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

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"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.

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_________________
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

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"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]

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"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

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"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"

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"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?

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"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

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

Don’t leave us in suspense. Details!!

Think about it

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"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!

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"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

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"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.