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Marathon Runner Outruns Black Bear In Maine

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Would you rather drown or be eaten by a bear? Moninda Marube from Kenya, junior at University of Maine, finished third in the 2012 Maine Marathon, faced that choice this week. He was out on an 18-mile training run on a trail near his home in Auburn, Maine, when he saw two huge black bears on the path in front of him. He told the Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal he knew black bears can climb trees so he didn't. He thought about jumping into Auburn Lake but can't swim - bears can.

So Mr. Marube ran toward a vacant house and screamed. He says the bears pursued him, but he got to the house first and broke into a screened-in porch. He says the bears sniffed but did not try to break through that thin mesh screen. Mr. Marube had finished second in a race just the day before, but he told the Sun Journal he would have won that race if he'd been chased by bears. And unlike steroids, I don't think being chased by bears isn't against the rules. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Scott Simon is one of America's most admired writers and broadcasters. He is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday and is one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have chronicled character and characters, in war and peace, sports and art, tragedy and comedy.