Encounter With a Friendly Moose

Occurred on January 20, 2017 / Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Info from Licensor: "I am primarily an obstacle course racer (Spartan races, Tough Mudders) however this year I am trying something new, the Canadian Death Race. 125km of pain and suffering. To train for this race, instead of once, I was running around the Glenmore reservoir twice (32km). Exhausted and almost broken, within spitting distance of the end(~29km), I shamble around a bend in the only section of the run covered in ice and snow and I see a gigantic female moose right in the middle of the path, scavenging leaves off the trees. I had two options at this point, turn around and run the entire loop back around the reservoir or deal with this creature. Taking a deep breath, I started softly whistling so we there would something other sound than dead silence. (It turns out Moose actually whistle to communicate - I hope whatever I was whistling was something agreeable!) As it slowly ambled towards me, I took a small step back but as I did it gave me the "are you a threat or just some idiot runner" look. I stood my ground and tried to look her in the eye. Satisfied that I was harmless (I couldn't have ran if I wanted to ) it turned back to the trees. As it was walking back, I took one small step forwards and like all wild animals, kicked back reminding me of what could happen if I got too close. I slowly inched around behind it until it decided it had had enough and stepped into the woods. Breathing a sigh of relief, the next 3k was full of adrenaline!"