After a long day at work there is nothing I like better than to get home and quickly change into my workout clothes, lace up my trainers and head out for a post-work run. It always feels great to be moving after a day sat at my desk, staring at a computer screen and my run is a chance to relax and de-stress from a busy day. But at this time of year, I get tempted to skip my evening runs, not because of the cold and wet weather, but because it means running alone in the dark.
I’ve been running regularly for over a decade and I’ve done multiple marathons, so I’m used to being out in all weather and at all times of the day. While it brings so many positives to my life, as a female runner, who often runs alone, I’m also used to dealing with harassment. I know I’m not alone in having to face the possibility of being harassed while enjoying the sport that I love as a recent poll of 2,000 female runners by This Girl Can Run Community discovered that one third of female runners had received a form of sexual harassment while running alone.
Normally this is the usual everyday harassment many women face in public and includes shouts from moving cars, comments on my looks, my body, and general leering. This harassment only comes from a minority of men and I’m sure the majority couldn’t care less about seeing a woman out on a run. But it happens often enough, and from all sorts of men - sometimes even with a child in the car - to make me wonder what I’m going to have to deal with during my run.
While I tend to get less attention when running during the winter months than I do on a bright summer day, I feel a lot more vulnerable running alone during dark evenings.
Along with the memory of harassment I have had to deal with I’m bombarded with countless well-intentioned in running magazines on how women can stay safe while running alone after dark. These normally provide the same type of advice, from the practical of wearing reflective clothing, to the sensible of not wearing headphones and sometimes even the extreme of ensuring you run with pepper spray. I’ve even read one article where a woman in the USA said she carries a gun during her solo runs.
But surrounded by this information, it’s hardly surprising that I feel vulnerable before my solo evening runs. The temptation is often to skip the run for fear of what might happen.
I have continued running throughout winter, despite my fear. But it has made me alter where and when I run. I change my route so that I only stay on busy main roads, even though it means running more or less miles than I want, and I will only run early in the evening when I know there are lots of people and cars around.
I often feel a sense of relief when I get home from my runs in winter, a feeling I don’t have when I’ve been running outside in the daylight.