A day I won't soon forget
This is a true story.
It was the summer of 1997, August 23 to be exact. It was a very warm day and as usual I decided to do my run later in the day because of the heat. I can't remember all that I did that day, but I do remember making my son a homemade birthday cake. It was his 15th birthday.
Quite often that time of night, around 6 pm, my husband and I would run together. It was still quite light out and cooling off so it should be a good run I was thinking. Since he was anxious to go, and I wasn't ready I told him just to go on ahead, and I'd see him on the road.
Bang, went the screen door. He was out and running, and I would be soon. I most likely would see him when he doubled back and depending on how I felt I would continue on or turn around and run home with him.
I was planning on doing 8, but if I felt good would go down Dole's Ridge and tack on another mile down and back. It would give me a 10 miler. Since I was feeling good and it was a good running night, it most likely would be 10 that night.
The run felt good and I decided to extend my run so I turned left to go down Dole's Ridge. The road with only a few houses on it was fairly well traveled as a development, and a big one at that, could be found a few miles further down from where I'd be turning around. In all I would only run by two homes about a half mile apart.
I had no thoughts or cares as I ran. Most likely just thinking about my son's birthday party. It would just be us, the immediate family. I was expecting no company that night.
Just before I was to turn around and head back home a man in a purple shirt jumped out of the bushes. He had on a red ski mask over his face. It was like a winter hat with the nose, eyes and mouth cut out.
I stopped and said, "What are you doing?" I thought it was my husband playing a trick on me. It was his favorite thing to do....push my buttons.
I got no answer. He came forward, putting his hands on my shoulders trying to force me backwards.
Then I knew. This was not my husband. I knew I was in trouble. Big trouble. We started to wrestle as he tried to pull me into the wooded area. No homes around, no cars going by, this was not good.
As we wrestled, I was trying to grab the mask off to reveal his face. The whole time I'm talking a blue streak telling him he was not going to get away with this. He said nothing. He was quiet the whole time.
At one point, I fell on my back hitting the hard asphalt surface. I tried to kick him in the groin. I think I did, but I had a really hard time doing so. It really bothered me. Maybe it was because I had two brothers and three sons. Looking back I know I was too gentle in that kick if you even want to call it that.
Somehow I ended back on my feet and he got me in a headlock. We scuffled some more and then I was really scared. He was making progress in moving me closer to the woods. We were now on the side of the road where the dirt shoulder is and I was doing all I could to squirm and fight my way out of that headlock.
All of a sudden he let me go. It was so sudden I almost fell backward. I started to run. I cannot begin to tell how good this freedom felt to me. I ran like I've never run before.
As I turned to run I heard him say the only words he uttered the whole time, "Go ahead and run."
Run I did. I knew there was a half a mile to go to get to a house. As I started to run, within seconds a car was approaching me. I must have looked wild. I waved my hands and made them stop. I was in the middle of the road. They had no choice. I went to the passenger side and told the man and woman inside that I had just been attacked. They looked very scared.
"Can you drive up ahead and see if you can see him?" I asked. I wanted nothing more than this man to be caught. They said they would and they drove off. I continued on my run.
Within seconds I was again terrified. Why didn't I get in their car? What if he runs out of the woods ahead of me? It was just like those scary movies I hate to watch. The whole time I'm running I'm talking aloud....."Thank you God. Thank you God. Thank you God"
One thing I wasn't thinking about was the fact that one can run faster on the road then one can through thickly wooded areas. I was also not giving myself credit for the fact that I could run a 7 minute mile and this young heavyset man could most likely not keep up with me. I didn't think about this until much later. I was so scared he was coming after me.
Within minutes I was running into someone's driveway screaming "I've been attacked, call the police." Of course they did so immediately. With a few minutes there were state troopers, dogs, and helicopters all over the place.
I was pretty banged up. My elbow and arm were totally scratched and bleeding and I had a lump on the back of my head when I hit the ground. I never felt that at the time. Now both my arm and head were throbbing.
When I told the police it felt like we were in this struggle for a good 10 minutes he said most likely the whole thing lasted only a minute of two. He had a name for it which escapes me now but it's quite common in traumatic situations. I remember thinking as I was fighting that I felt like I was in one of those 911 shows I've seen on TV so many times before.
By the time I reached this house it had already reached dusk, and I was wondering how they would be able to find this man. As I was sitting there with ice to the head answering questions one of the policemen came up to deliver what they had found at the site of the attack.
They saw skid marks coming out of a dirt road that led into the woods. I guess it was an old logging road that led down to the river. It looked like he took off in a hurry.
They also saw evidence of quite a scuffle in the dirt leading into the woods. They shook their heads in amazement when they discovered that most likely the attacker lost his grip on me when he stumbled over this little shoot of a root coming out of the ground. While they couldn't believe it, I could. I felt I was being protected the whole time. I knew I had help. I was 5'2, 110 pounds fighting off what I guessed to be about 5'9 and 160-170 pounds. How could I do this by myself?
By about this time my husband showed up in bare feet. He had just come home and was getting supper started when he got the call from the trooper. He dropped everything not even taking the time to put shoes on. He looked a wreck. Normally not very serious, he looked very somber now. His guilt was overwhelming and for days he could hardly speak.
After some time of questioning by the troopers, we went home and there on the table was my son's birthday cake I had finished before the run. It felt like days had passed when I last left the house. The rest of the night was a blur. Everything felt so surreal to me. I could hardly believe I made it out of that situation and was able to sit there and celebrate my son's 15th birthday after all that had just happened. I felt blessed.
The next day, my husband decided to go down and check the site out for himself. For some reason he had to deal with this and it was just like him to face this head on. He saw the disrupted dirt and could follow the scuffle marks along the shoulder. As he looked he could see what looked like an opening into the woods and discovered this was a path. He followed it in to discover a big tree and at the base of it........a roll of duct tape with the ends folded up and read to use.
Of course he ran home and we called the police once again. They came, looked at the situation, and took the tape for evidence. They said most likely this guy knew who I was and may have been watching me for quite some time.
Again I felt blessed. I gave all the credit to God.
For days afterwards there were signs put up along the road near where the attack took place.. They said things like "I love you." and after we moved, "I miss you." Each time a sign would go up someone in the neighborhood would call the troopers. We had no idea if they were connected to the crime or not. But if not, it was an eerie coincidence nonetheless. We never found out. They guy was never caught. Two weeks later we moved away to our new home. I was about 45 minutes away now and I felt much safer.
I almost stopped running. Then I got mad. I didn't feel I should let this sorry excuse for a man take my joy away. I decided to keep on running. I ran with pepper spray for a year. I do not go down lonely roads to run anymore unless I'm with another runner. I am much more aware of my surroundings.
The people in the car? I never heard from them again. They never contacted the police. The incident was both in the local news, not only that night but all the next day , and in the local Sunday Paper. I guess they didn't want to get involved.
This was just the beginning. The next few weeks gave me a really close look at how the police department works when they have no suspect and it wasn't pretty. But that's another story. In the meantime......I still feel blessed. Thank you God.