Unique Ways to Get Stopped by the Police - Mike Marshall and I Have Something in Common

Mike Marshall, the pitcher not the first basemen from Illinois, did something impressive that not many players have been able to do.  He got arrested for playing baseball in East Lansing, Michigan. Michigan State school officials were worried about student safety near the tennis courts and Marshall had ignore their warning.  Marshall had attended Michigan State.

I always liked to run and ride my bike.  Both of those things put me in a category with Mike Marshall.

As a kid I was pulled over by police three times while riding my bicycle.  Once it was for not following the rules of the road when I proceeded through a stop sign without stopping.

Twice I was reprimanded for riding double on a bicycle.  It turns out that in Hometown, IL (a real suburb) that is against the law.  Luckily these three incidents don't appear on my permanent record.

As an adult I've been pulled over four times (so far) -- as I was out running.  Here is how I remember them:

1.  In southern Arizona I was enjoying a nice run in a mostly rural area when the police officer called me over.  He asked why I was running on the street.  I was so confused that I didn't have an answer.  I always ran on the street in Illinois.  He asked again, this time with a longer sentence - "Why are you running on the street when there is a perfectly good sidewalk right next to it?".  Based on his tone I didn't try to explain the difference in stress on the body between concrete sidewalks and asphalt roads.  No citation, just a warning.

2.  In Colorado we normally did our trail runs near the top of Pikes Peak.  We'd finish someone and then hitch-hike down the road with tourists who always loved to hear our stories.  One day as we got near the top of the trail, a thick fog had rolled in.  No cars were allowed up the last two miles of the trail.  Well, our cars were six miles down the road or 12 miles via the hiking trails so we decided to run down the Pikes Peak Highway to save lots of time.  It was a great run, for the view and especially since it was all downhill.  The police didn't like our idea since it was illegal.  The road didn't contain any sidewalks, shoulders or guardrails, so they weren't happy with our decision.  They did give us a ride and only a warning.

3.  In California over New Year's we were running through Pasedena before going to the FB game/parade.  We got pulled over and the first question asked was "are we from out of town?".  Then it was explained to us that jaywalking is actually enforced in CA as compared to IL.  Just a warning once again.

4.  In Oklahoma......oh, I can't talk about that until the case closes.  Just kidding.  I can't remember the fourth one now so I will add that if/when I remember the fourth time.

Other Times When I Didn't Do Anything Wrong

1.  In Flagstaff, Arizona I was enjoying a run in an urban nature park.  The police drove up and stopped me.  This time I hadn't done anything wrong.  They wanted to let me know that they were tracking a mountain lion in this park that was only about two miles wide and two miles long.  That run ended immediately.

2.  In southern Illinois I was running a relay race when the police stopped to see me after I ran my portion of the race.  I was sent back to identify a house where dogs had come from because one of these dogs had attacked a runner in the race.

3.  In Alaska at a trail race a crew got into a truck to look for me and two runners from San Diego when we didn't return from a trail race.  We were all running fairly fast, the course record was 26 minutes and we were gone for over 2.5 hours.  The leader of the search party packed some shotguns and big knives while telling my girlfriend that grizzly bears were common sitings on that mountain.  We found our way back before anyone pulled us over or any animal found us.