Thursday, March 8, 2012

Could There Bmore Pervs in This City?

From waking up in the morning to finding people brewing coffee on our stoops to being heckled by an angry homeless woman in Canton Square, we are all aware of the oddities and the risks of life in Baltimore. I had yet another experience on Thursday morning and I thought I would share with the group. A younger me might have been disturbed by this, but having lived in Baltimore for six years I’ve already been robbed of my innocence seven different ways until Sunday.

My run started out like any other Thursday morning medium-long run. I left from my apartment just behind Penn Station and headed west down Falls Road. The plan was, as usual for a ten mile run from my apartment, to go down Falls Rd, up the switch-back, past the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus up to Gilman high school and back.

Enjoying the warm weather and signs of an early spring I was starting to feel overdressed and considered taking off my Tee shirt and hiding it in a bush to retrieve on my way back. But I was wearing one of my favorites and I’ve already had two shirts stolen from me while doing this in the area so I decided against it.

I crossed over Falls Rd and started to wind up the switchback to link up with Wyman Park Drive. When I started up the second ramp a saw a man standing at the top facing toward Falls Road. He appeared to be holding some sort of stick or umbrella out in front of him. As I drew closer I realized that his head was facing in my direction and he was wearing a black ski mask. I continued up the ramp. Our eyes locked then my gaze shifted down only to discover that what I thought was an umbrella was in fact the largest un-photo-shopped piece of male anatomy I have ever seen. I looked up. Our eyes met again. I looked back down to notice some aggressive hand movements. Now I was at the top of the ramp, about three feet away from him. I turned the corner and headed up the next ramp.

With my back turned, the image of what I had just seen started to process. Was he really doing what I thought he was? There was only one way to be sure. I turned and looked over my shoulder. He had continued to turn his head to keep me in his sight. One more time my eyes made contact with his through the slits in his black ski mask. Yep, it was exactly what it looked like. I turned and kept running. Or was it? I couldn’t stop myself; I turned around again. Yep, still happening. EWWW. I reached the top of the ramp and made a right toward the Homewood campus.

I think it is important to emphasize that there were no threats or harm done. It was just gross. This was an exhibitionist, not a sexual predator (although it is not unusual for the former to precede or co-occur with the later). Still, it’s easy to get comfortable and let our guards down running on the same familiar routes day after day and I thought it was worth posting as a reminder (especially to the ladies) to be alert and cautious out there.

7 comments:

Sara B said...

Sorry you had to experience this! And thanks for the reminder to be more aware and take extra steps to be safe. I know I'm guilty of compromising my safety sometimes, especially when it comes to when and where I run. Thanks for posting this, it was a good reminder

cheese said...

we were just talking about monument street track and how safe it is the other day...

by the way, i call this a "rusty scupper". i'll give you one guess why, and here's a hint - don't ever sit on the benches by rash field.

David Ploskonka said...

You mean it was that big, and you weren't instantly turned on? (Sorry, it was just kind of hanging there . . . um, no pun intended . . . okay, I'll just stop talking about that now.)

But seriously, thanks for sharing. As often as I run on bad streets, and as current as my "hood pass" seems to be, there have still been a few times when I felt a little uncomfortable, including one time recently when a "play" mugging almost got real, and I quickly crossed to the other side of Monument Street to avoid being ganged-up-on and beaten by four high-school boys. Admittedly, I was wearing "regular" clothes (this was running back from my house on the way back from the Falls Road Running service project at the soup kitchen, ironically enough), so I looked like a target, even though I didn't actually have my wallet.

Anyway, the point of all of that is, seconding your point for everybody to stay alert at all times, and try not to make yourself look like a target for a crime, because you never know when a seemingly harmless situation might get dangerous . . .

the kris said...

wait, somebody steals your shirts? this used to be such a nice town...

the kris said...

...also, i saw somebody doing the same thing on a bench at the harbor. without a ski mask. with porn.

c-rad said...

Is this a bad time for me to propose the new slogans I've been working on for the store?

(1) Falls Road. Run hard.

(2) Falls Road. In your face.

(3) Falls Road. Preparing you for those long ones out on the road.

And my personal favorite...

(4) Falls Road. We ejaculate on the competition.

All kidding aside, I have two younger sisters and aside from fearing for their safety knowing there are people like this out there, I find it infuriating. I advocate for running with a friend whenever possible (and that the friend is preferably Lorena Bobbitt).

Christy said...

In the harbor too? I thought this was an isolated incident, but now it's starting to sound like an epidemic. I hope it's not contagious.