Karen Williams was on mile 23 of the Valles Caldera Runs Marathon. Part of the run was taking place in Valles Caldera National Preserve and that's where Karen saw...

...a bear. Unfortunately the bear also saw Karen. The runner recognized the bear was a female protecting her young. “Then I was on my ass and being raked with claws and bitten,” she wrote. “I cried out in pain and mama bear did not like that so she hit me with a left hook and bit my neck and started to try to shake me.” Williams said she played dead until the bear and her cub grew disinterested in her and left. One of them died, but it wasn't Karen.

Williams was rescued by other runners and marathon staff, who called 911, according to race director Kristen Kern. “I have a fractured right orbit from the mean left hook, missing parts of eyelid and eyebrow, injury to the belly of my left bicep and a lot of punctures and lacerations,” Williams said. “But I am alive.” The bear was not so lucky. In suspicion of the bear being ill it was shot to perform tests. Reports indicate that the shooting was botched as they could simply put the bear to sleep and transport to a lab rather that killing it. Officers with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish claim that there was no mistake and the death was necessary, but the fact that they lost the cub indicates they are wrong.