An off-road runner spots coyotes and sprints hard to avoid being bitten.
In a running race, you compete not only against others but also against yourself. Generally speaking, there's no harm in running slowly — you might just not get a ranking. But during last Sunday’s 5-kilometer off-road race in Arizona, runners discovered that running slowly could be dangerous, because there was a coyote hot on their heels, running with all its might.
Although coyotes don’t eat meat and primarily feed on insects, many people have been misled by the cartoon “The Lion King” into thinking they are inherently vicious. Even though coyotes don’t attack humans, as the saying goes, “a cornered dog will leap over a wall” — a desperate coyote might still bite you. “That was a truly terrifying opponent. I didn’t even dare turn around to see if it was really a wolf,” said Harvey Nelson, the winner of this race. “I didn’t want to get bitten, so I just had to sprint as fast as I could. Haha!”