I was working out in the gym yesterday when I saw the story about the Alaskan runner who was believed to be killed by a pack of wolves -- a rare attack. The article makes a point of her running alone and while listening to music (instead of her wild surroundings, I presume).
LA Times: Wolves kill teacher in Alaska
Here locally we've been told for a couple of weeks now to not run alone, especially if you're a woman. This was prompted by the attack on one college student and murder of a high school runner on trails surrounded by suburban homes. A couple of days after Chelsea King's body was found, there was a news report of a woman attacked in Chula Vista while jogging in a park in the evening. The commenters were none to kind toward her, saying the victim was incredibly stupid to run alone and in the dark after what was known to have just happened elsewhere in the county.
I planned to celebrate my first Sunday morning home in six weeks with a short run followed by a long walk (or vice versa). Like most early morning runners, I run alone and, quite honestly, prefer it. I'm fine with waiting until it's light again (due to the time change tonight), with its increased traffic and reduced risk. There's also a big trail race taking place nearby, which will mean a lot more runners than usual. Still, it's going to be hard to enjoy the solitude with all that's happened here in recent weeks.
11 comments:
Nuts. I run into wolves all of the time and only worry about the dog. I have never heard of them being aggressive to humans and have never had any problems.
Runners are loners but I believe a good dog deters most would be attackers (human and animal).
Yeah...I do think about this when I'm planning a run. I'm lucky enough to be able to plan most of my alone runs at mid-day. But, if it's light out and there are lots of other runners around...then I'd feel pretty safe I think.
I always listen to my intuition when running. If I start feeling nervous - I get back to civilization.
It is really sad to not be able to enjoy what we love doing because of the way predators behave. I would worry more about the human predators. I live where it is isolated and try to be smart but if I never ran alone I would miss out on a lot of running.
That was a scary article. I don't want to live my life fearfully, especially when it comes to running but there are some very good lessons in these events that have been happening. So tragic though.
I agree with many, it's hard to not run alone sometimes, with all things, we just need to be smart. I've given up running with an ipod now and I think a big dog would work too!
I do feel really bad for teh lady that got attacked fatally, but she was on a deserted, 3-mile-long road living in Alaska were the wild animals roam. And she was alone, with an ipod on. I just hope that other runners will learn a lesson from her unfortunate experience. BE SMART. Very good posting! keep it up, as I do enjoy and make frequent stops. Have a great weekend.
I can feel your dilemma. On the one hand, you want to be free to run when and where you want, without worry about bodily injury. On the other hand, there's the safety factor. Obviously there needs to be a compromise. You can always run a trail that you know other people will be on, though do it without a friend so that you don't feel the need to talk to anyone. hmmmm...
When I ran in high school, we had a trail that crossed many tunnels and even a freeway underpass. At the time, I think I was more afraid of homeless people being around there attacking us more than anything.
I remember reading about how more people have been running because of the recession (it's relatively cheap to run/race..), but hearing about all of these attacks lately, I have a feeling that trend is ending. Let's hope that's not the case.
Anne, because of your posts (and my mom) I just got an arm band to wear my iphone while I'm out running. If I start running long again, then I'll have it in my pink camelbak. Got one for the HB too.
Thanks for the good recent posts on solitary running, safely.
The world/media isn't making it easy to lose yourself/let the mind wander in a run anymore is it?
It's a sad state of affairs when we all need to live life fearful. And it wouldn't matter how careful you are, if you are up against a predator like the guy who was stalking Lake Hodges, the only protection would be running in groups. How sad.
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