Marathon runner wins life-or-death race against 2 black bears

A professional runner was training in the woods near his home in Maine on Wednesday when he was charged by two black bears. "I had to think very fast," Moninda Marube told the Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal. He quickly decided he ought to move very fast, too.

Although experts recommend people stand their ground when encountering black bears, "you cannot think standing your ground once they start running towards you," Marube said. Luckily, being a former third-place finisher of the Maine Marathon, he was able to book it to a vacant house that was approximately 20 yards away. Marube says the bears had closed in to within 10 yards of him when he slipped into the house's screened-in porch. The bears, not realizing they could easily tear through the mesh, eventually wandered away.

"It's not the house that helped me," Marube said. "It's God."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Marube has lived in the United States for seven years, but he recalled an encounter back in Kenya when he became lost in the woods and ran into a leopard in a tree. "I don't fear lion," Marube said. "I don't fear anything else. But a bear is scary." Jeva Lange

YouTube

Watch On