RCI General Running Safety Tips

• DON’T WEAR HEADPHONES. Use your ears to be aware of your surroundings. Your ears may help you avoid dangers your eyes may miss during evening or early morning runs.
• Run against traffic so you can observe approaching automobiles. By facing on-coming traffic, you may be able to react quicker than if it is behind you.
• Look both ways before crossing. Be sure the driver of a car acknowledges your right-of-way before crossing in front of a vehicle. Obey traffic signals.
• Carry identification or write your name, phone number, and blood type on the inside sole of your running shoe. Include any medical information.
• Always stay alert and aware of what’s going on around you. The more aware you are, the less vulnerable you are.
• Carry a cell phone or change for a phone call. Know the locations of public phones along your regular route.
• Trust your intuition about a person or an area. React on your intuition and avoid a person or situation if you’re unsure. If something tells you a situation is not “right”, it isn’t.
• Alter or vary your running route pattern; run in familiar areas if possible. In unfamiliar areas, such as while traveling, contact a local RCI or running store. Know where open businesses or stores are located in case of emergency.
• Run with a partner. Run with a dog.
• Write down or leave word of the direction of your run. Tell friends and family of your favorite running routes.
• Avoid unpopulated areas, deserted streets, and overgrown trails. Avoid unlit areas, especially at night. Run clear of parked cars or bushes.
• Ignore verbal harassment and do not verbally harass others. Use discretion in acknowledging strangers. Look directly at others and be observant, but keep your distance and keep moving.
• Wear reflective material if you must run before dawn or after dark. Avoid running on the street when it is dark.
• Practice memorizing license tags or identifying characteristics of strangers.
• Carry a noisemaker. Get training in self-defense.
• When using multi-use trails, follow the rules of the road. If you alter your direction, look over your should before crossing the trail to avoid a potential collision with an oncoming cyclist or passing runner.
• CALL POLICE IMMEDIATELY if something happens to you or someone else, or you notice anyone out of the ordinary. It is important to report incidents immediately

The RCI encourages our members and the press to reproduce and circulate these tips. Please be sure to acknowledge the RCI as your source for General Running Safety Tips.​

 

 

Fitness Challenge:

Eat five salads a day as part of your fitness challenge. You won’t believe what will happen next.

 

Week one: At first you may skeptical of the five salads a day thing, but you make up your mind and decide to give it a chance. You may feel bad when you are throwing away all the oily food. But within days, your persistent cough starts to go away:  You might have to spend little more time in chopping salad vegetables.  Avoid smoking and you can save money and save your self.

 

Week two: Once you switch to eating only locally-sourced produce, your senses begin to sharpen. Out in the yard, you smell the freshly-mown grass and regain your childlike sense of wonder and innocence.

 

Week three: You develop superpowers. You realize that, under the yellow sun of Earth, you can do things normal humans cannot:  run a mile in two minutes, lift a car bare-handed and log out of Facebook.

 

Week four: You leave your material body behind and become a being of pure consciousness. You are  plugged directly into the universe and have access to all frequencies of energy in all times.

 

Bonus: Your complexion has totally cleared up and you fit into your jeans from college again.