ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A New Mexico marathon runner was less than 3 miles from the finish line of an organized mountain race when she climbed over a hilltop and saw a black bear charging at her.

The female black bear attacked after Karen Williams unknowingly startled it and at least one of its cubs, which ran up a tree in Valles Caldera National Preserve. The mother bear scratched Williams and bit at her neck and head Saturday before she curled up played dead.

The mauling, considered rare for New Mexico, left Williams with multiple punctures and cuts. She said a “mean left hook” by the bear also fractured her right eye socket and ripped her eyelid, but her injuries miraculously were not life-threatening.

“I tried to look around but was having trouble seeing much,” the Los Alamos resident wrote in a Facebook post Monday.