Local Web Designer Suffers Severe Reaction to LetsRun.com Homepage

istockphoto.com/LetsRun.com

An unsuspecting woman inadvertently loaded the homepage of the popular track and field website LetsRun.com today, Dumb Runner has learned, triggering dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath, and chest pains.

The woman, Margaret Yang, 27, is a web designer who had never before visited LetsRun.com, according to a source. She was taken to a nearby hospital, where she remains in stable condition.

Yang reportedly had been trying to visit LetsRoll.com, the website of a local bakery, when she “got sloppy” and instead typed LetsRu before clicking quickly on the Let’s Run URL that her browser then suggested.

The ensuing visual assault left her reeling, said Yang’s roommate, Max Fischer.

“Margaret simply wasn’t prepared for what she saw,” Fischer said, describing the screen’s wall-to-wall plain text, hyperlinks, thumbnail photos, and “near-total lack of display copy.”

“Fortunately, I was able to race over and slam her laptop shut before she totally blacked out.”

Doctors said Yang should be fine, physically, but her aesthetic sensibilities may never fully recover.

“An experience like this is a real jolt,” said Dr. Nelson Guggenheim, a professor of neurology at West Anderson Medical College and former collegiate steeplechase state champ. “If you haven’t acclimatized yourself to Let’s Run gradually and incrementally—ideally over a period of weeks—and then suddenly find yourself face to face with a hodgepodge of 87 hyperlinks against a mile-high wall of text, it’s like a visual overdose.”

Dr. Guggenheim said he hopes Yang’s experience serves as a cautionary tale for others, adding that her case could have been much worse.

“She could have clicked into the forums,” he said.