Friday, June 11, 2010

no laughing matter

...my taper week may have saved my life.

A few days ago I made a joke to another blogger about getting a bottle of pepper spray to run with....  a joke.

Well, yesterday, at a time when I normally run, a woman on a mid morning run was attacked in my "posh" neighborhood about TWO TENTHS of a mile from my house.  The man tried to force her into his car, and... she kicked his a**.  No seriously, she pushed him off, screamed... and then... chased him to his pick up truck which he used to flee the scene.

Yesterday I would have been on that path, at that time, IF I hadn't been on a Taper Week!  So thank you TMB, for coming up with the idea to sign up for the race (what, like, Oct 2009? we had this idea) that is this week.  Thanks also to my guardian angel who prevented me from walking my dogs, which is what I planned to do, but... for some reason unbeknownst to me I completely lost my motivation.  And Thanks to Ann's guardian angel too, for preventing her from walking alone on those same paths.

I am glad that I've got my black & tan dog trained up to 4 miles... but, she's 8... I probably DO need to buy some pepper spray type stuff.  I always thought I was safe because I live in a snooty part of town, but I'm having to rethink that line of thought.

In the meant time... be safe ladies, and get a running buddy!

7 comments:

MCM Mama said...

Scary! Glad it wasn't you and that the other woman was ok.

I run alone a lot, so I've had to learn to be super aware of my surroundings. One of the good things about living in a pretty urban area is that there is quite a bit of foot traffic, so I'm never really alone.

Zoƫ said...

That is very scary! Pepper spray can come in the smallest of bottles...even smaller than chapstick!

Anne said...

You know, I haven't run with my pepper spray in the last month, after reaffirming its need when Chelsea King was killed here while on a run. Thanks for the reminder: No neighborhood is truly safe!

kat said...

Sorry to hear that, we are not allowed to carry pepper spray in the U.K, if we could I can assure you I would!

Jen said...

WOW... super scary. You need to get a BOB - that's my new running partner!

Praying for your safety.

Chele said...

you need to find someone w/ a giant dog who wants to run... perhaps I can send Moses over.

Robyn said...

Wow so scary! I always run alone and while I live in the city, there are definitely stretches in the parks or on the river when it's just me.