I had a heart rate monitor on once as I ran through and intersection. Halfway through it, there was a pretty rough car wreck (I wasn't a cause of it). It scared the CRAP outta me with a huge bang. I got through the intersection and looked at my HRM. I was about 8 beats away from my max and it wasn't due to my running.

I think the owl would've been scarier though.

That'll teach ya to wear a Hooters hat in the forest.

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-- Every morning brings opportunity;
Each evening offers judgement. --

I don't think it was an owl. I think it was the Mothman of West Virginia, an urban mythical monster that terrorized West Virginians in the late 50's, 60's and early 70's and now, apparently, you.

Do a search on "Mothman". You'll see what I mean......

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

what ever happened to the "monkey man" who was freaking out people in India?

Owl or mothman, i just about crapped myself.

Hmmm, monkeyman was a probelm. I recall some people actually died over that. Anyway, I found this for you:

http://www.prairieghosts.com/moth.html

http://www.mothmanlives.com/

You're lucky you weren't set upon by a chupacabra. Horrible.....

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

OK, so now everybody is scared of sharks in the ocean, drunk drivers on the road, and hooters cap - attacking owls in the woods! Looks like we're only safe doing comptutrainer races on the internet against each other!

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FIST Certified Fitter
Salt Lake City, Utah

No Mothmen! Much worse...

And swimming, you could be attacked by a coelocanth.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

The Chupacabra lives!

speaking of scary stuff, this thread died last week, but it was entertaining while it lasted.

http://www.gtaforums.com/...opic=144008&st=0

Many years ago I was out running in the summer at night on a country road where my parents lived. There weren't any streetlights so you just run by the moonlight. When I was a little over a mile from home a bat fly into my forehead. It felt like someone slapped me across the noggin. I had the crap scared out of me. I whirled around looking for what had hit me and then I looked down and saw it lying on the ground in front of me. I wish I had though to time the last mile of my run that night since I was smoking fast ..... I thought those critters were supposed to have radar :)

Diving a few years ago. I got too close to a loggerhead turtle when taking a close up. He was on the move over me, and I guess I freaked him. To avoid me he whacked me with his front flipper--hard--knocked my mask off and the regulator out of my mouth and tore my skin suit. I was with a group. I got the mask back, cleared it, and noticed people in the group pointing at me--that's when I first noticed that my regulator was floating out in front of me. Took it back in my mouth and continued with the dive, but realized that I was disoriented, as though I had fallen hard. Completely my fault.

Next time don't wear Mouse Musk when you go running.

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______________________________
Have you hugged Your Mom today?

I don't think this coelocanth threat can be overstated. For goodness sake, we're talking about a prehistoric fish here! Who knows what else is down there? Check it out:

http://www.dinofish.com/

Yehhhhhhhhhsssssssssssss! Add that to the list of reasons to do duathlons.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Thanks, Tom. I had no idea!

The same thing happened to me in July this year while on Vacation. One of our stops was in the Big Horn Mountains in northern Wyoming. I went for a short trail run down to a waterfall when either an Osprey or Hawk, not sure which, swopped over my head twice while making a lot of "sqreaching" noises. I kept going on down the trail not thinking it would actually hit me, but the third time it did. My sunglasses were on top of my head because the trail was pretty shady in the forest, they went flying about 20 feet down the trail. So at that point I picked up my glasses, turned around and started to run out (well above race pace now). About 2 minutes later it hit me again. I stopped running and picked up a large branch and waved it around my head. I just walked looking all around me trying to keep an eye on it. After I walked for about 10 minutes I couldn't hear or see it anymore so I ran out. It was for about a 3/4 mile section of the trail where it attacked me, I figure it was protecting a nest. Shortly after that section I passed a couple hikers going the other way. I warned them to be careful of the crazy bird but they seemed to be dismissive of me. As we went our seperate ways I heard the bird sceaching again as the hikers entered that section of trail followed by the cracking of branches getting ready to defend themselves. I was bleeding pretty good from the claw marks and my neck was sore the next day, felt like whiplash. I never did get to the waterfall. Later in the vacation I would be attacked by fire ants at Yellowstone. It was really starting to become quite humorous.

Jerry