I'm trying to escape an ancient dragon I can't defeat. A million reloads later, I still can't. Muffle+invisibility, the damn thing still tracks me down (after the effect wear off, thankfully). I'm beginning to wonder if it's even possible to avoid an encounter with a dragon.

Just run as fast as you can to a town? That has always worked out for me.

Even with my modded run speed, I can't outrun something that can fly.

While trying to escape you could look for nearby enemies.. they'll either attack you or likely go for the dragon. I could be wrong, but Frost Breath *might* slow them down.

Can you dive into a cave and wait 24 hours? My problem is normally the reverse- if I don't shout dragonrend they run like hell away from me!

Same here. Stupid dragons don't cooperate when I try to kite them over to some annoying guards. And with Dragonrend there's a 50% chance the dragons just go into orbit and disappear.

I hate it when they do that.. with me though they'll fly around before landing, and by the time they do, Dragonrend has worn off -.-.

Ironically, I found the best way to get a dragon to land is to shapeshift into a werewolf. Seems the buggers can't resist trying to take a bite out of me.