the time. I've seen a few other prayer runs since then. Every time I saw one, it amazed me that someone completely untrained is going to go run for about 40 miles carrying a wooden pole with flags.

Now every workout for me is a religious experience.

---

Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I saw two bums having sex doggy style next to a stand of trees. On the way back, the girl was still hanging around...but she was taking a shit and smoking a joint....right next to the bike path.

Did she sniff it after she popped a squat?

Yesterday, I saw Michael Jackson, TWICE (BTW, for posterity, this is posthumous).

First he was an asian woman jogging and then just a few minutes later, he was a black guy riding his bike with jerry curls and a red sleeveless jacket (that looked similar to the one from Thriller).

Now that the court case is over I can talk about it...

I was running one day about dusk, with traffic (something I rarely do, but circumstances dictated it that night) and less than a mile from home when a drunk driver coming at me hit a pickup in the back so hard that the pickup flipped over into a yard. The car then shot across the road and hit a car that was passing me head on. The car passing me went into the yard in front of me, the drunk went into a yard behind me. Metal and car parts went everywhere, not one touched me.

I used to be a volunteer firefighter paramedic (15 years removed) so that training kicked in. Everyone lived, the drunk actually got hurt the worse and had to be air lifted to the trauma center. It was nice to feel the rush, but it also reminded me of why I walked away.

He later claimed that he wasn't driving, but didn't know who was. I had to testify at the Grand Jury, and later at the trial, although he pleaded out before I got to take the stand at the trial. My part of the story was having been there the entire time, from impact to police arrival, and could prove that he was the only one in the car.

A cop took me home after everything was done and I had given my statement. I didn't really connect the dots until I was describing the event to the Grand Jury, that was when I realized that nothing but fate had saved my life.

---

"...the street finds its own uses for things"

I was in an 8 km race a few years ago and about 500m after the gun, I pull up on a guy running holding a canvas bag. All of a sudden, a couple of open end wrenches drop out of the bag and go clanging to the ground. He stopped and ran back to get them. Thankfully, I didn't see him again after that.

Many times I've tried to figure out why someone would carry a bag of wrenches in a race.

Brad

---

3SIXTY5cycling.com

That's exactly what I guessed! What do I win? One of the magazines that you surely picked up?? ;-)


As far as weird things riding . . . I don't see that much. I'm not a very observant person when riding.

Saw this on my run home from work last night:

http://host.madison.com/...7d-26e7a3e5f6a5.html
Arguement over a phone, then tried to run the guy over.

Box for an adult apparatus on the side of the road, obviously something that someone didn't want to put out in front of their house with the trash.

---

"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

A few years ago, near the end of my bike route, I rode past a yard with a dog chained to a wheel-less lawn mower. The dog was mean, barking and going nuts. On the return trip, I rounded a bend and was confronted with the same dog, but while I was gone he had successfully dragged the lawn mower through the yard, through a ditch overgrown with very tall grass, and into the dead center of the street. The road was narrow enough so that still chained to the lawn mower he could almost reach either side of the street. No time time to stop I just picked a side and went for it. If that chain was one link longer I would have been toast. I thought "stupid dog", but realized that the "stupid dog" had almost outsmarted me.



-Rob

---

_______________________________________________
Decals (Triathlon etc.): http://www.honeyislandgraphics.com/

2 weeks ago i was running in a snowstorm and a City snow plow (one of the huge ones) passed me & about 30 feet later had to swerve to avoid a guy plowing his driveway with a 4-wheel ATV and not watching for oncoming cars. The city plow swerved into the front yard across the street at 25-30mph, scraped off about 40 feet of grass & dirt 8-10 inches deep then dug in so deep that it stopped the plow, the plow did an ENDO and turned a full 180-degrees on its nose, before pounding to a standstill facing backwards. Its impossible to tell it in a way that makes it sound as dramatic as it looked, a full-size dump-truck snowplow doing an endo and being essentially airborne & turning in the air was an amazing sight to see. As I ran past & asked the driver if he was ok he simply said "yeah. but holy $hit!" wish i had that on camera!

must have been spring 2008. crazy.

I saw the following by the side of the road (in no particular order):

One dress shirt - white
One V-neck T-Shirt - white
One Old Navy T-shirt - dark blue
One pair boxers - light blue w/black pinstripes
One pair briefs - burgundy
5 socks - assorted
One pair basketball shorts - North Carolina
One pair Daisy Dukes
Two bras - 1 pink, 1 light blue
One pair panties - white with pink flowers & bow
One black Converse Chuck Taylor Hi-Top
One pink ladies pump
Empty Coors Light 30-pack box
Several "airplane bottles" - Jack Daniel's, mostly


The "debris field" stretched over 2 miles. It wasn't really a "find" (at least not by me ;-) )

*****

Once I found an issue of "Trailer Trash" across the street from a trailer park. Knowing that people usually look at porn from a higher or lower social class than their own, I figured it was a complimentary copy for one of the residents who was IN that particular issue.

"Look honey, I'm on page 23!!!"

"Damn, darlin' that's a right-hand page. You KNOW I'm a lefty."

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I was on a ride the other day and a sailboat, capsized, floated by with the two occupants clinging to the fin on the bottom of the hull as it pointed straight up in the air. They were floating down the inlet and floated right by a DC Police/ Coast Guard outpost and not a one of them came out to help even though the boat was about 30 yards or so off the shore. Just reaffirmed how lazy and useless most DC cops are.

That happens to a lot of riders on the IM WI bike course, especially in May and June. They often signal their presence with a couple loud calls, so you come to dread hearing that whistle. Apparently the local humans aren't the only ones who dislike triathletes.

I've also had them dive-bomb me while running. It's not a good feeling to see a bird inches from your eyes when you don't wear sunglasses.

I have seen a dead guy - hanging off a rope attached to a bridge. It was on my normal commute to work. I used my local knowledge to avoid a police blockage and there he was. Thankfully, I've seen a lot more life than death on my commute. I always figured that I would come across a dead body at some point in my training, but figured it would be a body floating in some river or lake.

Those huge TV screens I see hanging on the walls in many people's homes are weird to me.

1 - kid riding his bike, BACKWARD up a hill, at a pretty good clip, in traffic (but on the correct side of the road)!

2 - Rabbit paralyzed after being hit by a car, I carried him home, died in my arms and buried him in the back yard :(

3 - more debit / bank cards than I can count

4 - (homeless) Dude on a park trail carrying a BIG (jesus type) cross talking to himself.

Well, as I mentioned in the last thread, I did actually come across a dead body, although we weren't the first there.

Other things I've seen:

A moose, by the side of the road. Not far from me at all.

At a marathon, I passed a woman at around mile 14, who'd soiled herself. She was wearing one of those running outfits that not unlike a one-piece swimsuit. There was some brown streaks on her thigh and the dookie was still hanging out in the back.
Around mile 20 she passed me back. There were more brown streaks, but the dookie was gone.

-The phillie phanatic, riding in the passenger seat of a van. I waved, he waved back.

-And, of course, I've seen that oscar meyer wienermobile a few times. I'm guessing I'm not alone there.

I had a possum die in front of me on a trail run...that was weird. I've never seen a wild animal actually play dead.

---

http://www.loopd.com/...pzuelke/Results.aspx

Rode by a bunch of those people who dress up and battle/joust. Rode by a "furry" picnic. Both on cyclocross coss rides through parks.

---

---------------------------------------
Awww, Katy's not all THAT evil. Only slightly evil. In a good way. - JasoninHalifax

When we lived down at the beach, it was all military hardware-all the time. The Pave Lows were regular, and our run turnaround was about 1/2 mile from where the National Guard used to train shooting off Patriot Missiles. Though my favorite military vehicle sighting was not on a run or bike but when we were going into Ft. Walton Beach to pick my car up after a servicing.

I'm looking at this c. 1985 Winnebago and thinking it really is well-preserved for a RV that old. The mister is also glancing over at it and:

"Hey, is that a microwave antenna on the back of the Winnie?"

"Now that you mention it, looks like it is that and just not some sort of Directv dish mount. And it's got a USAF plate on the back. I guess there's more to that thing than the lack of rust."

"Must be what the general takes out to observe in the field. It would have air conditioning, and he wouldn't be getting sweaty that way."

We pull even with it at a stoplight, and get a look inside, where you can see a bunch of computer equipment and what looks like a bunch of tracking screens. At which point we both start laughing at the absurdity of the vehicle. Because it's probably some sort of million dollar deal complete with classified technology, and if you really did put a Directv dish up on the microwave tower, slapped an Ohio license plate and a Good Sam sticker on the back, and kept the blinds closed, you could park it at any Kampground of America and it would pass as civilian without comment.

It was so the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle from Stripes.

Running late on a Friday night I saw a guy push his girlfriend off the back of a MOVING Harley and take off. She was totally drunk, but goodlooking, and mostly unhurt. Helped (carried) her to a local bar for a pay phone. She was so drunk she couldnt dial the number.

I came home late, smelling like smoke from the bar and perfume from the girl. The wife had a couple of questions for me when I got home.

---

______________________________________________

I *heart* weak, dumb ass people...

2 people having sex in the park. right out in the open!

---

Michael in Kansas
"Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit"
"Its not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up" Lombardi

A few years ago while doing long rides to train for Ironman, I would ride south from the Lakeview area of Chicago through the South Side into Indiana.

On one ride I saw some brightly colored squawking birds flying around under the Skyway. I thought "damn, those look like parrots"
That same ride, I was riding through a neighborhood in very urban Chicago and looked down an alley and saw a rooster strutting around.
Later that ride, I was going past some sort of factory on the Southside of Chicago and saw a herd of goats.

I looked up "Chicago Parrots" and learned that Chicago has a large renegade population of wild parrots.
I told a cop about the goats and he said "Yup, I've seen them too around that area"
The Rooster... best I can figure is that he was an escapee from some cock fighting ring.

---

beyourownsuperhero

I seem to find a lot of porn...DVD's Mags, Tapes...

Trail running one fall we saw a dude taking nude pictures of his wife...

Saw a couple dudes doing it once...that wasn't very good

Saw the MetLife blimp in a field

Zebra...

Ive seen this too. Under a footbridge in my local park. Guy was slamming her from behind while the both stood. I actually heard the flesh slapping as I ran across the footbridge and that is why I looked under the bridge.

---

___________

Found an what turned out to be a stolen wallet. Found what I thought was another one but turned out that it was literature for the Mormon church. Thought littering was a weird way to spread it though.

Also found a huge, um, phallic device. It was out in the street in front of someone's house so I figured it fell out of someone's car.

Pretty tame stuff compared to when I go Geocaching with my kids. Makes for some interesting and honest discussions..

2 homeless people. Drunk. naked. having sex. right next the running path. Invited me to join. Ewww.

Man you guys have seen allsorts...I need to get out of the pool more

Once accidently ran over a snake on a fast xc woodland trail (I live in the UK - which maybe contains about 5 snakes in total)

Many years ago I was running on a country road that was next to a golf course. I heard the call of "fore" looked up and saw a golf ball bounce, and head straight at me, I stuck out my hand and caught it. Without thinking, and all without breaking stride, I threw the ball as hard as I could in the direction of the hole and continued with my run. I often pondered how it must have been for those golfers. Did they allow the bad hooker (in the golfing sense) to play the ball where it ended up or did he have some penalty.

Sorry about that. Public exhibition was on my bucket list. On the bright side, thats one less thing I need to do!

I need to find better running and riding routes

---

All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

On my run this morning I saw something truly unique: An honestly attractive school bus driver

From the road, she seemed to be about 5'5", 100 lbs or so, brown hair, wearing a navy sleeveless top, trucker hat, aviators

Kinda like ...



[might not be everyone's vodka of choice, so I apologize for that]

Even though it was already around 80*F at 8:30am, and I was a Sweatty Freddy, I tried my best to look on form as she drove up to the railroad crossing, where she was obligated by law to stop. I crossed, our eyes met, I waved and she gave me a thumbs up

If I see her again two Fridays from now [assuming I run that same course and time], I'll try to give a more detailed report

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Knowing they were okay, that is one of the funnniest things I have read in a while.

It was a cold, dark and snowy night about 10:30pm about 25 years ago. I had just got out of night class at 10:00 and felt the need to get a run in. Up ahead it looked like a parked car had its dome light on. There were 2 people in the car. As soon as I got near the car someone crossed the road in front of me carrying a shot gun. We were both startled to say the least. I'm thinking don't shoot me! I picked up the pace and hid from all vehicles until I got home. Later, I found out they did get some money and did not need to use the gun.

I havent seen anything too crazy but I've been stopped and questioned by the police while running at night. Turns out a nearby convenience store was robbed. I guess wearing all black while running at night didn't help my case.

Had to laugh when I saw this post today - normally I just breeze by these, but JUST TODAY I had to comment because saw a guy who looked dead, lying the the grass, on my bike ride. I was coming out of my neighborhood, and there's a little trail that leads into a parking lot that I use to get road access. As I'm on the little trail, I see a body, motionless just to the right, in the grass. I thought maybe it was someone enjoying the warmer weather after work, or whatever, but I want to make sure he's OK. He's lying there with a bottle of water, his phone in one hand, and a polo, jeans, and dress shoes on. So I say, 'hey, are you OK?' No response. He's at least breathing (hard, too, it seems). He's got some red marks on his neck, and wrists...and then I'm thinking this isn't some guy napping!!! So again, I'm saying 'Are you OK? Do you need help? Hello?' Still no response. I'm not going to touch this guy....all kinds of weird things can happen from that, so I opt for 911. The cops show up pretty quick....and then an ambulance. The cop rouses the guy...he starts trying to stand up, then he spits what looks like flem/puke. The cop says, well don't stand up if you can't, but he's standing and wobbly. He doesn't say much and seems out of it. I didn't stay long enough to get the full 411 on the guy, but he either had some diabetic episode, a drug OD or something else. Just wasn't this guy's day. I think that's the strangest thing I've seen on bike ride!!!

It's almost 7 years old and my thread:

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ad%20bodies#p2736221

---

"...the street finds its own uses for things"

A couple months back on my Sunday ride, I went past the local dog park mid-morning. I looked over as I rode by and saw a lady squatting down in her yoga pants while her dog quite enthusiastically licked her butt crack. I looked ahead for a second and turned my head back to make sure I wasn't imagining it. Sure enough, still happening. There were other people with their dogs in the park, too.

W.T.F!

Three santas at a gas station needing directions to Holiday World, IN.

Where is Rudolph when you need him?

Based on this thread and the Strange Denizens of the Pool thread, I have concluded I live a boring life in a boring part of the world. I also can't stop laughing as I read these threads. Keep them coming please.

---

It is the mind itself which builds the body.
-Joseph Pilates

6am local run from running store and we saw one of the big commercial trash pickup vehicles with the trash on fire. Told someone at work, and they said it must be why they saw a huge pile of trash on fire in a field.

Today on my ride I was at a red light waiting when two teenagers come out of a building each with glass blender pitchers in their hands, each one about half full of what was the color of blended margaritas. No lids on the pitchers, so i thought maybe their were being weird drinking directly out of the benders as a joke. Then they both walk out to car in the intersection waiting to make a left turn and one by one hand the open lid 1/2 full bender pitchers to the driver, then they walk back to the sidewalk and wait for the crosswalk light to turn green and simply walk across the street. I thought I was hallucinating. Not that out there.. but strange enough that my brain was think WTF are these people doing? .. and what is the driver of the car going to do with two blenders full of blended drinks (with no lids.) Light turned green and the car simply drove away.

---

______________________________________________
Team Zoot

Years ago now I was riding in my old farm town in Illinois. A police car pulled up behind me. Ride my ass really close and popped the lights and siren on and off a few times. I slowed down, was already on the shoulder, they turned off... odd... A few miles down the road, the same car did the same thing. Came up almost next to me, but stayed behind me. Really messing with me. BUT IT WAS A POLICE CAR!?!?
A few miles down the road again, it gets up behind me, I slow down, it peels off past me. Then I see the car. "Metropolis PD." -i totally forgot that they were filming the then "new" superman movie in my town. Hah! It was some young stage hand douche messing around.
The made the small town of Plano, Illinois into "Smallville". Where (as far as I know) the town hall still has "welcome to smallville" painted 30 feet tall on the side of the building.
That's gotta make the list!


Then I moved to oregon. Had passed out homeless gentlemen with needles still in their arms across the bike path, all kinds of eagles, hawks, and cool wild animals. Formulating hobos abound. One trail runner surprised by me running up while she was looking like 2 feet off the trail... all kinds of fun stuff. No human bodies, luckily!

Russian Beluga Caviar...

About 20-30 1 oz tins at a T-Intersection a couple miles from the International Airport.

Most tins were pretty smashed up, but I still was able to gather about 10 undamaged tins.

Luckily weather had been cool and they had bee shaded (by tall grass and the railing), so the product was still good.

Turned out to be an expensive find anyway, as I had to come up with some appropriate bubbly...

roe kill

:)

On the bike (all road not mt.),, wolf, bear, rattlesnakes, bobcat, red fox and other assorted critters. Running, Bill Clinton (when president) also running with a complete Secret Service contingent, Reid Shelton (the actor who played Big Daddy Warbucks in Annie) on a morning walk (wearing a very nice suit) in a residential neighborhood in Seattle and a Bald Eagle munching on road kill.

---

Dean Wilson
http://www.anaerobiczone.com
Bicycle Protection Indoors & Out

Without reading any further, you win.

---

I may not be fast, but once I get going, it is hard to stop me...

Sorry was referring to the Peter Pan post.

I saw an asteroid/rock pass through the sky when I was riding home from work about 20 years ago. Had just stopped to fix something on my bike, looked up at the right time.

---

I may not be fast, but once I get going, it is hard to stop me...

• Red fox sleeping in the middle of the road
• coyote giving me a weird look.
  
• crow eating a snake (yummy treat)
  
• full squadron of wild turkeys running in front of me
• lady yelling at me for no reason at railroad crossing stop (husband laughing hysterically)
• Cop with speed gun radar and giving me the thumbs up.
• Guy speeding past me and yelling obscenities.... gets pulled over for speeding by speed gun radar cop, who gives him the thumbs down.

---

---

Only fools never change their minds and I'll never change my mind about that.

Training for a spring marathon, way out on a country road, as the snow was melting, I caught a glance of something shiny sticking out of a snow bank. I went back. It was half a joint still in the jaws of a pair of surgical clamps!

I ditched the joint but took the clamps home. They are super handy for working on the bike, pulling cables out of places you can see, but not reach with my fingers. ;-)

---

TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

On a long bike ride, I spied a neoprene cover for the person hole in a kayak, on the side of the road! The kind to stop bugs and crud going inside the kayak when it's on the roof of a car. I picked it up, rolled it tightly and stuffed it into 2 of my 3 jersey pockets. LOL. Yes I got some weird looks from passing motorists.

My buddy had just taken up kayaking and was very appreciative of it :-)

---

TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

A guy standing in the bushes masturbating looking at me on the bike leg, I then saw him 20 minutes later, weirdly I seemed to be the only one out of 2000 competitors that saw him..

Wild Turkeys are just hobo peacocks

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

If you had ridden by my house yesterday you could have seen a crow eating a mouse on top of my mailbox. Then you could have seen him leave the half eaten mouse there and fly off. Thankfully something came by later and took the rest of the mouse.

Austin 70.3 maybe 3 years ago. Running with a girl, usual chit chat until she declared that her tummy didn't feel so good. Then I notice that she is now grimacing and chanting "I think I'm gonna shit, I think I'm gonna shit". She then reaches her hand down the back of her shorts and proceeds to shit in her hand. Didn't hang around long to see what she did with it.

Does a dead body count?

Yes... serious. Earlier this spring on my lunch break

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/...suspicious-1.3309172

I dunno, if it doesn't exactly say "found by jogger" can we count it?

It's a shame because they had tow opportunities to put it in there with "found dead by the shores of the Fraser River" and "body was found in an industrial area"

****

My brother-in-law found a legitimate gangster rolled up in a blanket while on his paper route one morning, just off the Atlantic City Expressway. He thought it was just a carpet that had fallen off a truck or something, until he noticed the sneakers sticking out of it. Eventually, the cops came and ID'd it

http://www.nytimes.com/...slain-in-jersey.html

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I forgot to mention

Yesterday, I saw a dude with almost this exact setup on his bike



Before I could stop to ask him about it, he was gone

Oddly, there was no place I could see where he might have turned off the road ... maybe he disappeared back into his TARDIS?

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

On bike - Dead horse carcas on side of road at Ironman Louisville 2014

I once rode over a small snake going uphill from the bottom of Col de la Morte to lake Laffrey in France. I was really tired and could not react quick enough to avoid it. Pretty uncommon for a Dutch guy.

Again in France, going up Cret de Chatilon (mount semnoz) there were a lot of cows with bells on the road side. Then, it began to become very misty up the mountain and I couldn't see more than 50 meters. All of a sudden, there was a tremendous amount of bells closing in on me. As it sounded like a stampede of cows, I shoved myself up against the rock wall trying to avoid getting trampled. Luckily it was just a big herd of goat leaded by a shepherd.

---

Dosis sola facit venenum

Many years ago I was doing an early morning ride in the fog. Tootling along at about 20kph, trying to stay safe until the fog lifted and I could get back to normal speed. I spooked Bambi in the middle of the road. It clattered on the cold wet road searching for grip then bounded over a roadside fence into the woods. Full rack of antlers, scared the crap out me thinking that I could have been run into by 30 points of death!

---

TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

I was on a group ride way out in the country. I passed a property with a sign by the road that said "Nothing at this property is worth dying for.", with a picture of either a firearm or a deaths-head.

so i guess i've mentioned here before that i've traveled a bit and usually run/ride when i travel, so i've seen my share of the bizarre while i'm out training.

at the moment i live in sierra leone, where i'm working on an ebola vaccine trial. about once a month while i'm out i encounter secret societies having 'devil parades,' where people dressed up like this



get escorted down the road to singing and drumming, and protected by people carrying (fake?) rifles.

makes me more self conscious than usual about being the white dude standing there in a singlet and short shorts.

-mike

---

____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Giant purple butt-plug during a trail race.

---

Don't drown. Don't crash. Don't walk.

Once I came across a garden with hundreds off dolls hanging in the trees with ropes around their neck somewhere hidden in a forest. If i remember correct it was somewhere in Sauerland. Stopped there for a while, it was really a scary scene. There where also some protest signs in the garden, requesting to stop cutting trees down.

---

Dosis sola facit venenum

We have some large deer herds in the area. My wife once came around a corner on her tri bike in aero position and popped right into a herd of 20 or so. They were moving down the road in the same direction and paid no attention to her at all. She said she slowed down and rode gradually through them- some were close enough to reach out and touch. She obviously wasn't a car or a person - maybe a really weird looking cow (?) - so they didn't consider her dangerous and just went about their business. She always says it was one of the strangest and most enjoyable things she ever did.

I was running through town this morning on a road that parallels the NJ Transit Commuter Railroad track. I could see a police car up ahead at the crossing but thought he was there just for the morning's 5K. Then I remembered that street wasn't on the route

I could not see what the issue was because of the overgrown fence that runs along the RR right-of-way, which keeps people off the tracks and serves as a catch-all for little bottles of Fireball and Bud Light cans [although I DID spot a Clown Shoes bottle cap on the side of the road once, so not ALL of the Pineys are completely without taste]. With the wild roses and honeysuckles in bloom, it was a very pleasant way to enjoy the morning

When I finally got to the crossing I saw what the problem was: a 4' long boulder, about 3' in diameter, in the middle of the lane on the far side of the crossing. Apparently, a landscaping truck had come to the crossing, maybe a little hot, and when it went over the grade, the bed bucked enough to pitch the rock out the back and into the street, Observing the scrapes, dust and debris in the road, I could tell that it had landed between the rails, but had taken a fortunate bounce in the direction the vehicle was traveling and cleared itself out of the way of any trains that would be coming ... and one was due withing the next 15-20 minutes

I had run over that crossing about half an hour before, and it wasn't there then, so it must have been a recent development

Which begs the question: what kind of chump landscaper drops a HUGE rock in the middle of the street and either doesn't notice it, or [worse] says "Oh fuck" and just leaves it there, continuing on his merry way?

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

hanging dolls is creepy as f

Maybe he was going to get the forklift to get it back on the truck? Sounds too big to hand bomb.

---

They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Someone had found a dead rabbit, stuck a pair of kids sunglasses on him and a cigarette in his mouth. They crossed his legs, put one arm out like hitch hiking and propped him up leaning on a sign post. He looked like a hipster version of the old Playboy rabbit illustration. Must have been a biker or runner from the area who knew his friends would go by there and see it.

Just under a year ago I was on a multi day touring ride. We were passing through all sorts of terrain in the city, villages, and the country side.

I recall approaching a wooded field. A brown shrub looked out of place so I kept my eyes on it. As I approached to pass it the thing turned to look at me with eyes, snout, and a mouth. I nearly fell off my bike.

It turns out we were passing by a traveling circus and I had just passed a camel that had laid down and had a wooly neck.

I don't scare easily, but that would creep me the fuck out.

Last year I was riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway near my house and I was going up a slight incline over a bridge.
I knew there was a car waiting behind me to pass and there were 2 cars coming in the other direction.

When I looked up I saw 2 large deer trotting along in the grass shoulder coming at me. They stopped when they saw me. I kept riding, one ran across the road into a lovely pasture, the other jumped off the bridge. It seemed to happen in slow motion. I heard a loud crunch. I didnt have the heart to look at the road below. I am happy it didnt land on a car driving below.

I had an uneasy feeling the rest of the ride.

Two things this morning:

1) A big ass knife - folding style; the handle was kinda beat up, but the blade looked sharp as fuck. There was no blood to be seen on it, so I surmised it was NOT a murder weapon [recently, anyway], but I dared not pick it up just the same and just kicked it off the road

2) While waiting at the final stop light on the way home, a contractor pulled up in his work van. Being a polite little shit, I waved over. He acknowledged and took a big pull of what appeared to be a pint bottle. Now, he didn't go for the full Jack Nicholson / Carl in "Easy Rider" so I can't be 100% sure, but the size & shape of the container certainly didn't register with me as Wawa iced tea

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

A random naked guy walking along the gulf shore in pre-dawn light, and at the end of the same run an Armadillo trundling across the road who basically gave me the stink eye and moved along....One summer along a narrow road in Idaho a Bald Eagle guarding road kill who was not about to move, he was there on the out and back, gave me chills scooting around him.

As it happened, I missed her that following fortnight, and again today [I'm off every other Friday] so with school being out for the Summer next week, it looks like I'll not be seeing her for a while ... or ever again, for that matter, if she gets another job, or even another route

Now I kinda know how The Prince felt after Cinderella ran out of the Ball

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Stay strong brother. Sexy school bus lady will be back for you in no time!!

Saw this mixed in with everyone else riding on the bike trail:

http://vicpd.ca/...a/420%20Bike1%20.jpg

Similarly, dude riding with one arm and taking hits from a giant bong with the other. Everyone was quick to get around him.

Just last weekend got passed by a mom riding a steel bike pulling a kid trailer behind her. I wonder who she was?

Does this count? Heard an unmistakable noise of a multi radial engine airplane. Looked up. Saw a B-17.

Once I was biking in Lake Mead Recreation Area and saw a nice LG phone on the road. I turned around and picked it up to hand into the Ranger Office. I assumed it had fallen off the back of someone's boat. I get to the office and go to hand her the phone and leave, but she insisted on getting all this information from me and see some ID. I thought it was a bit of overkill just to turn in a lost item. I was annoyed. A few days later I get a call from the Police Department. They asked me where I found the phone etc. Then they told me it was the phone belonging to a woman who was murdered there the week before. I was shocked and freaked out. I told them I could take them to the exact spot I found it, if they need me to, but I never heard from them again. Her murder was never solved.

---

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up
Laura

Deer at the side of the road with a red bow tie around its neck waiting for me to pass before it crossed the road.

I actually saw a pair of deer standing by the side of the road once, right where the deer crossing sign was

A couple hundred yards down, there was a dead one

"See. Dave THAT's why there's a sign here"

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Few weeks ago I was starting my ride and saw two cyclists pulled over on the side of the road looking at something. I rolled up, asked if they were ok, and they asked what is the strangest thing I've seen while riding? I found a nude magazine with three boobed women once. The one guy points to an 18 inch dildo and a green plastic belt...

I was out in the boonies on a training ride one day and saw a lady standing at her mailbox. As I got closer I realized she was half dressed. As I got even closer I realized she was about 70, a bit overweight, and reading her mail in her bra and underwear. I hope I can un-see that someday.

Coolest running encounter was on the Mountains to Sea Trail around Falls Lake. I spooked a bald eagle and it took off towards the lake. I was only about 40' from him and it startled me. I just stopped and watch him cut through the trees out to the lake. Really cool.

Funniest run was through New Orleans at about 6:00am on a Saturday. So many walks of shame happening I just quit counting.

---

Team Zoot - Great Lakes

Massive purple dildo in the road at IMUK 2014 on the bike course.

In grad school in Rochester, I was running on the path along the Erie Canal one day when I noticed something glint in the water. Stopping to get a closer look, it was an adult deer, drowned and staring up at me just like that scene in Dances with Wolves.

The Belmont bunny - it's now a local legend ... :-)

WD :-)

Yeah sometimes you have to look twice t decide "OK, is she still wearing her clothes from last night, or does she have to work on Saturday morning?"

In a related note, this morning I saw a police car with lights on, administering a field sobriety test at 8AM; One asks oneself "Is someone still drunk from last night or fulfilling the code that 'You can't drink all day, if you don't start in the morning?'"

Also, this morning I saw an older woman with a Dunkin Donuts bag sitting in a lawn chair in front of the liquor store, also before 9AM

"Breakfast of Champions" I said to myself as I trotted by

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I saw someone on the Dawn Patrol this morning who made me think "Did I ever tell this story ...?" from my days at the other gym, with the indoor track



It turns out I had,; sorry for repeating/plagiarizing myself

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=4553065#p4553065

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

1) Did my long run at 3:30am on a Sunday due to family obligations. Live in coastal Florida, and lots of weddings over the weekends in fall. Had to take a mid run bathroom break and stopped a beach access where there were two port a johns. Came up to the door and thought I heard something (had my headphones in), but still opened the door. It was a young couple having a very 'romantic' time in there. I don't think that is considering sex on the beach, but I could be wrong.

2) During Augusta 70.3 a few years ago (I want to say 2012) I remember seeing the aftermath of a great girl fight. There was literally pieces of different colored weaves everywhere on the street corner.

---

IG: NCGregory8778

I've seen couples getting it on in lifeguard towers as the sun was coming up; don't worry, they don't tip over easily that way [trust me on this]


OMG, some of the "Crime Scenes" I'd see outside the bars in the Gayborhood!!! Once, every windowbox on one side of the block had been dumped out and there was dirt and vegetation everywhere!!! I could only imagine a pair of angry 6-foot-plus drag queens going to fucking TOWN on each other and using any "weapon" in sight

Oh! The florality!!!

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

A Possum climbing onto a patio in suburban Virginia Beach

2007 IMLou, dude offered me a hit of his joint around the 10 mile mark on the bike; in La Grange there was a dead squirrel on the side of the road that someone put a small hat on its head

---

All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

I caught the tri bug in college. Then joined the Army, spent a year in training environments, and ended up in Korea. While in Korea I decided that cycling was possible in between field exercises so I ordered a Tommasini from Colorado Cyclist. That was 1989. We spent so much time in the field tho, that I wasn't able to really put down miles until we moved to the DMZ, the heavily mined and patrolled 4km strip of land separating the 2 Koreas.

The DMZ was a great cycling area. The roads were in pretty good repair and there was almost no traffic. Sure, there were often minefields on both sides of the roads, but they were marked. One just needed to stay on the road, no big deal. Until it was.

One day I was flying along feeling fast, powerful, and pleased with myself in the insufferable way of 2LT's everywhere, when I fumbled my water bottle. It hit the pavement and went zinging at 90deg right for the minefield only 6' away. I really only had time to cringe, but in my dramatic memory I imagine(?) long fractions of a second ticking by as I saw it heading right towards small suspicious protuberances from anti-personnel mines that would bound up, detonate, and take out a squad.

The water bottle went into the field, bounced off of a tree, and came back on to the road. I circled back and picked it up the water bottle thinking, "dang, that was pretty close".


Pic was taken at Camp Casey, a US Army base about 20kim S of the DMZ. Was just after the annual Korea-wide US Military bike race.

[URL=http://s465.photobucket.com/...zpsxmt6yqdf.jpg.html][/url]


Re. the inevitable "You look like an idiot in that pic". Of course I look like an idiot. Duh.

---

Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart

Wow - I can understand people having their wedding on a tight budget. But how hard can it be to put aside $100 to have your honeymoon in a Motel 6?!?

I was thinking they were guests of the wedding [let's go out on a limb and say they were cousins, just for fun]

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

3 good stories:

#1: riding south on SR347 south of phoenix(before Riggs rd), several cop cars go racing past. My riding partner gets a flat, while we are changing the flat, a cop pulls up about 20' from us and lays spike strips down on the road and stands there holding a shotgun. Doesn't say anything to us. About 5 minutes later, he picks them up and takes off. We start riding again and don't get very far when a small p/u truck comes racing across the open field towards us with a couple of cop cars right behind. There is a barbed wire fence between us, but still. About 50 yds from the fence the guy turns and then starts doing circles in the field. Eventually he bails out and runs, but the cops tackle him. We finished our ride.

#2: 2004 RAAM, I was going downhill in WVA about 27MPH at night when I see an opossum right on the white line(there was a nice wide shoulder). I decide to go to it's right, hoping that it would continue running in the direction it was facing. Of course not. It turned and ran for the treeline on the right side. I hit it pretty much exactly in the middle. I did attempt to bunny hop over it and that probably kept me from crashing, but I definitely hit it. My chase vehicle was totally freaked out, they thought for sure I was going to crash. They said after I hit it, it just kinda rolled off the side of the road and was still. Not sure if it was dead or just playing dead. I didn't stop to find out.

#3: Late '90s riding at the end of Pecos Rd in Ahwatukee when it still was just a dead end. All of a sudden I found myself surrounded by tarantulas all over the road. Probably a hundred or more. I'm almost certain that I didn't hit any of them. After I got to the end and turned around for the ride back, they were all gone.

---

_________________________________________________

LLLEEEEEEEEEEEERRRROOOYYY JEEENNNNNKKKIIINNNNNS!!!

The US Military Cycling Championships (Europe) were held at on an unused air strip at a USAAF base in '93 and '94. Ramstein or Spangdahlem, IIRC.

Let me preface this with mentioning that AF Military Police types have always struck me as an entirely humorless lot. Police types, civilian or otherwise, need a sense of humor because they come across a lot of silly shit in their jobs. But whereas I'd thought that I could get a laugh out of just about anyone, I've never been able to get a laugh out of AF MP types that were guarding a facility that I needed to get into.

If the Glider moves, kill it.

During the Time Trial, '93 Champs, a glider came down on the air strip, right in front of 100's participants, family, and spectators, hanging out at the grandstands/admin area. The glider ended up about 40m in front of the start/finish, but well off of "the line" so it wasn’t really an obstacle. It leaned over on a wing giving us a good view of it's cockpit. The big Plexiglass bubble opened, up, the pilot climbed out, walked towards us, thru the crowd and then casually headed off towards the buildings behind us. Probably to phone for a mighty big tow truck. We were all mildly amused, and then we went back to paying attention to the Time Trial.

This was right at the end of the Cold War so the forces in Europe were still wired pretty tight. AF types are particularly sensitive to infiltrators because it's a lot easier to blow up parked F15's then it is to blow up parked tanks.


The race organizers must have formally requested MP support because we had a bunch of them hanging around practicing their obsessive professional humorlessness. They didn't pay the glider any more attention then we did.


The glider just sat there. 200lb of gossamer thin aluminum and a big Plexiglas canopy fully opened over the tiny cockpit. Because the cockpit was tilted towards us, we could see every detail of it's interior. But it was out of the way so we didn't pay it any mind.


About 30 min went by. Then suddenly a mess of MP vehicles came racing towards us and screeched to a halt all around our area. The leaped out of their cars, drew side-arms, and charged thru the crowd to assume a defensive half-perimeter around the open glider that we'd come to ignore. Unsurprisingly, the MPs were very serious.


They treated the glider as if it was Soviet stealth insertion platform with a Spetnaz death-squad hiding under the plainly visible pilot's seat Half of the MP force hunkered down behind event "stuff" like plastic garbage cans and vinyl banners, providing a base of fire with pistols, rifles, shotguns and even a few automatic weapons. The other half of the force prepared to rush the glider, no matter that a blind man could see that there was no one in the cockpit.

Imagine that you're standing there, all clad in lycra and with your bike at your side, and at your feet is a sober youngster in the prone behind his M16, using your pair cycling shoes as cover, looking for all the world like he's about to spring an ambush. You can't help but look down and ask, "dude, wtf are you doing?"

The assault force rushed the glider, taking it totally by surprise.

---

Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart

When I was in Hawaii I would taunt the Marine MPs I would mountain bike with, "You can't spell wimp without MP". WTF Doc, that is wrong. Great bunch of guys and unlike your experience with AF they were hilarious.

---

All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

Re. AF MP stories.

'91-'94 I was periodically sent to work with European-based AF attack squadrons during their exercises as their "Ground Liaison Officer". As the rare infantry officer that they might glimpse, I felt under some pressure to represent the infantry well. All sorts of hilarious misadventures came out of those assignments. Like the time my unit refused to let me travel to the distant base with my assigned weapon. Military weapons are not allowed in personal vehicles and no HMMWV was available for me to borrow. So I went to the PX and bought some generic plastic yellow Uzi looking thing, painted it mat black, and fastened a chest rig to it.

During the exercise, I treated my weapon with such care that I was repeatedly asked if I had been issued live ammo. It stayed on me at all times. I did not allow anyone to touch it. I was excruciatingly careful to keep a straight face and no one ever was the wiser.

So the MP story. The site was simulating a NBC attack so we were all under MOPP4, which is to say, wearing the whole chemical suit to include the mask. I needed to go to a different bunker so I headed out. Once I got there the MPs, as usual, required me to show my ID. But then after showing my ID they wanted to look at my face, to ensure that it matched my ID. Of course, that was impossible because I was wearing my M17A1 Field Protective Mask.

Nothing makes a person pissed off faster then trying to run around and coordinate shit wearing an NBC mask. You can barely breathe in the damned thing, have to holler to be heard and you can barely make out what others are saying. Just the act of trying to communicate with someone is enough to make you gasp for air.

I tried to get across, between gasps for air and sweat pouring out of every pore, that because we were under chemical attack, if I lifted my mask so they could see that my face matched the photo on my ID, I would then die. But they were AF MPs. There guidance was that they needed to confirm that ID pics matched faces. They were not given any info about exceptions that could be made when folks were wearing chemical masks. They were going to do exactly what they were told.

My attempts to convince them that they needed to be flexible were for nought. I was determined to make this situation fun. So finally I acquiesced and, holding my ID, pulled my mask off so they could see my sweat soaked face. Which is when I pantomimed choking and gasping and collapsed on top of them, making sure that when I hit the ground I blocked the door to the facility. Now no one was getting in or out. I was so completely unresponsive for so long, they called the medics. I might have taken a nap, I don't remember. I let the medics revive me.

---

Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart

This all happened this weekend.

Pulled up to a store to refill water bottles and to buy more food. The bike racks were full. One bike had a large flatbed trailer blocking everything, almost large enough to tow behind a car. Trailer had a bunch of moving bins stacked on it. Then the owner of the bike came out. Lumberjack shirt, cargo pants, bushy beard. Ah they are from Portland! Then it made sense.

On the same bike ride a smallish Hawk swooped in and grabbed an adult bunny from the bushes next to the road. But bunny was too heavy to fly off with. Hawk was flapping furiously but best it could do was hover 3-4 feet off the ground - right in front of me as I was riding right for it! Just as we got very very close it dropped the bunny with a wet thwump and flew off. I was sure hawk would perch above and come back later for its meal, but 30 minutes later the dead bunny was still on the pavement.

Stopped by a public restroom 5 minutes into an awesome trail run that goes through a greenbelt past a little farm. Ran straight out of the bathroom and almost stepped onto a large gray tabby. The cat was sitting in the middle of the trail next to the restroom. It absolutely did not care that it almost got stepped on. Decided to make it all my problem and I stumbled to avoid stepping on it. Cat did not flinch and did not as much as look in my direction.

That must've been what the bird I saw wandering along the roadside was going after ... as I ran up, he took a big flap and I realized that the "large black chicken" was a turkey vulture

What an ugly motherfucker, too

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I just saw a good one yesterday - out on a ride and about 75-100 yds ahead of me I hear a loud screech followed by a bang. A Jeep coming towards me had taken a corner onto a small side street too hard and too fast and slammed into a tree on the wrong side of the road. A small dog scampers away from the wreck, and my first thought was that it ran into traffic and the driver tried to avoid it. Just then a woman gets out of the passenger side of the Jeep and runs towards me after the dog, yelling it's name. I ask if she is alright and all she says is "That's my dog!" and keeps running. I go up to the vehicle and a teenage girl is getting out of the driver's seat and a younger boy is getting out of the back. Front left fender of the Jeep is all crunched and it's leaking coolant, and the woman left these two kids in order to chase down the dog. I ask the girl if she is OK and she replies in a petulant teenage girl voice "Yes", as if annoyed for being asked.

The woman comes back with the dog and I ask again if everyone is OK; the woman replies that her daughter just got her learner's permit and had the dog in her lap while she was driving, and it scampered across the mothers lap and jumped out the passenger window, and the girl slammed into the tree since she was reaching the dog rather than paying attention to the road. First off - what is the mother thinking letting a 16-yr old drive with a dog in her lap, never mind having it in the front seat? Second, what is she doing leaving the kids where she bolted right out of the Jeep after the dog? I hope she had fun explaining that one to her husband and her insurance company. I'm also glad that I wasn't a few seconds faster on my ride as I would likely have been right in their path when they made the sudden turn.

---

"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

The bike path I take to work was flooded this morning, and as I was carrying my bike through a particularly deep section I noticed a wake zig-zagging in front of me. It passed pretty close to my feet and I caught a glimpse of a pretty decent sized trout. Can't say that I've ever seen a trout on the bike trail before!

Other good ones-- 4 a.m. bike commute (don't ask, one time thing) in the pitch dark. All sorts of beady eyes reflect my headlight, so I quickly learn to just ignore them and barrel on-- until one set turns into a skunk at point blank range with tail raised. I braced for a very unhappy start to my day, but somehow missed getting blasted.

The other was a lunch run on an overgrown footpath through the woods. First I came across a woman's shoe, then another, a little ways on I came across a blouse and bra, and then torn panties. I kept thinking how it's always the joggers that come across the bodies, and dreading what I'd find ahead, but nothing came of it.

Was there an eye-roll involved? I'll bet "Yes"

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Hahaha pretty much!

---

"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

See my post further "upstream"

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=1591422#p1591422

"The 'debris field' stretched over 2 miles."

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Porn video discs on the side of the road in Cape Cod, MA.

A dead bald eagle on the side of the road during, no kidding, Eagleman.

Same race, an escaped pitbull cornered by police/animal control with weapons drawn under a car - yelling "shoot it now! shoot it now!" The dog had apparently launched on some poor unsuspecting bicyclist about three miles out of T1.

I do bricks out in the country and get attacked at least once a week. My hypothesis is that it is strategy to get food, their attack will cause me to panic and drop treats as I make a hasty retreat.

This may be my favorite slowtwitch thread of all time. I will throw in some wildlife stories

1. Riding in western WI, which is big climbs in and out of the Mississippi river valley, with lots of huge bluffs. As I am going up a big climb, a snake falls out of the sky right in front of me. An eagle had been flying with it in its talons and dropped it. Very freaky.

2. Same route in the spring. There are a shitload of eagles in that area. In the spring the babies are learning to fly. I rode 60 miles with a gaggle of baby eagles following me high above the entire way, their shadow in front of me on the pavement.

3. In WI on either the IM or HHH course. Cresting a hill, I came up on an enormous hawk eating a cat. He watched me as I rode by. I googled it and believe it was a ferruginous hawk.

4. Buffalo Springs tri 2010. There were a handful of guys in front of me on the bike and on one of the decents I see each one abruptly get out of aero position and stand up. As I passed the same spot, there was an enormous rattlesnake sunning itself in the middle of the road. I almost crashed as I attempted to dodge.

Just this morning had a Pigmy Rabbit fall from the sky and land about 3 feet in front of me.

Heard some rustling in a tree as I passed by and looked over to see a Hawk take off, he dropped his breakfest. The Hawk circled around and picked Bugs backup and flew directly over my head and down the road with meal in talons.

I saw a bike fight once while along the Hudson waterfront. Like, people using their expensive road bikes like longswords in Braveheart to try to kill each other. Thankfully some bystanders were successful in defusing the situation.

This happened regularly when I lived in Michigan. Red W BB must have a different psychology about them because once I moved out west, it never happened again.

Now the oddest thing I recall seeing is a coyote eating a bag of McD's with fries & burger...roadside junk someone tossed, at about 8200 feet. Just ate & ate while I biked by, not scared at all. I wonder if he had a McFlurry for desert in that bag...

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

The sprinklers were on at the Little League field this morning, but one of them wasn't working quite right. I suspect a little lack of pressure, as it was a not spraying very far at all

However, from the angle that the groundskeeper was kneeling on the grass as he tried to fix it, the stream arced so it looked like he was taking a wicked piss with all the fire-house force he could muster

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Well, school is back in, and it happens that she DID come back, and on the same route!!!

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Things have been getting pretty dim on the Damn Patrol lately, with sunrise not happening until just after I've gotten home now [6:38 this AM]

That being said, when you see someone with bright yellow hair, it kinda gets your attention. Not blonde mind you, but Safety Lemon [I thought it was a hat at first]

Contrasting the bright hair was a black shirt, with a red & white image on the front. I couldn't make it out at first, since my specs were a little fogged, but I picked up fairly quickly that the red was the * used by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with their name around it

As I passed, I noticed that the yellow-haired pedestrian was, in fact, a woman, who appeared to be in her 70s. On top of that, the black shirt had a B&W band pic on the back, indicating to me that this wasn't just a random Hot Topic or Target purchase, but legit RHCP merch

OK, if could have bee a flea market or thrift store find, but either way, rock on grandmom!!!

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Saw a most excellent dresser on the curb the other day

Drawers were intact, slid out well, hardware seemed secure, no obvious scratches or dings, and nothing to say it wasn't just free to take

Of course, by the time I got home & brought the car around, it was gone

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I saw a dude wearing a Southern Tier t-shirt on the Promenade yesterday [Cape May doesn't have a "boardwalk" per se]

I asked him, in a friendly beer-geeky way "Have you gotten this year's Warlock yet?"

"What's that?" he answered, quite puzzled

I felt like punching him in the face and relieving him of his shirt, the fucking poseur

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Several months ago I was out for a Sunday morning run along a rural road. I glanced down and saw a $20 bill on the side of the road. Sweet, I thought, and picked it up. I proceeded to find 4 more! $100 cash just laying in a ditch on the side of a back road. I was PSYCHED!

This post confused me. I was expecting to hear about a man wearing a tuxedo or an ascot or something. Then I realized it was a piece of furniture.

A squirrel fell out of a tree right in front of me on a ride a few weeks ago...made a weird "pop" sound when he landed--but he scampered away. Squirrel Dive Bombs?

Wow I must live in a boring area...

But none the less here's my two stories. Once I was riding and I saw someone pull off to the side of the rode. Seeing it was a young lady I wanted to be a gentleman and ask if she needed help of any kind or at least offer them my phone. When I got close I saw she was breastfeeding you young kid. Good thing for my reflective glasses or she would have seem my eyes get as wide as saucers, I politely road away.

Another one, and this is I guess this isn't as weird as it is puzzling... But I once saw a man stranded with a mechanical issue on the side of the road. I ride up to him and he's on a no-name cheap steel round tube frame, baseball hat no helmet, polo-shirt, khaki short, toe clips, Wal-Mart glasses, but with a full Ultegra group set. His rear derailuer had come loose and destroyed his back wheel. He wanted to know if he could fix it on the road. I told him unlikely he'd be well served to call a friend and head home for the day. Now I'm not trying to be judgmental but how in holy hell did all that Ultegra stuff get on his bike?

---

I still lapped everyone on the couch!

Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - I was running down the street one fall morning when I heard a rustling of leaves high up in an oak tree about a hundred yards ahead of me. The shaking was followed by a loud wooden clunk! ... a pause ... another clunk! and another; each sounding lower in the tree as I ran toward it. The clunks came steadily until finally silence as I ran beneath the tall tree

... And I got beaned right on top of the head!!!

A malicious and dangerously clever squirrel must've been in the tallest branches of the tree, shaking acorns out in such a way that they fell, bouncing off branches on their journey, in perfect time for one to plunk me right on the noggin

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

This past weekend I saw where Whole Foods shoppers get their cars fixed.....

---

I talk to myself because mine are the only answers I'll accept - George Carlin

---

"The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Speaking of ... I've seen a bunch of these around lately

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

A few years ago I was coasting along on my bike enjoying an easy fall day ride...

...when a crow flew directly in to my drivetrain and got mauled up between the chain and crankset. There was wings flapping, feathers everywhere, mad cawing, etc for around 15 seconds. I'm not sure how but it got free and either hopped or flew away and I was left there dazed wondering wtf had just happened.

---

Long Chile was a silly place.

My friend Joe killed a bird with his mountain bike. Accidentally, of course. Joe's about 6-6, 300lbs, has the speed and agility of a tortoise and can leap like a rhinoceros. This bird decided "Today is a good day to die" and flew across the trail about a foot off the ground; a little less than "hub high." Joe hit him and just smacked him down to the ground ... like swatting a fly, but flies don't crunch-squeek. Joe was really upset about it, very upset, more upset than a straight man should have been. It made the ride home very somber. Joe played The Cure all the way home. Made me wish he'd run ME over with his bike!!!

I don't ride with Joe anymore

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Bump. Reposting because this is the best story ever. Why doesn't this sh*t ever happen to me??

---

"The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Thanks, man


I don't know ... Maybe you just have to open yourself to possibilities, and the Universe will present them to you?

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Reminds me of a story. I was running on a track that is normally fairly quiet. I was hammering on the way home and came around a small bend. At that exact moment, a rather attractive lady standing just off the track, looked side to side once, and pulled her pants down to go to the toilet. She looked up in shock when she saw me barrelling towards her, so we both did the only thing we could do. Look straight ahead and pretend nothing happened.... I put the hammer down a bit more to reduce her embarrassment.

Should have stopped to fasten your shoelace, ask the time etc ... lol

WD :-)

About three years ago I was at a popular start point NW Atlanta. A female triathlete pulled down her cycling shorts, squatted down and went all while looking straight at me. :-) In twenty years of my marriage I've never even seen my wife on the toilet. :-) Even most of the guys, and no one is supposed to be peeing on this property anyway, tend to go behind the shrubs at the edge of the parking area.

I wasn't sure how to react to this young woman other than just give her a smile and go about getting my bike ready as if I had seen her squat in the parking lot many times before.

By the way, I am not a triathlete so maybe this is more of a common practice than I understand. Although I still think one of the weirdest things I have seen on the bike was a guy had a full size floor pump across his back with like a rifle sling while cycling. Cycling in a metro area and it doesn't take too long to see some weird things. So much so you cannot remember them all.

"Need a sock?"

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

One of the places I mountain bike intersects with ATV trails. I'm huffing and puffing up a rocky climb with my head down. I look up and see an ATV in the trail, with 2 naked people on top going at it. I have no choice but to go right by them, fairly slow since it's a technical climb and they didn't even bother to get off the trail. They stopped while I rode by, looking at me.

You got the "Do you mind?" look, too, didn't ya?

I'm sure I've gotten busted a time or two, by not pulling far enough away from "traffic" and into the woods onshore on canoe trips down here in the Pine Barrens

http://getouttheremag.com/...ave-sex-in-the-woods

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

It's funny how you normalize certain things after a while. After many years of watching pro-cycling, and riding with friends, we don't bat an eyelid when someone has to relieve themselves.

When I was watching the tour this year, a relative of mine just happened to walk into the room when the riders were taking a 'nature break'. She asked what they were doing, and seemed a little unsettled that she had just watched someone urinate on live TV!! In retrospect I think she had a point ;-)

Now that I think of it, I watched Tom Dumoulin take a crap live on TV as well. Maybe I am the problem....

It's not like Race Radio calls up to the TV chopper and says: "Hey! They're gonna pee by those trees! Turn the cameras over to that chateau or something!"

On the other hand maybe that IS why they're showing the chateaus?

****

Of course, in Philly we're used to it for a whole other reason

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I did the Tour of Utah ultimate challenge last year. It's f'n hard, but at the end of the day it's just a t-shirt ride. Peloton is full of men and women.

Over the course of the ride, a handful of guys just whip it out while we're rolling down the road like they're in a pro peloton or something, with women all around. It's a tshirt ride for goodness sakes!

Very confusing behavior.

I was on a long ride a while back and came across a backback air blower that a landscaper must have lost out of the back of a truck. I stopped, strapped it on, and rode home. About 30 miles. The hose was flapping all over because it wouldn't stay secure. Now we have a backpack air blower with a little bit of a ding. I tell you, though. It isn't easy to ride aero with a backpack blower.

Then, I was out running this last spring and there a circa 1928 mechanical 10-key machine on the curb for free (somebody wrote free on the tape). I walked home with it about 2.5 miles. It weighs 41 pounds. As a CPA, I had a duty to rescue the 10-key.

...now that I think of it, I may have shared this already a few pages back... oh well. Not much exciting happens 'round me.

---

Hillary Trout
San Luis Obispo, CA

Your trip is short. Make the most of it.
https://www.slogoing.net/

Guy waiting for the NJ Transit bus from AC, waving an American flag and singing "God Bless America"

I expected to see more ghouls, pirates and princesses at the school bus stops today, but then it occurred to me that a) the early busses are High School and Middle School kids and b) their schools have uniforms, so probably no costumes are allowed [DKid got around this by finding a loophole "Hey, no one said I couldn't wear make-up" and zombified herself - no blood or gore, just undead looking]

I ran past the cemetery as I often do but saw no unusual activity; maybe tomorrow, when the spirits have to return to their graves before Dawn, after been out all Halloween night?

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

At Kona 2014 I picked up a 50 at mile 6 of the run. The photographer was right there so one of my race photos included me flashing my newfound wealth.

1) dead body on a 1/2 marathon that caused us to run a few extra miles.

2) Turned a corner on a bike path to see a motorcycle/calendar girl photo shoot dead ahead.

3) Historic battle reenactment.

Giant purple butt plug on MTB trail. GIANT

---

Don't drown. Don't crash. Don't walk.

Since it is Halloween, this is a great time for me to reply to this thread! This isn't something I've seen, but around this time of year I help others experience the season while out running by dressing up as a gorilla and scaring a 5:30 am running group I'm part of! Funniest thing was one time finding a blog from a cyclist who talked about seeing a gorilla in the woods during one of her rides, it was me...

This morning, I returned to the trail as a gorilla along with a small tripod and Iphone, good times!
https://www.facebook.com/...ts/10155260316931645

---

Tony
http://www.triathleteguru.com

A few years back I was on a switchback looking out over East Canyon (Salt Lake City) and noticed a Red Tailed Hawk. He was riding the ridge lift and almost exactly at the same height as the road so I was looking slightly down on him. As I was looking, he banked such that the sun reflected off the tops of his wings making him completely aglow. Stunning! What I would give for a pic of that!

I didn't know they made butt plugs. Bicycles, sure. I guess diversification is the key to success for large companies.

Bike company names I wouldn't want associated with sex toys: Giant, Surly, Felt, Jamis, Softride

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Yesterday was November 5th, and I saw Xmas lights up already

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Today I saw a Pontiac Fiero, with NJ Historical plates [for cars 25+ years old, they begin or end with "QQ"]

In case you don't remember

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

There's a wooded stretch of road toward the end of the second day of the City to Shore where I've seen that happen to enough riders (and experienced it myself a couple of times over the years) that I swear it's deliberate on the part of the squirrels.

Or beginning of the first day, if you only do the ride down on Saturday [like we do, then we volunteer at the Waterford Middle School rest stop on Sunday]

Do you mean that twisty, turny part between Rt 73 and the Halloween house? That's near where I live; I drive it to & from work everyday

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Kettle Run Road right before Braddock Mill Road, I think?

Coming out of t1 on a foggy morning a woman in front of me on the bike had just put on her Oakley's in transition and couldn't see out of the condensation on the lenses. She ripped them off her face and chucked them on the ground and kept riding. A spectator saw the whole thing and shouted "I didn't want those anyway!". It was a funny scene and I couldn't stop laughing.

---

-------------------
Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

That's it!!!

Y'know where that turn is, where there's a railroad crossing? If you were to cross the RR, and go straight about a mile, that's where I live

In fact, that crossing is exactly where the boulder fell of the truck, and around where I usually see the Danica the bus driver

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I think that would violate the littering rules, and heck of a waste of expensive glasses :-p

Is Kettle Run Road less than 12 parsecs?

---

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

SRAM

---

All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

Buddy of mine saw a $20 bill fly across the road, during IM LOU. I asked him if he stopped....and he said "no".

Got me thinking......what would the denomination have to be for me to stop in an IM race.

Knowing how the conversations on ST go, you would then need to calculate how many watts you would expend by caring that extra piece of currency, then calculate how much each watt is costing you and the watts needed to get back to where you were. Once the at break even point is discovered the value of the currency can be determined.

Enough to pay off that month's EPO

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I was doing hill intervals on the road right by my house when i saw a sow bear and two cubs come out of the ditch about 20ft away. That made me a bit nervous. On the same hill a few months later spider man rode by in a van cheering me on. On the local mtb trail there was a couple that set up camp right in the single track, you had to ride right through the middle of the camping spot to continue on. one morning there was a 350+ lb lady sitting in a chair with a hole cut into the seat doing her morning business. Her boyfriend or whatever sat on the ground and watched her. They were in this spot for roughly 12 days. That was around June this past summer and there is still a lingering smell.

Sounds like you should get a HazMat team out there

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

A few years ago, I was riding my MTB up a steep trail when I heard an odd noise from just around the bend and over a rise. This was followed by 3 dudes and a woman, all on MTB unicycles, descending toward me.

A few years before that I was toward the end of a long, 32 mile, almost continuous 6000’ climb, when I rounded a corner into the shadow of a barren tree. At first my tired eyes saw “Branch...gonna bump.......YIKES, SNAKE...crunch, rattle, rattle, crunch, rattle.” As my tired eyes picked out the snake, probably about 5’ long, I jumped out of the saddle, just before the first CRUNCH, but sprinting was not in the cards at that point. My heart rate took a while to settle down after that.
(On the return, I looked for it, but it either made it off the road or someone picked it up.)

Many years ago, I was running with my brother and his roommates gigantic 130# Malamute, (named BIG BABY) up in the Flatirons above Boulder. After a few miles, we saw a couple coming down the hill, arm in arm, gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes, when Big Baby ran up to them and stopped at their feet. They didn’t know whether to $#!t of go blind. As they were trying to climb on top of one another to escape this ‘wolf,’ my brother ran by them and said, “It’s OK, she already ate.” They looked at each other and then the dog, not knowing what to think or do. I managed to run a bit further, but had to stop because I couldn’t hold the laughter, any longer.

---

_________________
Dick

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.

Circling back to the acorns, because there are still a lot of them in the road, I always remind myself a particularly clever post I made about my morning run a couple years ago

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Was running through the Presidio in San Fran at sundown. I almost stepped on a mouse which darted off into the bushes, looked up and saw a big ass owl swooping down right in front of me just above my head. Obviously messed their meeting up. Scared the sh!t out of me for a second haha.

The other night, I went for a run towards one of the more secluded developments off at the edge of the woods, were the homes are a little further apart than the rest

The homeowners must've been overwhelmed/overcome by the replay of the Olympic Ice Dancing routine and got busy right there on the couch ... without first drawing the draperies closed

As a bonus, because it was so unseasonably warm, they had their windows open, so I got the full audio as well [no headphones for me]

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Meh, not many interesting things for me.

I take the greenway home from some rides at night so I can cool down and go slow. I've come across a big fat family of raccoons in the middle of the trail.

I've also had a fox run in my headlight while riding for about a solid 1/2 mile before it ducked off somewhere.

I've come across a panicked guy looking for someone, but I thought it was a scam/threat so rode off quickly. Months later I told the story on a group ride, the guy I was telling the story to was the same guy. His brother or someone at a wedding bailed out drunk and they couldn't find him. The brother was the groom.

I've come across the random group of hobos drinking 40's on the greenway before.

I used to ride my MTB/CX bike after work in a park that had a lot a small twisty trails off of a main trail and a main run path. The park was notorious for its after hours gentleman meet ups.

Ran into many "couples" mid-action. Some would hear me coming, most would not. It used to make me laugh as they would hastily try to disengage then try to act casual, most of the time being caught literally with their pants down.

During a night mission fire road gravel ride, came across a very large muddy, bearded man with a distinctly sketchy vibe and carrying a shovel and a pickaxe. This was at about 2am in an isolated area. I really don't want to know what the hell he was burying.

This guy?



You don't want to know, trust me

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Gravel road riding in farm country with a few team mates. Road by a large barn with a few country boys enjoying adult beverages. Previous encounters in this area involved rolling coal and middle fingers. An hour later on the return loop home we prepared for the worst (unleashed dogs, beer can toss, etc).

Coming near the barn we heard a few hoots and hollers. The partygoers gave us the thumbs up and beer hand up on the pass by.

About 18 years ago I was in San Francisco at an annual professional convention where they put on a 5k run down at Fisherman's Wharf. For the longest time, there was a naked, homeless man sitting on a park bench near the start/finish line. I think I PR'ed that race.

I'm waiting for the "Weirdest Thing ..." and "Shit my Pants" thread crossover

"We were on our usual Saturday Morning club ride, when we saw someone taking a shit on someone's lawn"

"One Saturday morning, I had to pull over to take a dump, and all of a sudden, mid-plop, this club ride rolled past me"

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I was about to step on the treadmill at the gym when I saw this message scrolling across the dashboard

"Service Required --- Apply Lube"

Oh really? Wow, this treadmills know everything these days, don't they?

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I once saw a bunch of runners try to move a building before a race

---

Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

Don’t leave us in suspense. Details!!

Think about it

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Sarcasm doesn’t come across well on the web I guess.

I love this story!

---

"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Riding through farmland - dear at the side of the road watching me pass before crossing the road - had a red ribbon tied around its neck - had to check my liquid intake and fatigue level to verify I was not having a hallucination ...

You used that one already

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=6339730#p6339730

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Good catch - riding less on the road now - lots of dogs and surf boards in the back of pick ups on Maui --- seeing a horse in the back of a pick up was a little weird. Bears crossing the road in Whistler pretty common.

That reminds me. I was doing a 6 mile threshold run once. I was at mile 4 and it was tough but I was hanging in there at 6:30 pace, feeling proud. Out of the forest, a deer jumps out and starts running with me right at my side for about a 100 yds. I swear I thought he was laughing at me for being so slow. A mile down the road, a guy that looked like a Kenyan (5’4” 135 lbs or so. Black with East African features), was walking with his girlfriend in the opposite direction. When he saw me, he left her there and started running with me. He was going 6:30 like it was an easy run. But he was helpful and encouraging and ran with me for about 1/2 mile. Neither of those two things that happened that day have happened ever to me and I couldn’t help but figure that they were related and a divine power was behind it.

Amazing the way the divine seems to conspire in our favour at times - seems to happen in races at the lowest point - someone strides past and looks relaxed - imitating that person's stride for a brief time seems to be all that is needed to get back on track - to accomplish more than what we thought possible -and appreciate what we can do rather than moan about what we can't. Used to experience the divine a lot when I was into astronomy - late nights searching for galaxies and finding many other things the universe has to offer.

This Winter has played havoc on the roads around here, as I'm sure it has elsewhere

Yesterday, while dodging potholes, I saw a local Public Works crew attending to one such beast

This one was about a foot and a half wide, three feet long, and maybe 9-12" deep. I couldn't tell precisely how deep because it was filled with water

Now, I would have thought that the road crew would have taken a portable pump or something to empty it first, but nope .... they were dumping the hot asphalt right into to cold water, with much splashing and steaming

This did NOT look like a sound solution to me, and will probably require re-work, but what do I know?

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Three days ago driving during the day in city 100K from me. Huge pothole marked with cones and flashing light and setup with yield to traffic sign. Last night doing same drive at night all there is is a flashing light. Couldn't have seen the yield to traffic sign until too late. If I had not done the drive by three days earlier likely would have had accident.

---

They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Ha that story reminds me of one. Go out super early for a ride, riding through a small town with a big tail wind. It is about 7am and I see up ahead a party is still in full swing and has spilled onto the side of the road. Lots of burly looking guys drinking beer. I start to worry that I am going to hit trouble, so I put on a spurt of pace (my Garmin says 48km/h), and hope no-one accosts me. Then I see beside the road one of the guys on a BMX starting to accelerate, to much encouragement from the partygoers. Needless to say he lasted about 3 seconds, but a good laugh all round!

I was looking forward to running outside after work all day, but my start time slipped a little with having to stop for groceries, then pick up D'Kid from work, then making a small plate of dinner for D'Wife, becuase she doesn't like to work out on an empty tummy

Even though I was staring about 45 minutes later than I had planned, dammit I was getting out there. It was getting close to sundown, so I put on my shorts & a glowy long-sleeve shirt, and got out the door [no need for lights anymore, but a reflecto-vest could've come in handy towards the end, perhaps]

I could hear Mister Softee chiming some where in the distance, as well as the whirring of the peepers in the swampy areas nearby

I was startled a bit coming down the hill that starts the last mile ... dude, I know the calendar says Mid-April, and yes, the ice cream trucks are out, but it's kinda chilly, and there still is a threat of snow lurking about, so there is no fucking need for you to run your fucking sprinklers, and NOT in the fucking dark ... that is Summertime shit, asshole

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

A home with TWO Miatas in the driveway

One 1st Gen with the flip up headlights, the other was 2nd Gen with the little oval ones

One of them had a rear spoiler on it, but I forget which right now

One might have been a convertible, too

I'm sure they're not going anywhere, so I'll have to get a pic, next time I'm over that way

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Long Island Marathon 2017.. about 5 miles in, I hear screaming and yelling, everyone running, confused, starts to look around and there is a fully naked(!!), middle aged man screaming at all of the runners, next to his car.. Apparently the traffic caused him to go nuts.

Story: https://www.newsday.com/...on-course-1.11749342

On my run this morning there was a "murder of crows" tearing apart and arguing over a dead squirel. Even when I yelled and ran by they did not flinch and kept picking at the squirel.

---

All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

Trained in Tampa, Florida for a summer two years ago. Every morning I was on the bike I would inevitably encounter a runner who would pull his shorts down to expose himself as I rode by. I just assumed it was someone from LetsRun and he knew I was a STer.

---

@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

Not necessarily "weird" but last night, as I ran past the Little League field, I was happy to see that young miscreants still hang out on their bikes by the fence [even though they're past Little League age], with no interest in the game, just trying to look cool and on the verge of causing trouble

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Those are like $4000 bucks a can....its actually Sturgeon (beluga sturgeon) roe. Id have picked them ALL up lol

No, but I certainly have done it in less. I've outrun Imperial starships, not the local bulk-cruisers, mind you. I'm talking about the big Corellian ships now

Big deal . . . tell us what's important: Do you have the current KOM on that segment?

listen - there are no double letters in my name so clearly I did not cheat...and no I was not wearing my Garmin - the GPS gets wonky once it gets close to wormholes. You can ask chewy, he was there.

While I'm here, I may as well play along. These happened within the last 3 years . . .

1. Sunday afternoon training ride. The route comes to a "T" in the road. At the "T", there's a silver PT Cruiser sitting still with the driver's door open and, on the wrong side of the road going the same direction, a small white sedan. Leaning in to the passenger's window of the sedan is a young woman in a sheer-ish formal evening gown and/or nightgown, extremely low cut and with a slit up to about the waist. The sedan leaves and, as I approach the intersection, the woman in the evening/nightgown walks back toward me. She calls out, "Is there a flasher on your bicycle?" (Huh?) I slow, but don't stop, respond "No," and rapidly turn left and up the hill at max speed.

2. Riding in rural Summitville, Tennessee at about 8:00 a.m. Walking up the road is a young woman in an 80's classic short yellow poofy dress with cut-out sleeves, non-matching boots, and a purple spiky half-mohawk, and she's carrying a large black bowling ball (no bag). (There's not a bowling alley for at least 20 miles in any direction.) We say, "good morning." She says something about how hot we look in Spandex. We don't stop.

Where do you live haha and I would definitely stop next time and just f*ck with these people lol

I don't think she was asking if you had a blinking light on your bike.

Middle Tennessee . . . and life's experiences have taught me not to spend time around mad dogs or crazy, half-dressed women. Life's too long for that.

Ok. The mad dog I get... But what life experience taught you that other thing?

Id understand if randmart said that...

I'm still not sure what she was after . . . but good sense prevailed over curiosity. I didn't need to know.

Another weird experience that probably loses something in translation . . .

We were riding on a familiar road on Christmas Eve a few years back. It was a cold, rainy day. Up ahead, I see a guy pulled to the side of the road. He's on a 26" mountain bike and he's wearing a tattered orange jump suit under a tattered brown winter coat. He's got a big pack on his back. He has a very long, unkempt, graying beard and long, unkempt, graying hair under a floppy brown western hat. He looks exactly like the "bear man" in the 2010 movie version of "True Grit." He flags us down to stop us -- his mannerisms portray a great deal of urgency -- as if there is grave danger ahead.

Once we stop, this guy's mannerisms are exactly like the "bear man" in True Grit. Even his voice -- the tone, the halting cadence, the accent -- it's as if the "bear man" has copped a mountain bike and come out for a ride. (If you don't know the "bear man" character, find him on YouTube. "Is anyone in need of medical attention?") At any rate, he warns us of a very large loose dog up ahead. (We know the dog.) He explains that the dog is extremely dangerous and that we should carefully reconsider our route. He points to a tattered leg of his jumpsuit and notes that "the animal I speak of is the dog that just did this to my clothing." He then says that, "If I encounter the dog again, I will strike him upside the head with this here machete!" whereupon he draws the machete up over his head out of its holster strapped to his back.

We assure him that we are prepared to meet the dog and defend ourselves, if necessary. (In this part of rural Tennessee, most cyclists ride armed, in case of mad dogs or rednecks.) Suitably assured, the "bear man" allows us to pass. As we ride away, before we say another word, we turn to each other simultaneously and say to each other, in our best "bear man" voices, "Is anyone in need of medical attention?" Hilarious.

We named the Strava segment on that stretch in his honor. It's "Bear Man's Trail."

Ooh, seeing double double, double vision

The tattered orange jump suit didn't scream something like "escape prison convict" or anything? and you go talk to the guy with the machette and crazy beard who was on the lamb but you wont go help a half naked girl? haha

I run the same path 3-5 times a week. Here it is for those in Houston:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1458178343


I see the same people everyday. Everyone knows everyone. For some reason this one women will never look at me. I get it. But I would think after seeing me for the 100th time she would, I don't know, give some kind of acknowledgement. So that I am clear: I am in no way offended and have no expectations. It's just, I don't know, a little weird. I go to a birthday party for my 7 year old and as it turns out I see this women there. Cool. I go and introduce myself. Her son and mine are in the same grade, same school. They play together at the party. They get first and second in the laser tag because they strategize together. 2 days later I see her up the road. Great! I am going to finally get the courtesy nod. Nope. 100 runs later its as if the party never happened.

I do not wear spandex running around my neighborhood / that would be weird.

Today I was riding in a place called Sai Kung Country Park in Hong Kong. It’s one of the few places where there aren’t a lot of cars but the locals let their cattle run free so you have to watch for cows all the time, especially on descents. They are absolutely indifferent to your passing and you can buzz by them and they don’t move.

So saw about 50 today. As I was coming over one of the big ass hills and going down I saw something and thought it must be the smalles cow ever and it was actually a huge monkey.

Showed me it’s gigantic balls and screached at me as I zoomed by.

Routinely see wild boar running across the road as well.

Would you really call it a "wormhole" though? It was clearly a gravity well, but we don't know what was on the other end [maybe just a hungry black hole?]

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Thanks, man

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

How so? I wear my lycra when I ride and if I am doing a brick I wear a tri suit. That way I can set up a transition area to practice.

Just this last Sunday I was out on a country road for a long endurance ride and heard a high pitched whine, almost like bee's. I then noticed a few headlights coming from the opposite direction, that turned into dozen of headlights. It ended up being about 50 people on scooters on a huge scooter group ride in the country going past me. They looked like a large group of Shriners in a parade. I was laughing to hard to think about stopping to take my phone out of my jersey pocket to take a picture. All I could think of was, Heaven's Little Devils.

So, not these guys then?

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Some Updates

* I neglected to mention they are both white
* They do get moved around on the lawn [sometimes facing the street, sometimes not; sometimes the older is on the left, sometimes on the right] so they're at least driveable
* A third one has been acquired; also white, but with black racing stripes down the middle

I promise to get a pic; this NEEDS to be documented. I mean, what kind of a person would own THREE white Miatas?

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin