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Sunday, October 14, 2012

Running in the dark: A paranoid girl's PSA.

OK, this is just a little PSA for all of the women runners out there.

I've been doing a lot more running outside lately and I've noticed something that kinda bothers me.  Alright, not kinda.  It totally makes me cringe and want to stop these girls and shake them ... but that would probably be frowned upon.

It's amazing to me the amount of women who run in the dusk/dark ... by themselves ... with headphones in their ears.  I mean, are you asking to get assaulted/abducted/raped/murdered????

Look, I get it.  We live in Florida where it's hot as balls during the day.  I run in the morning and evening to avoid these temps too.  But I try to make sure that the sun will either rise while I'm running, or set while I'm running, so that my whole run isn't in the dark.  And if it's going to be dark at any point during my run, I take one of the dogs with me ... usually Cooper, because he might look friendly, but I've seen him take down some fairly large animals before and he is NO JOKE when he's upset with something.


And the music ... oh, the music.  Trust me, I need my music too.  I can't make my legs move without it.  But I don't run with ear buds in my ears.  I run with my cell phone set to Pandora and I just let the tunes fly.  I don't blast them, but they're loud enough for me to hear while I run.  I use an armband to attach my phone to my shirt, slipped under my sport bra strap.  It's secure, I can hear it, and the minute dusk starts to hit, the volume goes down.

The moral of my babble?  Please, if you walk or run outside, try to avoid the dark.  And if you must when it's dark, get a buddy, even if it's a dog ... and do not run with ear buds in your ears!!  Go ahead, call me paranoid.  I was raised by 2 worrier-parents, had a million police officers for neighbors (Hi Rob & Kathy!), and have watched way too much Criminal Minds.  Incidentally, these are also the reasons I find it important to lock doors and windows at night.  These are all things that my husband finds paranoid and neurotic, but I'd much rather be called those things than be dead.

So by all means, get out there and get active, but please, do it SAFELY.




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