The stupidest thing you've done

I had to start this thread after what I did during today's long run. 

Today has been slightly warmer than of late and I noticed before setting off for my run that the snow has started to melt, the first part of my route took me along a path by a disused canal.  There is still some water in parts and I noticed that it has frozen and snow has fallen on top.  I thought to myself that if you didn't realise that there was water underneath it could be very dangerous as from the path the frozen areas are covered in snow so it is not obvious that there is water under the snow and ice.

Not thinking any more of it I carried on with my run, going away from the canal path and following country roads through small villages and hamlets.  After some time I needed to attend to the call of nature and tried to find a suitable place beside the road where I couldn't be seen by passing traffic to go.  I saw a ditch behind a snowy bank that looked ideal for hiding behind and walked towards it.  As I walked to the ditch I heard a cracking noise, found myself thigh deep in stagnant, feezing cold water.  Thankfully I was able to scramble out and decided the best way to deal with being cold and wet was to carry on running to keep warm, so I carried on for the 5 miles home with squelching shoes and feeling utterly stupid.

I know what the ditches by he side of the road are for - to allow rain water to run off the road!!  I have run down the road in question lots of time and seen the ditches full of water even in the summer.  So I have no idea why my normal sense and forsight suddenly deserted me.  Less learned. image

Comments

  • nice one puffin, I think deciding I had too many layers on 2 minutes before the start of a race and trying to take my leggings off over my trainers, looked a right prat sat there like a dying beetle whilst everyone ran off leaving me on the side of the road accompanied by a marching band of bag pipers!
  • Heh, I love the dying beetle description frog hopper. Thank goodness the water wasn't any deeper puffin.

    Erm, probably including a pot of coffee and a couple of vitamin c tablets (I thought I had detected the tiniest of sniffles the day before)  in my pre-race breakfast. Both are laxative and definitely cost me a PB, if not my dignity (I hope!)

  • I've got a good one, I did a race not long back where it was totally chucking it down and had been all night before the race. It being that wet I thought (rather stupidly) that it would be a good idea to wear swimming shorts to run in without any underwear underneath. I thought this would mean they would dry quicker when I got warm running as well as being pretty breathable, and I could towel dry afterwards so I could get in the car without being wet through. Seemed like a good idea at the time.......

    After about mile 5 I realised the (not to be underestimated) chafing properties of the mesh liner on a rather delicate area image

    Definitely a very very very very bad idea. I was sore for weeks!! Seriously, don't ever even think about it.

  • OJO - I'm only glad it went before I'd taken my tights down and started peeing!!

    YR - ow!!  Is all i can say to that.

    D2D - yeah, I read the start of your thread.  I hope you've found some other shoes that are not so vicious!!

  • The most stupidest thing i ever did was gettting bloody married  image
  • for me it has to be trying to start running when im meant to be resting my injury.

     i just cant help myself

  • GraemeKGraemeK ✭✭✭
    Answering the call of nature in bushes next to a lake in the US, and then a few hundred yards later seeing an alligator sunning itself. Makes you put a turn of speed on....
  •  - stepped in a puddle up to well over my knees. This was stupid cos I ran this route on sundays for years and knew there was a dip there but still stepped in!

    - Lost a really good top in a half marathon. Had a long sleeved wicking top under a vest and got too warm. Managed to flash half the sea front removing said top, and finally got it tied round my waist only for a woman to tap me on the shoulder and tell me I'd dropped something. At that point decided I'd lost too much time to go back for it.

    - Running trough a field of cows in the summer, was too busy looking at what they were doing I ran straight through a load of stinging nettles!

  • A couple of years ago, while on a run, I was stopped by a stranger, I figured he just needed directions, so I waited for him to ask. Instead, what I got was a lecture on my gait and what I was doing wrong. I was hopping from one foot to the next, waiting for him to finish, until finally there was a gap in the lecture and I said "bye" and vamoosed!
  • Not whilst running, but running related.

    The velcro on my watch strap was getting a bit tired, and became definitely less sticky when wet. I was swimming in the sea, and felt it start to get a bit loose. I thought I'd better take it off rather than risk losing it, but it was hard to swim holding it. I tucked it down my swimming shorts thinking the mesh bit was plenty tight enough. Sure enough when I got out the watch was nowhere to be found. It took a bit of explaining to the wife why I needed to fork out an extra forty quid for a new watch!

  • How rude moomoo, the stranger I mean, not you!

    And crazydiamond, you were right to be wary of those cows. I'm probably not going to tell it amusingly, but I had a similar experience not so long ago. I was so carried away with smugness about having found a most excellent right of way, on an Ordnance Survey map, in a bona fide stunning location that I ended up running through a field which had frisky young cows at the other end (when the field covers most of a hillside, it's hard to tell).

     Unfortunately the map was out of date, the path petered out and I had to come back through the field to retrace my steps. The moment I realised that the cows were all running towards me, thankfully curious rather than furious, might have been a laxative moment for some. Cue much unedifying limping along the line of a fence.

    I blogged it, I now remember (cow picture taken when safely the other side of the fence) http://www.moblog.net/view/900940/run-interrupted

  • crazydiamond wrote (see)

    Running trough a field of cows in the summer, was too busy looking at what they were doing I ran straight through a load of stinging nettles!

    I think we have a winner!    image
  • I was running a few weeks ago and as i came upto a junction there was a car waiting to pull out, as there was no other traffic anywhere in sight i wrongly assumed he was going to pull out, so i kept running and went straight into the side of the car

    The driver then decided to keep going up and down the road shouting a different rude word at me each time he passed me, i felt pretty stupid after that 1

  • After 30 mins running off-road one lunchtime I realised I was lost in the middle of the fields - the path had petered out. I had to get back to work but wasn't keen on retracing my steps, so I charged off taking a direct line towards where I figured that my workplace was (it was invisible because there was woodland in the way). This involved ripping my clothes on 2 barbed wire fences, blasting through 4-foot high grass in a huge field with no paths, running down a very steep and slippery bank in woods that were private property, getting even more lost and taking a lot longer to get back to work than if I'd retraced my steps!
  • I must admit I expected a bit more than these stories.

    Has no one picked up a dog terd thinking it was a power bar or something?

  • Moraghan wrote (see)

    I must admit I expected a bit more than these stories.

    Has no one picked up a dog terd thinking it was a power bar or something?

    I once found a door handle in a field whilst out running and when I opened it, it took me to the magical world of nana (that's the betamax version of narnia) where I had wonderful adventures with a liar, a watch, and a cupboard image

    Is that any better mate? image

  • MadameOMadameO ✭✭✭
    crazydiamond wrote (see)

     - Running trough a field of cows in the summer, was too busy looking at what they were doing I ran straight through a load of stinging nettles!

    Brilliant. I'm intrigued to know what they were doing to distract you that much!!

    During my first XC race for my club I fell into a ditch three times - on the third time I lost my shoe in the mud, and had to run the last 200 yards or so without it. It was after really heavy rainfall too - I was known as 'mud woman' at my club for months after.

  • I dont think this is stupid but I probably looked stupid!! image

    Whilst doing my 1st half marathon today, got near the the 13m marker and looked at my watch and was 10-20 secs over 1:39 and wanted a sub 1:40 time as a few seconds would of haunted me so off I sprinted and actually shouted 'COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" at myself to sprint for the line!! image

    Probably looked an idiot but finished in 1:39:59:32 on my Garmin and 1:39:54 chip time so i'm happy!!image

  • Clown Leslie your story just made me laugh so much! image My hubby said he was laugh his head off if someone ran into the side of his car. 

    My stupid thing is taking my marathon training far too seriously last year and getting really angry with the wind and telling it where to go whilst running because it was almost pushing me backwards and ruining my time.  Cars were driving past whilst I was doing this.  It was on a LSR as well, god only knows what I was thinking - I chilled out a bit after that image.

  • today on my LSR I decided to run along the marina walls. What I failed to concided is that marina=boats need to get in and out=walls don't go all the way round and rejoin the land on the other side. It took over 1/2 a mile of running along to finally twig this and so had to turn around and run back!

    Still aint all bad ended up doing 14.4 miles which is my longest run ever. imageimage

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