So the “Why Do Runners Find All the Dead Bodies” thread kind of sparked an interest in what weird stuff people have seen on the run and bike in real life, hopefully no dead bodies. Personally, I have seen more car accidents than I care to remember but a personal favorite was a man dressed as a cowboy riding a full grown, long horn bull down a major street in Gainesville, FL.
Linky no worky
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So the “Why Do Runners Find All the Dead Bodies” thread kind of sparked an interest in what weird stuff people have seen on the run and bike in real life, hopefully no dead bodies. Personally, I have seen more car accidents than I care to remember but a personal favorite was a man dressed as a cowboy riding a full grown, long horn bull down a major street in Gainesville, FL.
- Been flashed w/ hooters
- Saw a guy riding a unicycle in downtown Berkeley at midnight wearing a full body pink spandex suit that covered head-to-toe.
- 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.
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.
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?
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.
So the “Why Do Runners Find All the Dead Bodies” thread kind of sparked an interest in what weird stuff people have seen on the run and bike in real life, hopefully no dead bodies. Personally, I have seen more car accidents than I care to remember but a personal favorite was a man dressed as a cowboy riding a full grown, long horn bull down a major street in Gainesville, FL.
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. . .
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.
narc
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.
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.
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.
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
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 .
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.