What are some of the COOLEST things you have seen while training? (Page 2)

Last summer I had two cool rides in the same area (Palmer Lake, CO). 

Spotted on Ride #1:

• huge dead elk (fresh kill, gone by the end of the 3 hr ride)
• alpacas
• baby donkeys
• buffalo (on a ranch) that were running along side us as we rode past.  Way cool

Spotted on Ride #2:

• more alpacas
• 2 camels

Next time I ride here, I'm going to expect to see Lions, Tigers, and Bears!

I went to the pool this morning for a solo-swim workout and Missy Franklin was 3 lanes over.  That was awesome.

I Love the ride from Sedalia to Palmer Lake, nothing like going downhill on the way back for 10 mile stretches.

Came across this during a ten mile run.  Thought it was kind of interesting:

I did come across a mortally wounded 4' gator laying in the bike lane about six months later during a ride. RIP.

Completely unrelated, about a year ago a flight of six A-10 Warthogs flew over at about 1000' during a run.  That was cool.

Mark

The coolest thing i ever did was run the Sahara desert full marathon in 2011. got to stay with the sahrawi people in morocco. They do not live in the best conditions, as i stayed in their camp for a week. But they were very hospitable. Wanted to run the worlds largest desert, and it was amazing!! For certain periods i was by myself, it was so surreal. Seen my share of wild camels, even seen a couple deathstalker scorpions.

I live in a big city so the wildlife are awesome sightings. And i've been fortunate to see quite a few: I've seen a coyote twice. The first time I mistook it for a big shaggy dog but realized and took a very wide berth around it when I realized it was quite wild. Not a lost/stray dog.  The second time was on a different path but it was running, thankfully away but still super cool.

There was one run where we saw two deer in the span of a few km's. Again, it's amazing to see in this park in the middle of the city.  And in the same park I saw a beaver once. Man, they are ugly.

We did interrupt a fox's breakfast of squirrel one morning. He wasn't very interested in leaving it behind so he didn't automatically run away until had a firm hold of it.

<insert perpetual campaigning joke here>  

That would've been a bad day for the Bear!

In the last 5 months, I have seen:

A Red Tail Hawk take-out a rabbit 3 feet to the right of the road.

A Barred Owl crossed 3 feet in front of me.

An elk 50 feet from me on a mountain in AZ.

Paul Ryan's running group around the Mall in DC. (eh, not that interesting I guess)

The coup-de-grace...  Jens Voight (I was driving, he was riding). 

That is awesome.... Did you forget to post it?

Had a pic, yet can't seem to upload it. I've had this problem before, and thought I remembered how to shrink the pic b/c it's too big. Apparently I forgot

I just sent you a PM

I've been running so long that my list would probably be miles long, but...a few favorites.

*Sunrise, when I can get up early enough. Last year I saw a double rainbow at sunrise.

*At home in Oregon, deer and wild turkeys almost daily.

*Not training but a race, but Angkor Wat. I think I've done the HM there six times, and it never gets old. No matter how crappy the race is going, there's still the timeless beauty and the chance to high-five what seems to be every child in Cambodia. (Deb, you would like it!)

*Being accompanied by a sea turtle for OWS in Hawaii.

*The rain forest on Tantalus in Honolulu

*Running in the bed of the Mekong during dry season in Laos at sunrise while the tops of the temples turn to gold.

Open water swims in Australia are awesome - we used to have a sea turtle that lived in a little cove just off the beach - we would see him about once a month.

Have also seen lots of port jackson sharks (which are really pretty and harmless).

Once, the day before the local official open water swim event (held each year) fisherman netted the beach. Because of this there was a bit of left over dead fish on the bottom, which sometimes attract the sharks/bigger fish.

Water was really clear for the swim event (2,000 people) and in around 10 feet of water a hammerhead shark (maybe 6 or 7 feet long) swam right underneath me........nearly had a heart attack but it was obvious he was pretty full from all the fish and stuff.

Blanda - 2013-02-05 3:40 PM I almost slid down into this on my last trail run:

Is that orangish object like a sharp root type thingy? It looks like it could be a real pain in the butt, quite literally...