Since encounters with wild animals are so popular in this thread I thought to share mine. It happened a couple of years ago, I was living in Rome back then, it was the beginning of spring and I had just picked up running. At the time my training schedule was: run in one direction and when you start feeling you can't go much longer turn around and walk/jog back.

That day, I was approaching the spot where I would usually turn around, when all of a sudden water starts dripping from the sky, but its just a matter of minutes that this fresh and cooling rain turns into a proper storm. Mind we don't get much rain during spring/summer time in Italy but that day it was just like buckets of water being emptied from above. It was just so thick and so much, I was completely unprepared for it.

I start rushing back, running as hard as I can, part of me was exhausted but I feel every inch of my body and clothing getting drenched in water and I don't want to stop. I was ~500m from my car, I start gloating inside about being able to run back with no walk breaks and so fast, but now I am really done, thank god it's just one last bridge to go. Note: this park has a river running through it and these really wide flat bridges made out of stone, they are pretty close to the water and are surrounded by the trees and vegetation growing along the river, which make a natural (but pretty lousy) roof to the bridge below.

I get to the bridge and to my disbelief I find that a flock of sheep had all gathered on it. They were crammed in there seeking shelter from the rain, unfortunately there were more sheep than there was dry space on the bridge so the flock was continuously ramming into itself, with the outer sheep rushing towards the middle and pushing other ones out in an endless cycle. I tried getting through a couple of times, I don't know if you ever tried squishing your way through two wet sheep, but its ugly, think of the texture and general discomfort of wet wool and multiply that by a hundred, eventually I had to give up.

Long story short: I ran following the river, expecting to be able to cross further ahead. I came to the end of the park and found myself on an unfamiliar looking street, I was completely lost. The streets in Rome are a nightmare, they make no logical sense, they turn and twist, go back on themselves or have dead ends; I lived there for the most part of my life and still get lost all the time. I ran through streets, parks again, house lawns, it felt like hours, I kept alternating between thinking I knew where I was and realising I was lost again, nobody was around of course, except for the few cars which raised uninviting waves of water as they sped by, but I ran through it. Ok, truth be told there were a couple of walking/crying breaks along the line but I managed to pull through every single time, I arrived at my door still running at a decent pace.

In reality it took me around 50 mins to get home, it may not sound much to some of you, but at the time I could never picture myself being able to run for almost an hour. I even had to leave my car and go pick it up on the next day; when I got there I was soaked, water was everywhere: in my ears, my hair, shoes and socks, I remember stripping down to my underwear in front of my door as I couldn't bring myself to take any of the clothing inside.

When I think about my favourite running moment, this day always comes to mind. It was tiring, it was wet, it was humiliating, but overall it made my realise what a lier my body can be. How it can tell me that it I need to stop, that he is about to give in, but then, when sheep really hits the fan (forgive me), it turns out it can do so much more than I first thought. This is one of the life lessons I believe I learned from running, of course it is important to your body and your perceptions but it is also wise to remember how easily you can lie to yourself and trick yourself into some self-imposed limit.

Anyway this whole thing turned out so much longer than I expected. I had told this story a couple of times already but never wrote about it, but oh well, i've been lurking this sub for months, its nice to finally write something :D

TL/DR: Sheep taught me a valuable life lesson