Running from Trouble

 

"Running while Black" and navigating city streets as a female jogger both require more vigilance than I need to summon. But urban routes, particularly at my usual pre-dawn hour, do necessitate some heightened awareness of potential dangers. One morning last month it seemed like I hit for the cycle:

* Car turning right that I saw well before it saw me crossing the street so I bolted myself on the curb to let it pass (which it did without stopping even though there was a stop sign)

* A gaggle of college women up late, potentially tipsy, fanned out on the sidewalk so I had to squeeze myself onto gravel to get around them, while one of them remarked loudly "awfully weird time to be running"

* Dude toked up out of his mind who I approached from the rear and therefore chose to give wide berth to lest I startle him from his stupor

* Woman walking her dog but really checking her phone, meaning that if the dog sensed any sort of threat from me she might not have been able to restrain him, so I chose to run in the street parallel to them rather than get anywhere close to them

It doesn't matter if I'm not planning to harm any of these other humans or that I have right to my part of the pavement. The ultimate goal is to avoid trouble. 

Running for me is a time to zone out and think about nothing, or alternatively to process something going on in my life. But you do have to keep a least a little part of your brain on patrol.