First
of all, I don't mean this Screech. Although I have to give a shout out to Samuel "Screech" Powers. I grew up on "Saved by the Bell." Great show. Extremely cheesy but I watched it. I'll admit it. Gotta love Screech - that crazy character. Don't get me wrong, he's a psycho now, but back in the day he was classic. But again - that's not the screech I meant. I actually heard a screech this morning and it WAS loud. Wanna hear the story? Too bad - here goes:
I'm in Athens, Georgia visiting my in-laws for the holidays. I knew I wanted to do a long run this morning. Just because we go out of town doesn't mean I get to skip my Sunday morning long run. It would be a good excuse, but I knew I wanted to do it. Plus, I kindof like running in new places. So I mapped out a course on Google Earth. It was basically a big loop that turned out to be 11.3 miles. I had no idea how the roads would be or how hilly they would be. But it turned out to be fine. There were a couple of huge hills, but the roads and traffic were fine. I started the run around 7AM so I could be back in time to go to church with the family at 9:30. Everything went well. I felt fine. I was listening to my IPod. This morning it was a podcast about the Disney marathon weekend coming up. So I was very interested. Even though I'm not planning to do it until next year, it was still a very interesting topic and they were going through the whole weekend detail by detail. I had just gotten to mile 9 when I heard the screech. I'll admit - I listen to my Ipod fairly loud especially when I'm listening to podcasts as opposed to music. I want to be able to hear the people talking even if a loud truck or something goes by me. So the fact that I heard the screech over my Ipod meant it was pretty loud. Plus, I was probably close to 1/2 mile away from the source. So I repeat - it was LOUD.
I remember that my first thought was a wreck. But then I quickly dismissed that as I looked toward the direction the screech came. I couldn't see anything because of the trees blocking the view. Plus, I was coming up a hill and the screech was out of my view. My 2nd thought was just someone braking hard or stepping on the gas pretty hard. I assumed it was one of the two. Some crazy person trying to show off I guess. That was what I assumed, but I should've stuck with my initial reaction.
As I turned on the next street just 30 seconds later, I could tell that something wasn't right. There were 3 people standing in the road looking at something in a yard. I ran a little faster and pushed pause on my Ipod. It hit me then that I was coming upon a wreck. But I had no idea how bad it was going to be. It was a single car wreck - a truck had swerved into a yard, cut a metal sign in half, and run into a large tree. The truck was totaled. The front of the hood was nearly touching the windshield if that gives any indication of how fast this man was going. I was the fifth person to come upon the scene. A couple driving the other way had watched it happen. He was a doctor luckily. The other couple out there was from a house close by. They had heard the screech too. They would later tell me that it was the 3rd wreck at that spot within a month. (In fact one person flipped their car into the brush and left the car there. The man found it while mowing. Yikes.) Anyways, I came upon them and asked if the man was okay. The doctor was tending to him, holding a rag on a pretty large gash in his forehead. The airbags had deployed. Not sure if he was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. It was off when I got there. Fluids were leaking out of the engine like crazy. The doctor's wife said he was swerving all over the road before he went into the yard and hit the tree. Nobody had any idea why. She said she didn't think he had been drinking. He was going to be okay, thankfully, but he was pretty out of it. I heard the doctor ask him what day it was and I don't think he knew. A few others stopped. A couple minutes later we heard the sirens. I actually had to direct the ambulance to the right spot because they were up on the other road, where I was when I heard the screech. I ran towards them waving my arms and they turned down the road. 2 police cars came and a firetruck. I stuck around for about 10-15 minutes and then decided to leave. As I ran off with a mile and a half to go, it hit me that if I had been there just two minutes earlier, he could've easily swerved and hit me. Glad I didn't leave earlier or run faster.
So that was my morning adventure. It just goes to show that you never know what you'll see out running. I've seen wrecks before but never that soon after it happened. I hope the guy will be okay. I may watch my back a little closer running on that road this week. Be careful out there.
By the way - our family made another video, kindof a post-Christmas adventure. Check it out on Youtube if you have the time. Click here.
Keep runnin',
Albert
of all, I don't mean this Screech. Although I have to give a shout out to Samuel "Screech" Powers. I grew up on "Saved by the Bell." Great show. Extremely cheesy but I watched it. I'll admit it. Gotta love Screech - that crazy character. Don't get me wrong, he's a psycho now, but back in the day he was classic. But again - that's not the screech I meant. I actually heard a screech this morning and it WAS loud. Wanna hear the story? Too bad - here goes:I'm in Athens, Georgia visiting my in-laws for the holidays. I knew I wanted to do a long run this morning. Just because we go out of town doesn't mean I get to skip my Sunday morning long run. It would be a good excuse, but I knew I wanted to do it. Plus, I kindof like running in new places. So I mapped out a course on Google Earth. It was basically a big loop that turned out to be 11.3 miles. I had no idea how the roads would be or how hilly they would be. But it turned out to be fine. There were a couple of huge hills, but the roads and traffic were fine. I started the run around 7AM so I could be back in time to go to church with the family at 9:30. Everything went well. I felt fine. I was listening to my IPod. This morning it was a podcast about the Disney marathon weekend coming up. So I was very interested. Even though I'm not planning to do it until next year, it was still a very interesting topic and they were going through the whole weekend detail by detail. I had just gotten to mile 9 when I heard the screech. I'll admit - I listen to my Ipod fairly loud especially when I'm listening to podcasts as opposed to music. I want to be able to hear the people talking even if a loud truck or something goes by me. So the fact that I heard the screech over my Ipod meant it was pretty loud. Plus, I was probably close to 1/2 mile away from the source. So I repeat - it was LOUD.
I remember that my first thought was a wreck. But then I quickly dismissed that as I looked toward the direction the screech came. I couldn't see anything because of the trees blocking the view. Plus, I was coming up a hill and the screech was out of my view. My 2nd thought was just someone braking hard or stepping on the gas pretty hard. I assumed it was one of the two. Some crazy person trying to show off I guess. That was what I assumed, but I should've stuck with my initial reaction.
As I turned on the next street just 30 seconds later, I could tell that something wasn't right. There were 3 people standing in the road looking at something in a yard. I ran a little faster and pushed pause on my Ipod. It hit me then that I was coming upon a wreck. But I had no idea how bad it was going to be. It was a single car wreck - a truck had swerved into a yard, cut a metal sign in half, and run into a large tree. The truck was totaled. The front of the hood was nearly touching the windshield if that gives any indication of how fast this man was going. I was the fifth person to come upon the scene. A couple driving the other way had watched it happen. He was a doctor luckily. The other couple out there was from a house close by. They had heard the screech too. They would later tell me that it was the 3rd wreck at that spot within a month. (In fact one person flipped their car into the brush and left the car there. The man found it while mowing. Yikes.) Anyways, I came upon them and asked if the man was okay. The doctor was tending to him, holding a rag on a pretty large gash in his forehead. The airbags had deployed. Not sure if he was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. It was off when I got there. Fluids were leaking out of the engine like crazy. The doctor's wife said he was swerving all over the road before he went into the yard and hit the tree. Nobody had any idea why. She said she didn't think he had been drinking. He was going to be okay, thankfully, but he was pretty out of it. I heard the doctor ask him what day it was and I don't think he knew. A few others stopped. A couple minutes later we heard the sirens. I actually had to direct the ambulance to the right spot because they were up on the other road, where I was when I heard the screech. I ran towards them waving my arms and they turned down the road. 2 police cars came and a firetruck. I stuck around for about 10-15 minutes and then decided to leave. As I ran off with a mile and a half to go, it hit me that if I had been there just two minutes earlier, he could've easily swerved and hit me. Glad I didn't leave earlier or run faster.
So that was my morning adventure. It just goes to show that you never know what you'll see out running. I've seen wrecks before but never that soon after it happened. I hope the guy will be okay. I may watch my back a little closer running on that road this week. Be careful out there.
By the way - our family made another video, kindof a post-Christmas adventure. Check it out on Youtube if you have the time. Click here.
Keep runnin',
Albert
Glad you weren't hurt though I do feel this is kind of like Ross Geller living through his "near death experience"! Kidding :) Seriously, I am glad you didn't get hurt. And great shout out to Screech!
ReplyDelete