During my run this morning, I was remembering a couple of funny "turkey stories." I felt remiss not to mention it after how lame we all were (esp. me) when Tuscaloosa asked us for weird running experiences. I decided to expound on it here because it is a much better story with an image. :)In Madison, there is a great arboretum that many runners, bikers and walkers enjoy. I have run there many times, and along with other wildlife, there is an abundance of wild turkeys. To give you an accurate visual, these are BIG birds. Many of them are a good 2.5-3 feet tall.
Now several times when I have been running there, a turkey (or several) will see me coming. The reaction from them every time has been to start freaking out and running away from me. SO I feel like I am chasing these crazy creatures as I am running along. It really is weird and pretty comical.
I went to a race a couple of weeks ago that went through said arboretum. I got there early and met a fellow runner and we were shooting the breeze. She mentioned to me how one time while she was running in the arb, it was either mating season or baby season (turkey hatching season?) and a huge turkey attacked her. She said it came up behind her, wrapped its wings around her and "bit" her in the back. LOL. Now that is CRAZY. She said she didn't know what to do because: (1) she didn't want to further piss it off; (2) she didn't know if she'd break its neck or something if she hit it: and (3) well, LOOK at the things - it is crazy and a bit scary. So she said she just stopped and yelled really loud and that did the trick. HAHA.
For your added enjoyment:
Oh yeah, and have a GREAT WEDDING Salty!!
5 comments:
hi, i got referred to your blog via tom's.
i wish i would have been a runner when i lived in mad-town! i've only run through the arboretum once when i needed to get a run in while passing through on my way back to mpls from milwaukee.
i like your blog, keep it up!
Thanks kotzebue!
Congrats on your debut at Whistlestop! I have eyed that race for 2 years now.
Madison is a great running town! From what I have seen of Minneapolis (which is only the TCM race route), it is a beautiful place to run!
Hey, another 34-year-old-lawyer-runner-blogger!
I did a lot of my training for TCM on the lakes section of the course - Minneapolis does have a lot of really great places for running.
That video cracked me up. I've had a turkey jump out of the trees near me while I was running at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, but that's my closest turkey encounter.
Your reflections a few posts down on your beginner times and progress since then, I found really encouraging. Awesome job!
Turkeys are assholes, despite Benjamin Franklin wanting to designate them as the national bird (thank god for the bald eagle)--no, I'm not joking.
Anyhow, I have come across a few on runs and they came for me--hard! They are ugly, cantankerous, and their flesh isn't even that tasty!
Down with turkeys!!!
Thanks for the plug!
I was blessed with an unplanned sprint interval while trail running at Hyland Lake park in Bloominton, MN this past spring courtesy of one PO'd Mrs. Turkey. She popped out of very dense woods onto the trail literally right in front of me - probably had youngsters behind her. Then we were off to the races (and I was losing). I remember looking back over my right shoulder, and there was that homely face about 6 inches away. She gave me a run for my money, but no blood was drawn by either party.
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