Freezing, Exhausted Runner Told to Go to Dagobah System
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A runner delirious from exhaustion and subfreezing temperatures yesterday received some puzzling advice from the semitranslucent image of an elderly man standing in a snow bank, Dumb Runner has learned.
Shelley Duvall, 44, encountered the image around 10:30 a.m. deep inside Overlook State Park, sources said, in what they described as “whiteout conditions.” The avid runner had planned to run for about four miles, they said, but took a wrong turn that would nearly triple that distance.
Duvall was in an especially remote part of the park when she reportedly saw the figure, a bearded male in his 70s or 80s dressed in loose clothing and a dark hooded cloak. At that point in her run, the sources said, the underfueled and underdressed Duvall was hungry, thirsty, and bitterly cold; in her addled state, she seemed unfazed by the apparition.
“You will go to the Dagobah system,” the figure told Duvall.
“Bodega what now?” the delirious runner replied.
The image delivered one more line—“Something about yoga, I think,” Duvall would later report—before slowly dissolving. It was then, the sources said, that Duvall saw the parking lot where she had started her run, about 50 yards away. Minutes later, she was in her car, cranking up the heater.
Reached late Sunday for comment, Duvall told Dumb Runner that the next time she heads to the park for a winter run, she’ll mind what she has learned.
“Save me, it can,” she said. “I’ll return. I promise.”
