Avoid trouble and stay safe while jogging or riding

Parks are a great place to get your bike ride on, trail ride on or run on. That is, until some pervert ruins it for everyone! Take for example this latest development on September 20th at 6:30pm in Shawnee Mission Park in Lenexa, a Kansas City suburb. A couple minding their own business riding some paved trails with their bikes run into a man that verbally accosts the women and threatens her with physical harm. Read more HERE. Seemingly this is totally random. It’s a changing world out there. Every day we hear of someone being surprised on a trail or in broad daylight in city streets. Is anyplace safe? Here’s some handy reminders when you are hitting the trails, parks and streets.

• Power in numbers. If at all possible, train with someone. This isn’t always possible, but exhaust your efforts to find anyone to go out with. Perps are less likely to approach a pack of people over a single person.
• Protection. I’m not advocating guns, but bring something! Mace, pepper spray or a pocket knife can be the difference between making someone think twice about messing with you and a bad situation.
• Avoid being out in the dark. There are plenty of workouts for treadmills and bike trainers. Night time is a heaven for those looking to inflict harm on others. It’s not easy to spot someone lurking around a trail when it’s dark.
• Stay in areas with a large crowd. If you are in a park, consider sticking to the main park roads and avoid the lesser visited paves trails. It may not be as rewarding to ride with traffic, but it’s better than running across a freak on the paths.
• Pick a park with security. A lot of larger parks have security that will patrol the premises. Check in with the park ranger office to see if they patrol the roads, trails or other areas of the park. Avoid the areas where they do not patrol.
• Bring a phone. If you see anyone acting odd, don’t hesitate to call them in. Better to take up some police time than the alternative.
• Keep people informed. Tell someone where you are going and when you think you should be back. If you aren’t back in a reasonable amount of time, they should call the cops. You may not have had a run-in with a questionable person, but you may have had an accident and cannot reach anyone. Keep someone in the know.
• Bring a whistle. Sounds odd, but the last thing a perp wants to do it attract attention to what he’s doing. Start blowing that whistle at top volume at the slightest hint of impropriety.

Article by Ryan Falkenrath