Caitlin Keen, 26, was running along Fort Worth’s Trinity Trails Sunday morning when a pit bull mix attacked her.

The dog repeatedly jumped on her and bit her on the back and arms before a passerby was able to subdue it. The attack caused injuries requiring 21 stitches in six spots.

The dog, whose name is Taco, was up-to-date on its rabies vaccines, and is currently in city-mandated quarantine.

It was just bad luck that Caitlin Keen happened to be running alone along Fort Worth’s Trinity Trails on Sunday morning, leaving her without an ally to immediately help fend off the dog that attacked her.

Having already logged seven miles earlier that morning, Keen was scheduled to meet up with a friend for a few more. But her friend was running late, so Keen set off to get a few more miles in to fill the time. Halfway through that session, the dog appeared.

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The dog, a pit bull mix, sprinted toward her, leapt up, and bit her arm, Keen told Runner’s World. She shook it off and ran away, but couldn’t move quickly enough. The dog pursued and latched onto her back, pulling her to the ground. With what strength she had left, Keen tried to kick at the dog’s head, but it bit her back yet again, then continued to nip at her.

“I finally was screaming so loud, a woman running on the trail picked up a big rock, and that scared it away,” Keen said.

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The woman threw more rocks at the dog, keeping it at bay, until a man with two leashed dogs of his own arrived. Immediately, Keen said, the pit bull mix became calm and friendly around the two other dogs, allowing the man to grab its collar and subdue it.

In the aftermath, the man called 911. Keen left in an ambulance for the hospital, and the dog was taken by Fort Worth animal control. Keen said police that were on site did not file a report, but she was told animal control “has a warrant to hold the dog, and it will not be released before we go to court.” Authorities told Keen she’d eventually appear in court to help a judge decide what will happen to the dog, who is currently in a city-mandated 10-day quarantine at a shelter.

According to City of Fort Worth spokesperson Diane Covey, a homeless woman owns the dog, whose name is Taco. The dog had no prior history of attacking humans, and was up to date on its rabies vaccine, Covey told Runner’s World.

“She was out with her friends, the dog got off the leash and started running, as dogs do,” Covey said.

Covey said Taco has been nothing but kind and gentle with animal control employees, a characterization that frustrates Keen.

“I almost thought this dog was going to kill me, and for it to be described as happy and friendly is hard for me,” Keen said. “I don’t think this is a safe animal, and if this woman doesn’t live in a home with safe surroundings...why would you continue to put people in danger?”

Covey said Taco’s owner has been willing and cooperative with authorities, but Keen said other Fort Worth residents have reached out to her to say they’ve seen the woman around town before with Taco, often unleashed. The City did not provide Runner’s World with a way to contact the owner.

This isn’t the first time Keen has received unwanted public attention. At the 2017 Dallas Marathon, her first, Keen finished second after New York psychiatrist Chandler Self, who made headlines when she staggered across the finish line with the help of a nearby high schooler. Keen was the runner-up who refused to challenge the results, despite some who criticized Self for receiving aid on the course.

The two viral incidents distract from just how accomplished a runner Keen is. A native of Fort Worth, Keen ran in high school, then walked onto the track and cross-country teams at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she helped SMU win six conference championships and earned a full-ride scholarship by her senior year. Since then, Keen, now 26 and a full-time insurance broker, has finished three marathons: After Dallas, she won Cincinnati’s Flying Pig Marathon in May 2018, then qualified for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta with a 2:42 at the California International Marathon last December.

Keen is also part of Cowtown Elite, a group of women who train together—often on those same trails, which Keen grew up on (“I’ve probably run more miles on these trails than I have on my car”)—with the goal of qualifying for Atlanta. Three, including Keen, already have.

Though she admits the attack has shaken her and she’ll need time to reset, Keen hasn’t adjusted her race goals going forward: another win at this year’s Flying Pig in May with a sub-2:40 finish, and a top 20 finish in Atlanta a year from now.

“That’s definitely a stretch, but why not shoot for the moon?” Keen said. “I now have a totally different level of pain tolerance, so maybe I’ll surprise myself there.”

Jacob Meschke Contributing Writer Jacob joined Runner’s World and Bicycling as an editorial fellow after graduating from Northwestern University in 2018, where he studied journalism.

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