What started as a normal 8-mile run for Samantha MacIntyre turned into a scary situation that many women are familiar with.
The Idaho runner, who documents her journey preparing for a half marathon on the TikTok account @sageandmaize, was filming a running vlog earlier this month when she said she noticed a man driving a red truck pass by her.
“The first time that he drove by me, he had his whole top half of his body out the window, looking back at me multiple times, and it kind of slowed down,” MacIntyre told TODAY.
MacIntyre, 24, documented the entire experience in a TikTok, which now has more than 8.8 million views.
In the TikTok, she initially wasn’t sure if she was just “being paranoid.” But as the truck kept passing by her she became “really nervous,” leading her to stop her run early.
“When I saw him drive by the second time doing the same thing, I just got this really bad gut feeling and I was like, something’s wrong,” she told TODAY.
In the TikTok, MacIntyre explained she had to run by the truck to get back to her own car. “Alright I see the car parked up here, I do not feel good about this. I don’t know what to do,” she said.
“It’s just one of those things where it’s like, you don’t think it’s going to happen to you, until it happens to you,” she continued. “I don’t want to risk anything — I gotta have my parents come pick me up.”
MacIntyre called her parents and the police, and ran to a nearby house for safety. The police department confirmed to TODAY they found the man in question, but no charges were filed.
MacIntyre’s TikTok comes weeks after 34-year-old Eliza Fletcher was abducted and killed while on her regular morning jog in Memphis, Tennessee earlier this month.
“It really spooked me because as a fellow runner, I’m like oh my gosh, this could possibly happen to me,” she said of Fletcher’s death.
The runner said she now runs with an alarm, mace and a whistle, and that she didn’t let the experience stop her from running her first half marathon.
“It was a really big accomplishment that I even got myself to do that half marathon because I really thought that I might not ever run again,” MacIntyre said.
MacIntyre added she will now stick to indoor tracks, and if she does take up outdoor running again, she’ll be carrying protection with her.
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