Metro Runner Attacked by Wild Animal in Edmond

A metro woman is undergoing medical treatment after a bizarre attack by a wild animal.

She says a raccoon attacked her while she was out running Monday night.

It's probably one of the last things to cross your mind when you're heading out on a run, but a woman running along a busy Edmond street said a raccoon attack her and tonight she's thankful to walk away with only a scar.

A week ago, Emerald Groom ran her first marathon in Tulsa. But it was a routine run Monday night in Edmond that she'll never forget.

"Next thing I knew I had something leached onto my stomach," Groom said.

Just before 8 o'clock, Emerald says a raccoon attacked her.

"It was growling and I started just to push it away and I punched it with my left side and it rolled to the ground," Groom said.

The attack happened as she was running down the sidewalk along Danforth near Kelley.

"At first I thought it was a dog and then I could see from a car light coming that it was a raccoon," Groom said.

She kept running to get away, but she couldn't shake the nagging pain in her stomach.

"Where it bit me on my lower stomach, I actually had six layers of clothing," Groom says, "it was just so fast. It hurt, and it was just more of a shock experience."

Her husband took her to the emergency room where she was treated for rabies.

"They gave me a tetanus shot in one arm, rabies in the other, and then rabies antibodies were irrigated all around the bites on my lower stomach," Groom said.

Now looking back on that run, she'd do things differently.

"I definitely shouldn't have ran through the leaves because I'm sure it was probably in the leaves. So I'll definitely never run through leaves again," Groom said.

But Emerald says the attack won't stop her from running. She does have to go back to the hospital on Thursday for another round of anitbody injections. She'll continue that treatment through Christmas Eve. Emerald says she'll be sure to carry a flashlight next time too.

Animal control never found the raccoon.