Let's Not Meet Again

I Never Run Alone Anymore

My new year resolution 2012 was to get in shape again. After my first kid was born I had lost my athletic interest but I had every intention of getting it back.

So I started running 4 days a week, with my friend Hannah, who is a great runner&motivator.

We would run after work, 5-10 km, usually favouring the forest trail. It's the kind of trail that got lightning in the darker months of the year, so you can run there anytime really. Once you turn on the lights, you got 45 min to run the shorter trails, and longer to run the longer ones. Then the lights shut off automatically.

We had been running for about two months when we started seeing the same man hanging around the parking lot every time we got there. Thin man, 25-30 years of age, always dressed in sports clothes but never actually running. He never looked you in the eye either.

We speculated that he could be homeless camping nearby, because he was constantly there.

We got used to seeing him, sitting somewhere close by, silently and always on his own. We felt sorry for him, he never seemed to talk to anyone or interact at all, but there was something about him that made us hesitate to talk to him or ask if he was ok. Can't pinpoint what it was, but something wasn't completely right with him.

One evening Hannah didn't make it to our run and I decided to go on my own. I arrived at the parking lot, my car being the only car there. I did some stretching, turned on the lights, and set off on the 5 km trail.

I hadn't seen the thin silent man when I started my run, perhaps it was getting too cold to sit there now that it was autumn, dark, and getting closer to the freezing point.

He must have been there though, somewhere in the shadows, because when I got to the top of the first steep hill I could hear heavy breathing somewhere behind me. I look over my shoulder and I see him. He is running like a man obsessed. In regular shoes, not running shoes, with his arms moving in a really strange, stiff manner as if he was made of metal, his hands like arrows - straight and in an upward/inward angle. Sort off like a sprinter but more extreme, moving like a robot.

For the first time he looked me straight in the eyes and it was the eyes of a predatory animal and it made my heart freeze.

He had never done anything to harm me, or anyone else as far as I knew, but the look in his eyes alone was enough to let me know that I was facing a serious, serious threat.

I started running faster, trying to create distance between us and I could hear his heavy breathing getting even more strained. I ran like my life depended on it, adrenaline pumping through my body and giving me new strength. I tore off my necklace and threw it on the ground thinking "I must leave a trace if he takes me, something must be left behind". I tried screaming, hoping someone would be close enough to hear me, but I couldn't scream my lungs out and keep up the phase as the same time.

Why is he doing this, what does he want? Who is he? I thought, as I started to feel my lungs burn. Then I thought of my 15 month old daughter and ran until I could taste blood in my mouth.

He was still behind me, maybe 100 meters behind now but I figured that if I trip and fall, or run out of energy, or fumble with the car keys once I reach the parking lot – then I'm screwed.

So once I reached the sharp turn on the trail I went off the trail and ran straight into the dark woods.

I ran only a short distance and then I laid down flat on my stomach, my hands searching for a rock to defend myself with if he found me.

I realized that I was wearing bright running clothes with reflexes and neon coloring, I had ever felt so visibile in the dark before.

I could hear him reach the turn and thank god – keep on running. I started to slowly, and as silently as possile move further into the darkness.

My heart sank again as I soon I heard rapid footsteps closing in from the trail. He had realized that I must have gone off the trail once he saw that the was no sign of me ahead.

He stopped, and I stopped. I could imagine him listening for any sound, and I held my breath and begged a God I don't believe in to make him go away.

After a while I heard him say something in a language I didn't recognize and walk off.

I didn't move. I feared that he would wait for me by the car and realized that I had to get off the trail and onto the main road and stop someone, I couldn't go back to the parking lot.

I started to make my way further into the woods, knowing that I would eventually end up on the last part of the long tail and close to the main road.

The lights on the trail suddenly shut off. That made me calmer at first, the dark was a comfort and protection, but then, after only a few moments, it switched on again.

This could mean that another person had just started their run, and soon I would have someone there to help me – or that he was out looking for me. Or getting ready to pray on another lonely runner.

I decided against waiting to find out, and continued my way towards the main road. It was dark and I fell multiple times, my clothes getting wet from the damp vegetation and I started to get cold.

After what felt like a lifetime I could see the 10 km trail ahead and knew I was close to the main road. Soon I could hear the traffic.

Once I made it to the road I must have looked like I had been in a terrible accident. Blood from several small cut from the falling, my clothes dirty and my face, I assume, petrified .

My bright runners shirt soon attracted the attention of a passing car, my waving and desperate shouting made it stop. The driver, a 40-ish man with his two kids in the back seat spent the next 10 minutes or so trying to make sense of what I tried to say between the sobbing and the crying. He asked if I wanted a lift back to the parking lot and I told him no, please take me home instead.

At home, my husband insisted on going to the parking lot to retrieve the car, and calling the police.

And report what? I asked. No crime had been committed, I just KNEW that he was out to get me.

My husband went back for the car. The driver seat window was smashed and my phone was gone. So was the photo of my daughter that I had had hanging from the mirror.

I don't know what he was trying to do, or why he chased me the way he did. But the look in his eyes – there was no doubt he had bad intentions.

Creepy forest trail man – let's never meet again.