Frisco woman attacked by coyote said animal looked at her like she was a meal

A Frisco coyote attack survivor was ready to start her first day of work as a nurse practitioner, not realizing the same day she be in the hospital for a very different reason. 

Marcia Foster, 45, and her friend Sherri shortened their usual run Monday along Eldorado Parkway heading towards Preston Road in the hopes of having more time to get ready for work.

“Before I knew it I was thrown down to the ground and I felt something grab my calf and I looked back and there was a coyote on my leg. He was shaking my leg and I was just in shock,” Foster said.

Getting to work became the least of her worries.

“As soon as I started getting up, he lunged at me again and he was just playing tug-of war with my leg,” Foster said.

She started kicking and fighting the animal with her friend Sherri's help. It worked briefly, until the coyote went in for seconds.

“The look in its eyes, it was intently looking at me like it wanted its meal and I was its prey,” Foster said.

Minutes into the attack they jumped the street into oncoming traffic to get to safety, but thankfully help arrived.

“I'm trying, to like, get it to stop. They were making noises to scare it off. But it was not going. It was not moving,” said Michael Harvey, who rescued the women.

Foster said she’s scared to think what would’ve happened if Harvey hadn’t helped.

“We were just so tired – emotionally, physically -- when Michael finally drove up,” Foster said.

Foster is no stranger to mental toughness and endurance, though. she’s been running triathlons for nearly 20 years and competed in three Ironman’s. But no amount of endurance, she said, would have overtaken an aggressive animal out for blood.

Now her parents are with her to help recover. She's made it out of the hospital and hoping to get back on the running trails soon.

“It makes me more determined to do it,” Foster said.