Let this be your sign that you shouldn’t go on a run anytime soon.
If you were looking for an excuse to not exercise, this story that went viral a couple of years ago should be more than enough. Feel free to cite this article if anyone asks why you haven’t started your exercise program, or why you’ve pushed back your New Year’s resolutions to 2025 (yes, I mean skipping 2024 altogether).
The news story that’s included below opens up the story saying that a man in Colorado went out for a jog, and ended up fighting for his life. Not to nitpick, but I too am “fighting for my life” anytime I go out for a run, just not in the same sense that this man had to.
Travis Kauffman is the name of the jogger who had to bravely take on a mountain lion with only his barehands, and miraculously, he ended up winning. The man was out for a run on a trail when he heard leaves rustling behind him, and when he turned around, he was face to face with a mountain lion.
Try and put yourself in this guy’s shoes for a moment. You are already doing something you aren’t a huge fan of (running), and you are likely tired from exerting yourself. But you best get ready to square up, because you now have to take on a big cat with only the gifts that your momma gave ya.
And if he wouldn’t have made it out alive (he did, just to make sure that is clear), it would have been tragic, and people probably would have said “at least he died doing what he loved.” I, for one, hate that phrase, and saying that with this context would be absolutely absurd.
First off, he would’ve been running, and as much as some people will try to fool you, no one likes jogging. And secondly, I wouldn’t classify “death by trying to defend yourself from an attacking mountain lion” as “dying doing something you love.” That would be dying doing something that was probably the worst case scenario.
But like I’ve said (and I want to make very clear), Kauffman lived to tell the tale of how he came face to face with a mountain lion, and managed to kill it in self defense with his bare hands. As the big cat was attacking him, he did everything by the book to try and deter it, though nothing was working.
He eventually tried using sticks and rocks that were nearby to try and hit it off of him, but even that was unsuccessful. At one point, his survival instincts kicked in, and he had no choice but to choke out the mountain lion.
Though I’m sure Kauffman would have preferred to have never went to battle with the big cat, being able to say that you got into a fight with a wild animal and won is pretty badass.
And let his story be a lesson for the rest of us: you can’t be attacked by a mountain lion if you don’t exercise outside. Sometimes staying on the couch and watching Netflix is best for your survival, so make sure to tell anyone that questions your sedentary lifestyle that you are simply avoiding an encounter with a wild animal.
You can view the news story about Kauffman’s against-all-odds battle with the mountain lion below:
