Jenice Armstrong: Staying safe on the run

WE WERE strolling along Kelly Drive after a run Monday night. It was close to 9, and as my friend and I chatted, we suddenly heard a man going, "Pssst, pssst."

Very annoying.

I wanted to ignore the creep, but I've found that if you don't at least acknowledge this kind of harassment it sometimes escalates. Without making direct eye contact, I gave a yeah-I-see-you-but-don't-bother-us wave and we quickened our pace.

Glancing back, I noticed the man had started following us, beckoning for us to join him and another man.

As if.

"No, no, we've got to go," we said, waving them away and quickening our pace.

They faded into the shadows. And believe me, we kept glancing back to be sure. We were lucky. But not surprised.

Call me paranoid, but the sad reality about being a runner and female is that every time you run outside, you're vulnerable. It's infuriating that at the same time you're doing something so positive for your health, you're also opening yourself up to all kinds of come-ons, verbal harassment or worse.

What we experienced Monday was mild compared to some of what's been going on lately.

That same evening that we were approached, a 23-year-old woman in Ardmore was running near St. Georges and Glenn roads when a man forced her into an area surrounded by shrubbery and assaulted her. She fought back and managed to wrestle a gun away from the guy.

When a passing car distracted him, she bolted away unscathed. Police discovered afterwards that it was just a BB gun. But she had no way of knowing that beforehand. The woman, who had been running along Montgomery Avenue, must have felt that she had no other choice but to grab for what could have been a lethal weapon. Last week, an even more serious incident happened on Bells Mill Road near Forbidden Drive. Another female jogger, age 34, was raped as she prepared to go on a run about 6:30 p.m. A man forced her into some bushes and sexually assaulted her.

Meanwhile, police in Georgia are searching for a 38-year-old woman abducted last week after going out to exercise on a country road. It doesn't look good for her.

Kristi Cornwell's boyfriend, on the phone with her, heard her yell, "Please don't take me!" before she disappeared. Her cell phone was found in a field a few miles away. It had been turned off.

Some online comments have been coming down hard on Cornwell, saying that she had no business being out by herself on a deserted road. They have a point, but what was she supposed to do? You can't allow the threat of potential violence to shut yourself off from life, or the joys of a summer's day.

Summer is too short and too precious to spend cooped up inside a gym on a treadmill. But you do take a chance each time you go outside for a run or walk.

Smart exercisers stay alert - and that means not wearing iPods or any other musical devices.

This is a piece of advice you'd think wouldn't need to be repeated, but I'm often taken aback by all the lone female joggers I see on Kelly Drive wearing headphones.

Earlier this month, a 23-year-old math teacher was running along Forbidden Drive when a heavy tree branch overhead broke off and fell, killing her. Mary Katherine Ladany had been listening to her iPod. If she hadn't, would she have heard the branch falling and gotten out of the way?

Yesterday, Philip Clark, owner of the Run Shoe Store, in Northern Liberties, pointed out another potential safety hazard for runners that I'd never thought of: sunshades that obscure peripheral vision.

"I have a pair of sunglasses I definitely shouldn't wear when I run or ride," said Clark, who holds running classes at 8 a.m. Saturdays outside his store at 1050 N. Hancock St. "When you're running, your mind needs to be on everything around you.

"You have to run defensively all the time, paying attention to what's coming up."

Or behind you.

Because, when you're running outside, you just never know.

Send e-mail to heyjen@phillynews.com. My blog: http://go.philly.com/heyjen.