Friday Five - scary moments while running

Happy Friday! It's been a good week here and I'm looking forward to a fun weekend.  But first, it's time to link up with Courtney, Cynthia and Mar for the Friday Five.  Today, I'm going to talk about 5 scary moments I've had while running.  This topic came about because I went for a run this morning and had three scary moments in the course of a 3 mile run!

1. Scary people - Sadly, there have been lots of things in the news lately about people assaulted while they've been running.  I'm always nervous about this but when I'm running alone, I try to stick to areas that I know are pretty well populated.  I was running in my neighborhood this morning which has plenty of cars driving by and other people walking.  But I was still wary when it seemed like someone was following me at one point in my run.  I'm sure it was just coincidence and he turned off at an intersection to go a different way.  But I was definitely nervous for a bit.

2. Self-inflicted harm - I took a spill this morning.  It wasn't even while I was running but while I was doing my cool down walk afterward.  I should have known better but I was fiddling with my phone to sync my Garmin data.  And there was an uneven spot in the sidewalk, down I went.  Thankfully, I didn't really hurt myself.  A bit of a scrape and my ankle twinged a bit but stopped hurting once I walked it out a little.  I'm always worried about hurting myself and having to stop running to heal but thankfully today was no where near that level.

The culprit... well, that and my own clumsiness

3. Dogs - A lot of people are walking their dogs in the morning while I'm out for my run and they're all so cute.  But today, one of them lunged at me when I passed!  His owner had a tight hold on him and it was fine.  But in that moment, I didn't know and I swear my heart stopped for a second.  I passed them later in the run too and I paused, stepped off the sidewalk into the street, and gave them a wide berth.

4.  Random wildlife - I love running on the trails in this area and usually love seeing random wildlife.  There are a lot of rabbits and I've seen deer several times.  But for a bit last year, there was an owl that was attacking people on the Capital Crescent Trail!  The signs warning about the owl definitely made me nervous but thankfully I never actually saw it myself.

5. Creepy Crawlies - I'm not a fan of bugs and snakes.  There were a couple runs in Georgetown where I saw a lot of snake skins on the trail.  I guess it was the season where they molt.  I was jumpy every time I saw movement toward the edges of the pavement.  When I finally did see a snake, it was kind of anti-climactic.  He was pretty small and slithered his way across the trail minding his own business.  He had no interest in me at all.  And that was just fine with me!

So those were my 5 scary moments on the run.  Hopefully I can avoid more :)  Have you guys had any scary moments while running?

I hope everyone has a great weekend!