RunnersWorld Runners attack Big D (and Big D attacks back!!)

Several of our runners made a trip south to visit Dallas, work on their tan, and since they were there anyway--run a marathon or half marathon. This blogger does not have a complete list of who all went, but give me a shout-out in the comment column, and I'll give you kudos. I do know that Brian and Misti Stanton, Laurie Whitesell, Alana Duncan, Jodi Williams, and Susan Westmoreland represented RunnersWorld doing either the half or full. Temperatures soared, and most runners had a personal battle with the heat. But all of our runners made it to the finish line unscathed--well, nearly all.
Susan Westmoreland (pictured next to the trail_zombie after her MotherRoad Marathon finish back on 10-10-10 ) was cruising along to another half marathon finish. Around mile 12, someone stepped out of an alley as she passed, and instead of shouting the usual "looking good" or "you're almost there", she grabbed Susan's Camelback and yanked, throwing Susan to the ground. Susan, understandably startled, held on to the front straps while this crackhead mugger yanked the pack from behind and yelled "I WANT YOUR MELON!!!"
While I would liked to have had a picture, Susan's camera was IN the backpack (whereas a GOOD paparazzi would have had the camera in her/his hand.) Fortunately, this happened near an intersection where three policemen were directing traffic, and they ran to Susan's rescue and took this crazy woman away. Susan was not hurt, although she did land a little hard on the ground, and she finished her race after giving the police a few details. This woman was maybe 80 pounds, according to our beloved victim Susan, but had superhuman strength possibly due to a good hit of meth. ("Hit"---is that what they call a dose of meth??) A side note--the above pic is not actually of the backpack grabber, but one I found on Google. Laurie Whitesell described the mugger as a cross between Don King and an old Ike Turner--but female. So if the actual person in this picture sees this and calls me out, I'll just deal with it.

So what can we make of all of this? Well, for one, this is a half marathon Susan will never forget. She now has a new nickname--Melon. And I think she would be well advised to get a different backpack to eliminate any future confusion.