Last night women packed into Bakery Square to hear self-defense expert Craig Douglas discuss a topic we all know about, but frequently want to ignore... because it's uncomfortable and makes us uneasy... and it's scary. Douglas talked about women being attacked while running.
Pittsburgh Marathon has held some really stellar sessions for participants over the past few weeks. I attended the injury prevention clinic in January and the nutrition clinic earlier this month. (I didn't get to blog it in a timely fashion because of life events that came up.) There is an excellent blog post over at InsideUPMC covering the main topics from the nutrition clinic.
The self-defense event launched into the tough stuff right away with a real victim and her very, very real story.
After learning her story, we couldn't help but feel.
Feel angry or sad that it happened.
Feel angry or sad that women have to worry about these things.
Feel angry or sad that every woman--mother, grandmother, sister, friend, aunt, cousin, daughter, granddaughter--could feel threatened or be attacked at some point in her life.
The good thing is that anger and sadness can motivate us. We can feel compelled to act, to do something. As long as we don't allow ourselves to feel helpless, we can learn from what has happened and, hopefully, learn how to protect ourselves.
That's what Douglas was there to help with. Awareness, he said, is a state of flux. When we're running, we're often paying attention to multiple things--our bodies, breathing, music, worries, temperature, people we might be talking to... But we need to be aware of what's going on around us.
Showing posts with label self defense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self defense. Show all posts
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