Safety First

It was a beautiful afternoon for a run. Sunny. Warm. Not windy. I was full of lung, full of leg and I thought it was going to be an easy six miles, maybe more. I headed toward the little town and hit my halfway point when I noticed something strange.

Just after mile four in the middle of my little town, a white Dodge pickup passed by me, heading north. About 5 minutes later, he came back toward me, heading south. Then he preceded to turn down every side street. He'd do a U-turn at the end (because this town is really little and the side streets don't go anywhere), come back out to the main street, sit at the stop sign, then pull out in front of me. Staying just ahead of me as he went.

Then he'd do the same at the next side street.

Then the next.

Now, my little town has only four or five side streets. After that, on the way to my house, there's a hill, 10 houses clustered in a 25 mph zone, followed by a 1.6 mile stretch with a handful of houses that sit way off the road. In other words, nowhere to run and no one to hear you scream if something weird happens.

So I panicked. And called Jim. "There's a Dodge that might be following me. Can you come get me?"

"On my way," he said.

My knight in shining armor (or Caterpillar hoodie and man slippers) showed up minutes later. He'd passed the white truck and I explained my story. The dude could have been delivering newspapers, I guess. I'll never know.

But I have been told that pepper spray is in my future.

Those of you that run alone ... and run in the early morning or evening dark ... how do you protect yourself?