An East Bay man who was supposed to go out for a 45-minute run on a scorching hot day over the weekend still has not returned home.
An army of volunteers joined about 100 search and rescue personnel Monday looking for 37-year-old Philip Kreycik, who is believed to still be somewhere in Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park.
Search and rescue teams have fanned out across this park, looking for the father of two from Berkeley who went running in an area that has deep canyons, steep trails and minimal shade.
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"That’s tough. That’s tough up there," Amanda Olson of Livermore said. "It’s really hot and really steep."
Kreycik went out for a trail run Saturday morning and never returned home.
Pleasanton police say he is an experienced trail runner with no known health issues.
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"I have a 37-year-old husband and he goes out for runs," Olson said. "If he went for a run and didn’t come home, I would want anyone and everybody to be out here."
Police said Kreycik left his phone in his car, probably because carrying it would have weighed on him. They don’t know for certain if he carried any water with him.
Christian Sommer of Danville doesn’t know Kreycik personally, but he has a sense of what he’s going through. Two years ago, Sommer got lost himself during a trail run and was missing for more than seven hours.
"There’s no moonlight, you’re in pitch darkness," Sommer said. "The ravines are so steep and so scary. It doesn’t take much to get lost."
For now, the growing group of volunteers is expanding its search on foot and online, calling for rock climbers who have experience rappelling to help join the effort.
"Hopefully he’s just under a tree somewhere, getting shade somewhere and he's not injured," Sommer said.
