I live on the beach, and frequently enjoy long beach walk/sprint sessions as a means of exercise and relaxation. Most days, I walk during the hot part of the day, when my brain ceases functioning anyway, but on busy work days, I'll sometimes go at night, usually around 10 pm or so. Last night, for the first time in 2 years, I had a very unpleasant encounter when some weirdo ran out from one of the unoccupied houses, grabbed me from behind, and tried to push me to the ground. If he was looking for money, it was a bad idea on his part, because who walks with cash on the beach? If he was looking for something else, he didn't get it, because after a nice struggle, I banged him on the head with my huge flashlight hard enough that he stumbled back and slipped on all the jellyfish and men-of-war that were scattered on the beach. That was all I needed to be able to sprint the 400 ft or so to the nearest lit house and call 911 on my cell phone. The cops showed up pretty fast, but the guy took off, so I'm left thinking about what I should do in the event there are not dead cnidarians on the beach to interfere with the balance of an attacker.
I am, of course, fine, just have some scratches on my face and arms and am a little sore. I know that some would say that I was asking for it for being out by myself at night, but I refuse to live my life in fear. I get a great deal of enjoyment out of my night beach or bayside walks, but I am open to suggestions as to what I might do to be safer. I am not going to carry a gun by the way (don't own one and feel no need to own one), and one of my friend's experience with mace/pepper spray has shown me that you are just as likely to get it into your eyes as those of your attacker, and still end up have been attacked.
I think a personal pocket alarm that would sound out loud like a dive alert might be useful. That would at least have gotten people in the lit houses out looking to see what was going on. The big mag light that I carried proved to be a good thing to have along, but I shudder to think what would have happened had the attacker gotten it away from me (a strong person could kill someone with one of those mega mags).
Other suggestions?
Edited by lgrahamtx, 07 March 2006 - 08:13 AM.