The Bison attack on Antelope Island State Park

My name is John Fitzgerald and I was just recently informed that I was in the photo of the bison attack. Here is my story and some photos that I took right before the attack.

(I am the second closest guy wearing the orange jacket and blue hat)

Edit: The original photo was taken by Wayne Ebenroth of Final Kick Productions. It has spread across the internet and to various news sites (Huffington Post, The Today Show, MSN, Perez Hilton, etc). See Waynes site for a list of outlets using the photo.

I was down in Utah visiting Antelope Island State Park for the Antelope Island Buffalo Run 50 mile race. I was camping on the island, arriving Friday with the intention to watch the 100 milers run off into the wind and snow. I got up early Friday morning to go grab some coffee and food in layton,UT and made it back for the 100 mile start at noon and to see Karl "speed goat" Meltzer take off up the first climb. It was really windy with snow showers that morning so I threw on my down jacket and headed down the start of the race to catch the runners at the first turn just 1/5 mile down the road.

As I started heading down the hill to the corner I noticed a HUGE bison standing right smack down in the middle of the road. Myself and a fellow spectator immediately tried to scare him off so he wouldn't interfere with the race, and most importantly injure a racer.  As we repeatedly shouted at the bison to move, I noticed another spectator nearby starting to get closer to the bison with his camera sticking out in front of him. We both told the photographer to get back because he will charge you. The photographer wouldn't listen to us and the bison started getting closer. 

At this point the photographer was backed up against a chain-link fence with the bison standing 12 ft in front of him. I started to get a weird feeling from the animal, almost as though he was nervous and may hurt this man. I took out my camera and started taking photos while the photographer had his big camera sticking in front of his face aimed right at the buffalo. I yelled again trying to scare off the bison, but to no avail. 

The bison put down his 500 lbs head and charged pinning the photographer against the fence. My stomach sunk and I immediately jolted backwards. The photographer was now backside on the ground with the bison's head on his chest shaking back and forth, like a pit bull whipping a rag doll. After a brief period of time the bison charged off to the right and trudged across to the other side of the fence - right in the path of where the racers were to be coming through.

We ran over to see if the photographer was injured. He was covered in dirt and took a little longer than expected to say a response to my question but said with a startled tone - "I am fine, but gees!" The photographer stated that he didn't think that the bison felt threatened and he was just trying to get him out of the way of the race. Myself and the fellow spectator could not believe what we just saw. I thought for sure that he had broken some bones but he reported that he was fine, just startled.

After chatting some more with the victim of the attack the other spectator and I headed back up to the start of the race to see them head down the hill and take the turn left over to where the bison was. The bison had fortunately gotten out of the way of the racers. 

I went and told the race director (Jim Skaggs) that we just saw a guy get charged and hit by a bison. He asked how close the man was and I said 13 ft. Jim replied with "Doesn't surprise me - if you bother them they will charge at you." Jim sent the park rangers down to get some more information on what happened. I glanced through the fence and out to the trail to see the last of the 100 miler racers crest the first climb. I also noticed the photographer was now on the other side of the fence an over by a herd of buffalo, now further away but still trying to catch some photos.

Photo from my twitter account.

The rangers soon came by on ATV's and talked with him for 10 minutes or so. I heard later that day that the man was fined by the rangers for supposedly throwing rocks at the buffalo and kicking dirt at him. I never saw this happen but I could have missed this from being in shock myself from what I just witnessed. 

I am now back up at home in Missoula, MT and just recently found out from my friend Myke Hermsmeyer that I was in frame of the picture that's since gone viral (wearing the orange jacket and blue hat). I typed "bison attack" in Google and found articles all over the web on the attack. Below are pictures that I took of the photographer and the bison that charged him. The last photo was taken right before the man was charged. 

My name is John Fitzgerald and Carson City, Nevada will be my new home in June. I have a passion for running in the mountains and a curiosity to see how far the human body can be pushed mentally and physically. I am pursuing my dream of creating a buzzing running community in beautiful Carson City summer 2013. John is currently supported by Hammer Nutrition, Johns Greenhouses and Florist Shop, and Altice Optics.

Antelope Island Buffalo Run 50 mile

The Antelope Island Buff Run has come and gone. I would have to say I was happy that I actually made it to the start line. Two weeks out from the race I got sick and then had a tooth infection and got my wisdom teeth pulled(1 week out). I was in so much agony! Tooth pain =no joke. It kept me up at night and all I seemed to have my attention on all day was the pain and nothing else! After a few days of being on pain meds and little to no running for at least a week I was starting to feel pretty crummy. I also could not eat any solid foods at this time which meant apple sauce pudding and ice cream. Dr. Jensen was super nice and referred me to Dr. Wiswell who ended up getting me into his office later that week. The operation was pretty quick and easy but left me a little out of it for a couple days post. I started running 4 days after surgery but was feeling heavy headed and the legs felt weak. On top of this I was having reactions to the antibiotics which resulted in fever(102.5) and night sweats that left me drenched(yeah it was a total blast) through all this I kept s positive attitude leading up to Antelope Island 50 mile with the intention that I would go down to the race and run if I felt good or volunteer if I wasn’t felling it. I was still having some tooth pain on thurs before the race but everything else was good so I started to mentally prepare for the wind and cooler temps that I would face. The race started on Saturday at 6am with a temperature of 23deg. So I layered up and did a few warm up loops around the camping area to get the blood flowing. I actually wasn’t too worried about the temp after talking with the 100 milers last night saying that the weather wasn’t that bad and that they were actually comfortable. I put on 4 layers on top with a beanie and tights down bottom. My right calf has been feeling tighter then usual leading up to the race so I used some 2XU compression socks which worked great. Goal for the race was to run steady, stay on top of nutrition and finish strong. The last one was the most important but I knew it wouldn’t be realistic if I didn’t pay attention to my pace and calories. I kept to the routine of a gel serving every 25min which seemed to do the trick. The race went out with Scott Jaime a Pearl Izumi athlete and 5 others running behind him including myself. I settled into a nice pace and was going back between fourth place and fifth place most of the day. I only had one rough patch on the day on a mind numbing out and back section that was 18 miles long. The challenge about this course was actually that everything was runnable which meant even if I wasn’t feeling well there where no excuses to not keep a jog going. I kept to that and ran a decent pace the whole run. In the last two miles I was still in fifth place and was just rounding the last bend before hitting the dirt road to the finish when I saw the green shirt that I was looking back at all day and the man of the name Harrison Fluman. At this point I was pretty toast and new it was going to be a battle till the end. I gave Harrison a hand shake and congratulated him on a nice run. We ran side by side during the last half mile before he broke away and got me by 13sec. Overall I was happy with the day and most important happy that I was able to pace smart,eat well and finish STRONG! Results: http://strideracing.com/2013/march/2013_buffalorun50M_overall.htm Next up is Zion 100 April 19th! Keep on runnin’ Posted on March 30, 2013 | Leave a comment | Edit

Here we go..

After 5 years of posting training on athleticore I need a change. Follow RunJohnny.blogspot.com for weekly training,mountain runs, The Running Sage store updates, and ramblings.
Photo courtesy of Withawhy Photography