In the wake of the recent death of Sarah Hart, murdered while on a run in Russell County, Kentucky, I have been compelled to proffer a list of safety tips for runners that may - at a minimum - provide you with some food for thought. I originally posted these tips on RunTheVille.com, however these tips are in no way restricted to the art of running and are really nothing more than commonsense behaviors that may be employed regardless of your activity or situation.
Without further ado, and presented in no particular order, here are my top ten safety tips:
1. Run on the left side of the road, facing on-coming traffic. In Kentucky KRS 189.570(14) states, "Where neither a sidewalk nor a shoulder is available, any pedestrian walking on or along a highway shall walk as near as practicable to an outside edge of the roadway, and, if on a two-way roadway shall walk only on the left side of the roadway." The average two lane road is 24 feet wide. The only thing separating you from a 2-ton battering ram, 12 feet away and speeding up behind you, is some paint in the middle of the road. Better that the one coming from behind has some wiggle room. At least if you have to dive for cover to avoid being clipped, you have a better chance with the one coming head-on.
2. Tell someone where you are going. You might want to add in how far you are going and how long you plan on being gone. I'm guilty of breaking this rule. A lot. But if, God forbid, you come up missing at least someone has a reference point to begin looking for you. Someone once told me, early in my career, "You know where you are and God knows where you are, but if the rest of us don't know where you are then you and God had better be on good terms." There is wisdom in that.
3. Turn the headphones down. I do wear headphones when I run. But the volume is never so loud that I cannot hear the car approaching from behind or the sounds of footsteps from another runner. I have ran near other runners who have had the volume so loud on their music players that I can hear what they are listening to over my own tunes. That is asking for trouble.
4. Carry ID. RoadID is great and is personally what I wear. There are also many other suppliers of athletic type identification methods out there. With regard to whatever brand you choose, when making attachment choices, consider that in bad situations shoes and other items of clothing can be lost. At a minimum I suggest having the following on your ID:
5. Light up! Literally. On those dark roads/trails, pre-dawn, and after dark runs wear a rear strobe and carry some type of flashlight, head lamp, etc. Reflective clothing is nice too. Just be visible. This at least gives you a chance against being struck by a vehicle. If you are struck by a vehicle then the flashing butt strobe will make it easier for retrieval teams to find your body.
6. Make eye contact or otherwise acknowledge people. Bad guys are going to select easy prey. They do not want to work hard to achieve their goals and picking a target that is confident and possibly going to fight back is too much work. Acknowledging the other person says that you aren't going to be an easy mark. You don't have to be friendly - smile and wave and all that other happy stuff - but at least make eye contact and give them the "grunt and nod".
7. Take a self-defense/combatives course. Kicking, scratching, yelling and screaming are all fine methods of self-defense. Learning how to put them all together in a nice methodical manner is even better. Find a place that specializes in "real world" techniques. Fancy belts and tournament-style games of tag with heavy padding will not translate well in a fight for your life. Remember to keep it simple and don't be afraid to question the instructor on the effectiveness of what is being shown. When push comes to shove you aren't going to remember Technique #352 - Defense Against A Front Double Hand Choke, but you most likely will remember to shove your thumb through the guy's eye socket before your shin kick his testicles into next week.
8. Take a proper position. What the hell does that mean? Actively, it means when you are running, don't allow others to corner you into a position that you can't easily escape from or that gives them an advantage. For example, a woman who is running along a wooded road is approached by a man running in the opposite direction. Both are on the same side of the road because one of them is ignoring KRS 189.570(14)
. The woman takes the inside edge of the roadway, closest to the woods and the ravine that runs along the roadside. The man, who is actually a rapist, now simply tackles the woman directly off the roadway. Taking the outside may have been a safer option as pulling or dragging the woman from the roadway would require more work. Think that doesn't happen? The Aspin Hill rapist in Maryland posed as a runner while scouting his victims. Taking a proper position also means putting yourself in the best position to take advantage of natural cover, or to be able to use terrain to escape or elude someone who wants to harm you. Of course, the best defense is simply "not being there". Don't place yourself in situations/positions that anyone with any common sense would know probably isn't the safest; such as using the bathroom in a deserted park at night.
9. Carry a defensive tool (read "weapon"). This can be a knife, a gun, pepper-spray, attack helicopter, something. What you carry is a matter of personal preference. I carry a firearm with me on all of my runs. However, for some this may not be practical or even comfortable. But regardless of what you choose, receive some type of training. Then practice with it. Regularly. When the adrenaline hits you will most likely experience a combination of one or more of the following: loss of fine motor control, time distortion, auditory exclusion, and/or tunnel vision. When that happens you will need to rely on "muscle memory" and skill. Add on top of that the consideration that you will already have been exerting yourself while running and will be winded, etc. In a life and death struggle, you are now already at an extreme disadvantage. The bad guy is going to show up fresh and with plenty of energy (remember the part about them not wanting to work too hard).
As an FYI, OC spray - often referred to as "pepper spray" or the brand name "MACE" - is a less lethal option that might give you some distraction time to escape your attacker. OC spray is generally effective (notice I said "generally" which can mean "not always") and due to the nature of its active ingredient (Oleoresin Capsicum) works on both humans and animals. OC spray can take a few moments to take effect and for maximum effective benefit needs to be applied to the eyes, nasal passages, and mouth.
10. Last but not least is - Keep situation awareness. It is easy to zone out. All of us have done it. And I guarantee that all of us can recall a time that we were startled while in "the zone". Don't focus your vision right on the road directly in front of your feet. Keep your eyes up and look around. Other than bad guys and crazy drivers, there are pot holes, uneven pavement, hanging tree limbs, rabid squirrels, etc. Besides, there really are all kinds of cool things to see while running that you might otherwise miss.
And a bonus tip: Stay the hell off of social media sites. Or at least set your privacy settings to only allow people you know access your information and/or govern heavily what you post on those sites. A pic taken with your cell phone and uploaded to Facebook will lead the savvy bad guy right to your home. Regular tweets of when you run and where you run will make finding you a piece of cake for the analytical stalker. I could make another mile long post just out of this topic alone.
So, there you have it - my top ten (plus) safety tips for running. Bottom line is this: You are not safe. Anywhere. This is not a paranoid statement. Simply fact. There are no perimeter fences or magic force fields that keep the bad guys corralled in one location. They go where they want, when they want. And they will show up in the places you least expect them, precisely at a time that you are not expecting them. There are thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of stories out there of runners/joggers who have been attacked: The "Central Park jogger" who was viciously beaten and raped. Sherry Arnold, the teacher in Montana - abducted and killed while on a run in January of this year. A 19 year old runner raped in Tulsa in February. And of course Sarah Hart, wife and mother of three, robbed and murdered mere days ago. Sadly the list goes on and on.
Bad things do happen to good people. This doesn't mean that you have to live barricaded inside your home with the windows nailed shut. It simply means that you should be prepared and have a plan for dealing with whatever emergent situation you might encounter, be it of human or natural origin. To borrow from Lt. Col. David Grossman, we have airbags in cars and fire extinguishers in buildings because we accept the fact that fires and traffic accidents can happen and that there must be safeguards against them. Our personal safety while on a run or out with our loved ones is no different.
Without further ado, and presented in no particular order, here are my top ten safety tips:
1. Run on the left side of the road, facing on-coming traffic. In Kentucky KRS 189.570(14) states, "Where neither a sidewalk nor a shoulder is available, any pedestrian walking on or along a highway shall walk as near as practicable to an outside edge of the roadway, and, if on a two-way roadway shall walk only on the left side of the roadway." The average two lane road is 24 feet wide. The only thing separating you from a 2-ton battering ram, 12 feet away and speeding up behind you, is some paint in the middle of the road. Better that the one coming from behind has some wiggle room. At least if you have to dive for cover to avoid being clipped, you have a better chance with the one coming head-on.
2. Tell someone where you are going. You might want to add in how far you are going and how long you plan on being gone. I'm guilty of breaking this rule. A lot. But if, God forbid, you come up missing at least someone has a reference point to begin looking for you. Someone once told me, early in my career, "You know where you are and God knows where you are, but if the rest of us don't know where you are then you and God had better be on good terms." There is wisdom in that.
3. Turn the headphones down. I do wear headphones when I run. But the volume is never so loud that I cannot hear the car approaching from behind or the sounds of footsteps from another runner. I have ran near other runners who have had the volume so loud on their music players that I can hear what they are listening to over my own tunes. That is asking for trouble.
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City, State and Country
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5. Light up! Literally. On those dark roads/trails, pre-dawn, and after dark runs wear a rear strobe and carry some type of flashlight, head lamp, etc. Reflective clothing is nice too. Just be visible. This at least gives you a chance against being struck by a vehicle. If you are struck by a vehicle then the flashing butt strobe will make it easier for retrieval teams to find your body.
6. Make eye contact or otherwise acknowledge people. Bad guys are going to select easy prey. They do not want to work hard to achieve their goals and picking a target that is confident and possibly going to fight back is too much work. Acknowledging the other person says that you aren't going to be an easy mark. You don't have to be friendly - smile and wave and all that other happy stuff - but at least make eye contact and give them the "grunt and nod".
7. Take a self-defense/combatives course. Kicking, scratching, yelling and screaming are all fine methods of self-defense. Learning how to put them all together in a nice methodical manner is even better. Find a place that specializes in "real world" techniques. Fancy belts and tournament-style games of tag with heavy padding will not translate well in a fight for your life. Remember to keep it simple and don't be afraid to question the instructor on the effectiveness of what is being shown. When push comes to shove you aren't going to remember Technique #352 - Defense Against A Front Double Hand Choke, but you most likely will remember to shove your thumb through the guy's eye socket before your shin kick his testicles into next week.
8. Take a proper position. What the hell does that mean? Actively, it means when you are running, don't allow others to corner you into a position that you can't easily escape from or that gives them an advantage. For example, a woman who is running along a wooded road is approached by a man running in the opposite direction. Both are on the same side of the road because one of them is ignoring KRS 189.570(14)
. The woman takes the inside edge of the roadway, closest to the woods and the ravine that runs along the roadside. The man, who is actually a rapist, now simply tackles the woman directly off the roadway. Taking the outside may have been a safer option as pulling or dragging the woman from the roadway would require more work. Think that doesn't happen? The Aspin Hill rapist in Maryland posed as a runner while scouting his victims. Taking a proper position also means putting yourself in the best position to take advantage of natural cover, or to be able to use terrain to escape or elude someone who wants to harm you. Of course, the best defense is simply "not being there". Don't place yourself in situations/positions that anyone with any common sense would know probably isn't the safest; such as using the bathroom in a deserted park at night.9. Carry a defensive tool (read "weapon"). This can be a knife, a gun, pepper-spray, attack helicopter, something. What you carry is a matter of personal preference. I carry a firearm with me on all of my runs. However, for some this may not be practical or even comfortable. But regardless of what you choose, receive some type of training. Then practice with it. Regularly. When the adrenaline hits you will most likely experience a combination of one or more of the following: loss of fine motor control, time distortion, auditory exclusion, and/or tunnel vision. When that happens you will need to rely on "muscle memory" and skill. Add on top of that the consideration that you will already have been exerting yourself while running and will be winded, etc. In a life and death struggle, you are now already at an extreme disadvantage. The bad guy is going to show up fresh and with plenty of energy (remember the part about them not wanting to work too hard).
As an FYI, OC spray - often referred to as "pepper spray" or the brand name "MACE" - is a less lethal option that might give you some distraction time to escape your attacker. OC spray is generally effective (notice I said "generally" which can mean "not always") and due to the nature of its active ingredient (Oleoresin Capsicum) works on both humans and animals. OC spray can take a few moments to take effect and for maximum effective benefit needs to be applied to the eyes, nasal passages, and mouth.
10. Last but not least is - Keep situation awareness. It is easy to zone out. All of us have done it. And I guarantee that all of us can recall a time that we were startled while in "the zone". Don't focus your vision right on the road directly in front of your feet. Keep your eyes up and look around. Other than bad guys and crazy drivers, there are pot holes, uneven pavement, hanging tree limbs, rabid squirrels, etc. Besides, there really are all kinds of cool things to see while running that you might otherwise miss.
And a bonus tip: Stay the hell off of social media sites. Or at least set your privacy settings to only allow people you know access your information and/or govern heavily what you post on those sites. A pic taken with your cell phone and uploaded to Facebook will lead the savvy bad guy right to your home. Regular tweets of when you run and where you run will make finding you a piece of cake for the analytical stalker. I could make another mile long post just out of this topic alone.
So, there you have it - my top ten (plus) safety tips for running. Bottom line is this: You are not safe. Anywhere. This is not a paranoid statement. Simply fact. There are no perimeter fences or magic force fields that keep the bad guys corralled in one location. They go where they want, when they want. And they will show up in the places you least expect them, precisely at a time that you are not expecting them. There are thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of stories out there of runners/joggers who have been attacked: The "Central Park jogger" who was viciously beaten and raped. Sherry Arnold, the teacher in Montana - abducted and killed while on a run in January of this year. A 19 year old runner raped in Tulsa in February. And of course Sarah Hart, wife and mother of three, robbed and murdered mere days ago. Sadly the list goes on and on.
Bad things do happen to good people. This doesn't mean that you have to live barricaded inside your home with the windows nailed shut. It simply means that you should be prepared and have a plan for dealing with whatever emergent situation you might encounter, be it of human or natural origin. To borrow from Lt. Col. David Grossman, we have airbags in cars and fire extinguishers in buildings because we accept the fact that fires and traffic accidents can happen and that there must be safeguards against them. Our personal safety while on a run or out with our loved ones is no different.
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