Safer running-my story

Since we have started back up the conversation of women and running, I thought I would share my story of what happened in our tiny town one night when I was running. This was years ago mind you but still. I saw a truck drive down main street as I was heading down one end. I noticed the guy was staring intently at me, and it took me aback. My hubby was in school in Topeka that night and while I was running with my dog harley, the man's intensity kind of scared me. As I was running down the other side of mainstreet, he came back down mainstreet in his truck and actually pulled into a parking lot between buildings basically blocking me. He got out and started saying something to me, but I was so scared I just took off running as hard as I could. The local bar was having a bike night and was a few buildings down so I went to where I knew people would protect me and not let anything happen to me. Once I felt safer and calmer, I headed home with my heart in my throat the whole way. I did see the gentleman's truck in a driveway as I passed on my way home. I do not know what he said to me as i was in full out panic mode. I did have my dog with me but he didn't seem to be concerned about the guy (Weird). After that night I taught all of my dogs the "Don't bite the nice man" trick where i would say that phrase to get them really riled up and rewarded them for going batshit crazy when I said that. I now mostly run with my BRF, a double black belt ninja who can kick ass, and usually not one but two dogs who both know don't bite the nice man.

It's sad in a world like today that women still have to fear for their lives when running. I didn't have a cell phone that night, but I sure carry mine with me for all of my runs now. I also make direct eye contact and wave to any car that passes by, mostly hoping that me looking right at them and acknowledging them will scare them away from stopping and trying to do anything to me since I saw them and noted their vehicle. I also will pretend to take pictures of the car or the plate as they drive by and have actually taken some photos for real just in case. You just never know and that is SUPER sad. I mainly run on rural routes because we have had cars yell out of the window at us about our breasts and other lewd comments while running in town. It's sad since running on town routes would actually be better since it is more well populated and well lit. Why are we having these issues in 2018 and why do they seem to be getting worse? I am NOT a piece of meat. I am NOT going to be turned on by you yelling lewd comments at me, so what purpose does it serve for you? I was running on my rural route the other night when two older boys came from the other direction on bikes. There aren't many people who bike out on this route so I could already feel my danger danger feelings coming up. I had stella with me and my phone but I felt very uncomfortable. I shouldn't have to feel this way yet here I am. I also took a self defense course and while I got some really good stuff out of the class, I never really got to practice it so I feel like it won't be very usable. I think the biggest concept I got from the class is don't be a victim, but running at 4 am in the dark isn't the best way to do that in this day and age unfortunately. I honestly don't have answers to how we can change this. Ask any female runner and she will have a story of not one time, but multiple times stuff has happen to her on a run at the expense of a male. What can we do? What should we do? I don't have the answers but I wish I did.