Personal safety tips for runners, joggers and walkers

Safety Tips for Runners, Joggers and Walkers

If you are a person who enjoy running, jogging or walking you can be susceptible to criminal attack. One of the problems with these activities is that you can become so preoccupied in your physical activity that you fail to be alert and pay attention to your surroundings.

Sometimes you may become too busy concentrating how much further you have to go and on putting one foot in front of the next that you don’t
realize what is happening around you.

The following are a series of personal safety tips for joggers and runners:

Run, jog or walk with a known companion.
Run, jog or walk in a familiar area.
Do not run, jog or walk in a heavily wooded, poorly lighted or secluded area.
Particularly if running, jogging or walking alone, don’t wear radio or recorder earphones.
Do not run, jog or walk after dark.
Do not run, jog or walk near bushes, which can provide concealment.
Wear bright colored clothing to improve your visibility.
Vary your route and pattern of running, jogging or walking.
Carry a whistle or high decibel battery powered personal alarm device when you run, jog or walk.
If followed, go to the nearest residence, open business or group of people.
Carry your motor vehicle and/or home key with you.

Defense Against Dogs
Joggers or runners often encounter what either may be or appear to be an unfriendly dog.

If such an encounter does occur, the following measures are encouraged:

When encountered by a threatening dog, the impulse is to often turn and run. This can be the worst response, however, since such movement can trigger the chase instinct in dogs.
Stand very still and attempt to be calm.
Don’t scream at the dog and run.
Be aware of where the dog is. Look in its general direction, but don’t stare into its eyes. This can be considered an aggressive challenge to a dog.
Let the dog sniff you.
In a low voice say, “No! Go home!”
Stay still until the dog leaves.
Back away slowly until it is out of sight.
If a dog does attack, try to “feed” it your workout jacket or other item of clothing.
If you are knocked down or call, curl into a ball and keep your hands over your ears and face. Try not to scream or roll around.

Source: UT San Antonio /reference “The Complete Campus Crime Prevention Manual” by The AEGIS Protection Group.