LOWELL, Mass. — Police in Wareham are searching for a man accused of attacking and choking a woman during an overnight running race.
The victim, who asked to only be identified be her first name, said she was about five miles into the race when she heard what she thought was another runner approach her from behind.
“Kind of thinking, 'Why isn't he passing me? There is nobody else around. Just go around me,'" Rene said.
That’s when the man began his attack.
“He jumped up and hooked his arm around me, pushed me on the ground, he was strangling me,” she said. “He was on top of me, I couldn't breathe. I was getting really, really dizzy.”
Rene was running the Reebok Ragnar Cape Cod race over the weekend of May 13 when she says the attack happened around 10 p.m. on Onset Avenue in Wareham.
Thankfully a woman was nearby to help.
“There was a woman that was smoking a cigarette outside, she called out ‘Is everything OK?’ That's when he got off, he stared at me for second, then booked it,” Rene said.
The Ragnar team sent out a statement saying:
"Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our runners. We were distressed and alarmed when a runner was accosted on leg 12 of Ragnar Cape Cod."
Rene said she just wants to know who the attacker is.
“What was your motive? What was your point? Then you got off. He didn't punch me, he didn't do anything further,” she said.
Wareham Police said they are investigating, and the attack happened in a poor lit area. They are still working on some leads. Rene tells us police are hoping some DNA left behind on her running gear will help catch the man.
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