Prepare for your Fears

You know how you continue to procrastinate certain things in your life, saying “oh, I’ll do it tomorrow” or “I would rather watch Netflix than come home from working on a computer all day to continue typing”? Hopefully you don’t know this feeling, but I’ve basically found excuses to not write a blog post for almost 365 days. Oops!

During that time I have thought of countless topics to write about. In fact I have written about 20 blog posts in my head while running...they just never made it into Google Docs after the run. This blog post is not one of those 20 though. This post is about fear and how I am working on not being paralyzed by legitimate fears.

*Life update* Since my last post I have raced a few more XTERRA’s, started a new job in UT and moved to Page, AZ for said job, and started running a lot...for fun.

Page, AZ is a hot tourist destination and a hub for people visiting parks like the Grand Canyon, Zion, Antelope Canyon, etc. It is gorgeous in its own way but very desolate in the winter. Verrrryyyyy desolate. It was quite a change from Boulder, CO where it almost feels like everyone you meet exercises excessively :).

Here we begin with Fear #1: Being a female runner alone in the dark with no cell phone service and no idea who you may encounter. Two-legged creatures frequently frighten me more than four-legged ones. Early morning runs alone with my headlamp on extensive BLM land with no cell service made me feel so exposed - everyone could see me, but I could only see the small radius illuminated in front of me.

There was one instance where I stumbled upon someone’s camp in the middle of the desert. The man was standing outside of his truck, arms crossed and staring me down as I ran by only feet away from him. I tried to acknowledge his presence (I read somewhere that was a good tactic if someone is following you??), by saying “Hi, good morning!” The only response was his piercing eyes staring me down. I thought maybe he didn’t hear me?? I tried again, “how’s it going?” and still no response, just a dagger of a stare while his dog was barking like a wild animal in the truck. I SPRINTED AWAY. I felt lucky to get out unscathed but I was nervous in my own home for days...what if he had followed me? Does he know where I live?

These are some of the precautions I became more diligent about taking:

• Make Strava activities private, change my route frequently
• Always carry pepper spray or some sort of defense mechanism
• Always tell someone (co-worker) where I am going to run/ride and when I should return home

Moving on to Fear #2: 4-legged and 0-legged creatures, aka, mountain lions and rattlesnakes. While riding on the Arizona Trail last weekend I climbed up to about 7000 ft and it felt so nice to be surrounded by Colorado-esque scenery again. But, once I entered the forest foliage I suddenly felt like I was also entering mountain lion territory. Cougars are terrifying to me. I mean, they stalk you and then you might not even know one is around until it is already pouncing. The thought of cougars were only magnified by the lack of other humans, I didn’t see a single person in 2.5 hours of riding, and the lack of cell phone service (common theme out here).

The day before, I had wanted to conquer one of the summits in the Grand Canyon but turned around from what would have been an epic adventure because I was so scared of rattlesnakes! I have already seen a couple snakes while running and knowing that you have limited time to seek medical attention if bitten is alarming when you are stuck inside a gigantic canyon.

I hate feeling like these fears are holding me back from exploring my backyard! So step one of overcoming these fears was to learn more about the attacks that occur and about the animals themselves. Then, learn precautions I can take. Google and some of my adventure guide friends at work helped me on both fronts.

Mountain Lions

• Making noise may avoid you running into a lion and surprising it
• Run/ride in groups
• If you encounter a mountain lion DO NOT RUN/RIDE AWAY!!!
• Make yourself look large and talk firmly to the lion, show them you are not prey (there are YouTube videos of people talking down mountain lions)
• Bear spray may be a deterrent if you can spray them in the face (there is a YouTube video of a runner doing this, I’d say it’s a solid $30 investment)
• Putting googly eyes on the back of your pack/helmet may deter attacks as the lion may think you already see them and that they have lost the element of surprise - I researched this further as my friend told me this was based off of Bengal tigers in Africa - the news article is intriguing: link

Rattlesnakes

• Most active in early morning, evening, night
• Will sense the vibrations of your steps and likely move away before you see them
• Despite being very venomous, they will warn you when you are getting too close (rattle)
• If you are bitten, seek medical attention immediately (obviously) but DO NOT buy the bogus rattlesnake bite kits or try to suck out the venom or try to cut it out, just get to the hospital ASAP and stay calm to try to slow the flow of venom

Learning about the animals has made me a *bit* less afraid. My adventure guide friends have never seen a mountain lion out here and said rattlesnakes really shouldn’t be an issue if I am keeping an eye out for them. I will also add that Tony and I purchased a satellite phone and tracker since I generally don’t have reliable service here. Regardless, I will not be riding this particular section of the AZT without Tony anymore. I hope this helps you in your adventures! My best advice is to learn more about what you are afraid of to feel more prepared and informed.

From one of my Grand Canyon adventures!