This week’s long run for me was a 15K (9.32 Miles) and Rob had 7 Miles to do. To mix things up we decided on using another part of our town’s trail system. The trail was built where an old rail system used to run through town and it has since been extended into various neighborhoods. It has water fountains and decent bathrooms along the paths and would be such a gem if it weren’t for the fact that it not only attracts people looking to be active, but also creepos. It’s typical through the year to hear of the occasional mugging, flasher, and in the worst cases rape. So I take the usual precautions: never run alone, never run certain parts of the trail, don’t run at odd hours, and bring pepper spray. Unfortunately this time I forgotten my pepper spray, but Rob and I already planned to run near each other so I wouldn’t be out of his sight.

Rob and I parked and set out on our new path. It was 69 degrees, some winds, and drizzling rain. The miles went along very well. I would get lost in the scenery and the instrumental portions of songs from Dave Matthews Band. I was so happy that we had found another place to get in our runs. At 7 Miles we had found a spot where Rob could stretch and wait for me while I ran on a straight away and would easily see him. The trail had a good handful of runners that day, but there weren’t any around at this point. I set out to finish my run and wasn’t even a .5 mile down the trail when a guy was coming towards me on a bike. He was probably in his 20s, the bike was a street style low ride type of bike, and he was dressed in baggy jeans and jersey, not out for fitness. His riding was leisurely and he was focused on me coming towards him. I hit pause on my iPod so I could hear any shit this guy was going to say. I didn’t make eye contact and hoped he would just go on his way. Unfortunately, he didn’t. He started saying some crap in a come on type of voice, “Hey there baby how you doing today? What are you up to?” and proceeds to circle me on his bike. I stop dead in my tracks and face him. Look him in the eye with a hate that he had to have noticed and shouted “Get lost creep!!!!” and shouted VERY loud “Babe!!!!!! Babe!!!!! Common we gotta go this guy is fucking with me!!!!”. The guy on the bike looks at me with shock cause I don’t think he expected me to stand up to him and I was not alone on the trail. He took off while Rob comes sprinting up and yells “You better run mother fucker!!” But where we were in the trail system there are ways to loop back around so there was no way we wanted to stick around to see if this guy would come back. On our way out of the trail we saw a woman running toward where this went down and I let her know what happened and said you might want to get outta here and she thanked us and turned back around too.

I really don’t care if this guy was just some idiot talking crap and was harmless. I have ZERO tolerance for that shit and I’m not waiting around to find out if some guy is a threat or not. If a guy is dumb enough to talk to me when I’m out running he is going to be surprised by my reaction. I only WISH I had my pepper spray. His ass would have been sprayed right then and there. No way is circling a woman and hitting on her in a park acceptable in my book.

Now I only wish I had punching bag cause I have some energy to burn off.

7.42 Miles, 8:54 pace

We will be looking at some new places to get our long runs in. I’m not interested in going back to this location, just not worth it.