Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

On Saturday morning, with the Percy Sutton Harlem 5k race cancelled, I decided to do my 5 mile run before the hurricane started. I headed out of my apartment to make my way to the West Side Highway. This run takes me about 1 mile through New York's West Village, which is a really nice area. Shortly after I left my apartment, I was accosted by a man after accidentally bumping elbows with him. You can read the whole story here. I live in a very safe and pretty touristy area of New York so I was shocked that this happened to me. Especially at 10:30 on a Saturday morning. It was an extremely scary experience and really got me thinking a lot about safety for women runners. My boyfriend noted specifically that this kind of thing has been going on a lot in New York with people targeting runners as they tend to be more vulnerable since they're alone and typically don't carry cell phones. A few months ago, one of my girlfriends was mugged in the same area on a Sunday afternoon. Thinking about all of these events has me really thinking about safety for runners and especially women. I typically don't carry ID with me when I run so I'm planning to order a Road ID this week. I'm also thinking about carrying pepper spray around.

As ridiculous as that may sound to some people, Saturday morning was a truly scary experience for me and I would rather be ridiculous and safe then ever have to go through anything like that again. I'm posting this, not to talk about what happened to me but as a warning that it doesn't matter where you live and how safe you think it might be, anything can happen and the proper safety precautions need to be in place.

So with that Public Service Announcement out of the way, I'll move on to the Loves and Don't Loves of this week:

1. Hurricane Tropical Storm Irene left New York City with very minimal damages and I, for one didn't lose power. I'm thankful that the storm didn't cause as much of a fury as predicted and I'm kind of glad the city shut down for a little bit. Love.
2. While I wasn't terribly affected by Irene, my family wasn't so lucky. While everyone is safe and has minimal damage to their homes, my mom sent me these pictures of what my home town looks like: Don't Love.

This is the main street in my town...

And this is the park that I usually run in.

3. I watched 3 movies off The Movie List this weekend while tucked away waiting out the storm. Love.
4. My gym was closed yesterday, the East River and West Side Highway paths were flooded and Central Park was closed (not that I would've been able to get to CP anyway) and I was scared to go run in the streets after what happened to me on Saturday so I missed yesterday's workout. I went 30 days without missing a single workout and a hurricane that wasn't changed that. Don't Love. 

The East River...one of my typical running routes

5. In advance of the storm, I moved my bed away from the window just in case my window blew open and ripped me apart in the middle of the night. While that clearly didn't happen, I decided I really like having my bed in the middle of the room, so I'm keeping it that way. Love.
6.The Pilot didn't make it home because of this hurricane nonsense so we're hanging on to this long-distance thing for a little longer. Don't Love.
7. So far, I love my new boss and my staff. This is definitely going to help me get over the fact that the last two bosses I've had have been horrible. Love.
8. I'm still not completely settled in my apartment and have two more boxes to unload and a trip home to pick up some more stuff. Don't Love.
9. But I love everything about my apartment. Love.