Sunday run adds to the CRAZY week! (warning PG13 language)

What’s the second most scariest thing that can happen on a run? Someone goes down. (First would be, I go down). It wasn’t one of us, or even a runner, but it was very scary. I’ll get to that in a bit.

After a dubious weather forecast, we had an amazing day to run. It was about 5c when we started but warmed up quickly and we were in glorious sunshine the entire run. We had a manageable size group today, 4 in the half group, 2 in the marathon group and 2 in the 10k group. DW Traci and Stacey headed west into the park for their 6.5k run, Traci said it was really good, but her calves were feeling the hills a bit afterwards. Tracy and Liz were doing an 8k easy run today as they start their 18 week Hal Higdon Adv2 Marathon plan on Tuesday. Best of luck to both of you, the Credit Union Queen City Marathon is lucky to have you two in their race! I will be posting their plan soon and we will be including their runs in our weekly club emails for anyone who would like to join up! Kim, Dan, Wayne and I were running a 16k route in and around Fish Creek Park and Liz and Tracy tagged along with us for the first 4k before heading back to finish the shortest run they have run in a long time (whatever did you do with the rest of your Sunday?)

We exited the park about 10 minutes into our run and ran on the very scenic park pathways in Midnapore, along the ridge in Sundance and then dropped down into the park just North of Sikome Lake. By this time we were down to the 4 of us and we just chugged along and chatted bout all manners of things. Wayne was having trouble with his knee again, so when we got to the steep hill down into the park, we walked and fuelled, and enjoyed the view.

 

  

For the first time, I planned a route the ran over the 22x bridge and took us to the east side of the river. I like that stretch of run in the trees and along the river. Wayne was feeling done, so he decided to take it easy and walk over to the pedestrian bridge where we would meet him a while later as we looped around on the other side. Kim, Dan and I continued on and soon we saw a peculiar site. A goose on a log. It that weird? I thought it was. As I was trying to get closer and closer (manual zoon on the Palm Pre) I was hoping the tasty bird wasn’t going to attack me. He didn’t, and I still like chicken better.

Once we were across the river and on the other side, we just got into a nice rhythm, but ahead on the path we could see what looked like an emergency of sorts. From a distance we could make out someone on the ground with 2 other people bent over him. I commented that it didn’t look good, and as we got closer it was apparent that it sure wasn’t good at all. An older man was laying on the side of the path, very ashen, and very incoherent. Another runner had just arrived and was talking to 911 already and another fellow who just arrived was waving his running partner to hurry up as she was a Nurse. (thankfully), I have been trained in Infant CPR, which had an element of Adult CPR included however I really badly didn’t want to put my knowledge to the test. Not much in the way of intervention was needed as he sort of came to and was trying to get up, however he was still very groggy and sick looking. His wife and dogs were there and she was explaining that he recently had a lung removed due to cancer, had suffered emphysema and just a few days earlier had an epileptic attack as a side affect of all of the above. We were about 1k from the nearest vehicle access and the lady talking to the 911 Dispatch was having a hell of a time trying to direct the emergency crews to the site. As the guy was sitting up now and seemed a bit better I called to the golf course (we were adjacent to the 3rd hole of Mackenzie Meadows GC) and asked if they would come out in a cart and pick the guy up so the Ambulance didn’t have to come down the pathway. He said he would come right now. While we were waiting, they were talking with the poor guy and he was saying he didn’t want to go back to the hospital, he just wanted to go home… very sad. His dogs were beside themselves as well, whining and crying a lot. Enough that extreme dog lover Kim was on the ground looking after them.

 

All of a sudden the guy was out again. he flopped onto his side and I actually thought he died right there. He was the color of  ash and was completely limp. His mouth was foaming and his eyes pretty much rolled back into his head. That was scary. The nurse was yelling at him and shaking him. She did find a pulse and he was breathing, so no need for additional work except to keep him breathing. We saw the emergency crews pull into the golf course parking lot, but there was no access to the path from there, so I said screw it, took my fuel belt off and took off running to go get them . By the time I got to the entrance the emerg had figured it out and were headed the right way. I turned around and ran back to the site. The second ambulance came up behind me so I pointed the way but  just up ahead there was a group of people that couldn’t figure out how to get off the path. A lady didn’t know which way to go so she kinda danced in the middle of the path and I yelled out “GET OFF THE PATH!!!” she seemed confused so I yelled again louder “GET OFF THE PATH”. she finally got out of the way and her husband yells back at me “I KNOW HOW FUCKING BIG AN AMBULANCE IS!”… so as I ran by this was the exchange.

me - “THEN WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T YOU GET OFF THE PATH?”

him - “FUCK YOU ASSHOLE”

me - “NO YOU FUCK OFF AND GET OUT OF THE WAY”

him - “WHAT’S YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM?”

me - “YOU WOULDN’T GET OUT OF THE FUCKING WAY”

him - “SETTLE THE FUCK DOWN ASSHOLE”

me - “YOUR NOT THE ONE DYING ON THE PATHWAY FUCKER!”

him - “FUCK OFF”

me - “GET SOME PERSPECTIVE YOU FUCKING DICK, YOU’RE NOT DYING SO FUCK OFF!”

his wife off in the distance - “he’s an EMT, he has perspective”

me to myself as I was too far away by now for retort - “even worse lady, it was all your fault your husband almost got his ass kicked anyway”

So thankfully by the time I got back to the scene the guy was moving around and they had him on a gurney already loading him into the ambulance. He really REALLY didn’t want to be there by the way he was trying to unload himself, but I guess that is better than being dead.

I figured there was nothing left to do, so I went up to the wife, said “take care and best of luck” and we set off running again. Total time elapsed at scene? 20 minutes. I put my fuel belt back on, took 2 steps, 1 breath and it *popped* off. What the hell, I just run an additional 3k as fast as I can run, and I actually got fatter…

When we got to the pedestrian bridge Wayne was waiting there (admirable, I never would have trusted that we were coming after that long of a delay) and as we rushed to the Ranche visitors center (Kim had to pee) we recounted the story to him.

By the time we reached the Ranche I was pretty pooped. Still had 5k to go though. We all had a pit stop and a rest to collect ourselves then headed out walking for a while just to try and get back into the groove. As we were walking we witnessed another near fight between a biker and runner that were trying to pass us… pretty funny when it’s not me. The walk was actually a nice chance to snap a few scenic photos.

We eventually started running again and in no time really, we were done our 3hr 16k run. Longest run outing ever for me, and longest distance ever for Happy Dan too! Congrats Dan, I still think you should run the half, as you are covertly training for it…

So that was the Sunday run to end an already ridiculous week. Take care of yourselves everyone, and for goodness sake carry your cell phone on your runs. My phone used to get all wet in my fuel belt, so all I do is line the little pocket with paper towel and voila your phone is safe, scratch free and dry!