I had thought trying to run from an attacking dragon was hopeless which since my character was attacked out in the open far from any shelter was unfortunate. But I found if you run like mad while zigzagging to avoid the blasts and keep summoning familiars, the dragon kept being distracted by my summons and I was able to keep away from most of it's attacks long enough to run to a stormcloak camp. Never thought it was possible.

Good work getting away! It sounds like your PC is pretty easy prey for a dragon (as you never mentioned trying to fight) so escaping is impressive. Good thing you knew about the camp.

You may want to remember the area - the dragon is going to be there over and over...

Edit: If you can get a horse, that really helps when you want to escape a dragon attack.

My female Khajiit escaped from a dragon by jumping from a bridge into the river. She was carried over three waterfalls with the dragon hot on her tail. She finally came to rest at the base of another bridge where the dragon set up camp on the bridge roadway looking for her. She was able to sneak away while he was distracted and rejoin her follower who she had become separated from during the wild ride.

Rabbit

I remember one of my characters escaping a dragon by jumping into a waterfall...

One of my characters, in Solstheim, was attacked by a dragon at a bad time. She took cover under an overhanging bit of ruin, and tried to take potshots at the dragon when he came into view. I was sure she was going to die. Suddenly he went away, although the battle noise continued. After a while it quieted down; she sneaked out, and found a dead dragon and two dead werebears.

Try getting away from a levelled dragon (lvl 48) whilst an attack from the vampire hit squad has just begun... no amount of conjuration is going to save your character imo. Lucky, the lovely Serana can be a nice distraction for them...

It rarely hapens in my playthroughs on PC, 99% vanilla game. But when it does, it makes for some "cooking" fun...

If I want to avoid a dragon, I rarely have to run away. An enemy in the distance usually does the job and lures him away from me.

Yeah, I've had to leg it a few times too. I'm on Xbox so vanilla, but legendary, so at low levels they do hurt....a lot! My method is to run normal speed and conserve the stamina until it begins to flame, then sprint ahead. The real key to surviving if you don't have flame resistance is simply health potions. Keep pumping them in as you run to stay alive......obvious it's true, but some folk may forget to keep adequate stocks available for such an emergency. Of couse we're talking 'out in the open' here. If cover is available, get to it fast. Or run to guards for help or run to anyone you can hope the dragon may latch onto while you escape.