Week Eighteen: Run Safe

As it's starting to get darker out earlier, I am beginning to become more concerned about how safe it is for me to run during the evening hours. My neighborhood is fairly safe, but I should never assume that it's entirely safe. Afterall, it is a suburb of Seattle right off of Aurora Ave (a highway that's widely known for it's shady activity), so I use the word "safe" mildly. I've also noticed that the atmosphere outside during the fall is much different than it is in the summer. In the summer, there are considerably more runners, bikers, dog-walkers, and families out on the trails, but the instant that the fall weather started to hit, these people have clearly taken refuge into their warm, safe homes. They aren't training for a marathon though (unless they're running in place in their living rooms all night!). I still need to get myself out there to keep my endurance levels up. But how do I do it safely? Many of you would probably suggest going to the nice safe gym and running the treadmill, but like I've said many times before, the treadmill doesn't even come close to giving you the same endurance workout as road running does. Afterall, the marathon is a road race, not a treadmill race. I only use the treadmill in worse-case-scenarios (thunderstorm, monsoon, extreme snow, a shooting outside my house...you get the picture). Anyway, I've never had any overly strange incidences, but I have definitely ran into some questionable people.
It just so happens that my next door neighbor is a Seattle police officer who has worked in the force for over 16 years. He is also a runner. I met with him last night to inquire about the safeness of our neighborhood. Of course, he advised that I should never go out without pepper spray (which I always carry with me when I run & walk the dog) and he also taught me some great self-defense techniques. Even though the information he gave me was extremely useful, I think it made me even more paranoid to go out and run. Also, to make matters worse, being a police office, he just had to throw in those horror stories of women like me being attacked. However, as his duty as an officer, I think that he was just really trying to enforce that I need to take serious precaution when running in the evening hours. I definitely took him very seriously. It's better to be a overly caution than overly confident. I know that I am not invincible.
Ever since my chat with Mr. Officer, I haven't been able to stop thinking about running safe...or actually running not-so-safe. I am absolutely determined to keep on my training schedule until the marathon though. I do not want to regress. (I want to qualify for Boston, but that's just my own little pipe dream.) There are hundreds of women who compete in the Seattle Marathon every year...they must train safely somewhere! And I know it's not on the treadmill. So, I did a little research and I found two Seattle running groups that are perfect for my level of training. They meet several times a week and help you find runners with your same goals. This is great! Running in a co-ed group would make me feel so much more comfortable than running on the dark trails alone. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. My first meet-up will be next Wednesday for an interval run. I've excited to see how it goes.
Although, there will still be times when I have to train alone, I'm going to try to stick with the groups as much as I can. When it comes to running safe, this is probably my safest option.

If you are interested in finding a meet-up group in your area, check out http://www.meetup.com/find/. You can find a group for anything on this site. It's really cool.

Newest race time: Leavenworth Half-Marathon: 1 hr. 47 min.
Placed 16 out of 175 in my age group

Only 7 more weeks until the marathon!

Week Eighteen
10/5 - Run 4 miles
10/6 - Run 3 miles
10/7 - Speedwork - 8 miles
-Warmup 2 miles
-3 x 1 mile intervals @ 10k pace w/ 400 meter recoveries
-Cooldown 2 miles
10/8 - Rest day
10/9 Tempo run - 9 miles
-Warmup 1 mile
-Run 7 miles @ marathon pace
-Cooldown 1 mile
10/10 - Run 3 miles
10/11 - Long run - 18 miles

Total miles for the week: 45