Women & Warmshowers/ couchsurfing

[OakLeaf]

It occurred to me on my run today that at that moment I was really no less vulnerable than the situations you're thinking about getting into. It's not that I run anywhere remote or terribly far from home as miles go, but most of the roads I run on have very little traffic (like, once I get off the county roads, I usually don't see any cars at all), half a mile or more between houses, cover of woods, etc. When I travel, I often run in industrial parks adjacent to the hotel, after hours and pretty deserted. If someone wanted to do me harm, no one would ever find me. But I've never had an issue and it really isn't something I worry about. I leave my route up on my computer where DH could find it if there was a problem, and let him know roughly how long I expect to be out, but that's it. So if it's safe experiences from solo women you're looking for, I think that counts.


ETA: I get that when you're naked in the shower in a stranger's house, it feels way more vulnerable psychologically than when you're outside fully clothed. But in terms of actual ability to alert someone within earshot, or escape from the situation, not so much. That's what I was getting at, just pointing out that if you've gone somewhere that has neighbors and an address and texted that address to your loved ones, you're already way ahead of "well by this time she was probably on one of these four township roads," or any number of situations you are regularly on while day-riding, too.

But +1 on the SPOT, more for crashes on the road really than for eleven o'clock news kind of things. I insist DH take his when he's riding his moto long distance alone, and he's on a maillist where stories of people having been found via their SPOT trackers are fairly common. I keep thinking I should bring it on my runs, again not so much for intentional situations but just in case I'd be hit by a car, or just fall the wrong way into a ditch. But so far I haven't been carrying it - it's kind of heavy for running (though honestly it would just be one more thing along with the two liters of water, several gels, phone, Epi-Pen and the pepper spray I started carrying after I was bitten by two dogs within ten days earlier this summer).