Geographic Fear

My running goal for this year is to move a lot of my running from the street onto trails. I have discovered I love running on trails so much more. Not only is it more of a challenge, since the terrain almost never consist of even mostly flat ground, but I just love the feeling of being in the woods. I have always liked hiking and this seems like just a faster version of it.
As soon as I sat that goal for myself, I couldn't ignore the pit in my stomach that came along with the idea of running alone on trails. To mind came comments I had heard from other runners in the region about never going for a run alone in a "wilderness like" area, as it isn't safe. Now I have to add that the area one person was talking about hadn't even struck me as something I would consider as "wilderness". I started to weigh my options. Should I find other trail runners to go with or should I stick to more populated areas to run in? The group thing doesn't really appeal to me at the moment for various reasons. First ,I often have to decide on a whim what time would be the best to go for a run, considering the needs of the rest of the family. Second, I don't necessarily want to interrupt my serenity of a trail run by taking somebody else with me, especially if it is somebody I have just gotten to know.
I began to wonder how "unsafe" the woods really are and started to search the internet for answers. What I came across was a term in a study done -- I think in Colorado--- in which several women where interviewed about their outdoor recreating habits. What struck a cord with me more than the interview answers was a term the authors of he study used "Geographic Fear". They went on to say that "Geographic Fear", unlike a fear that is backed up by data and hard evidence, is a perceived fear that women in our society have developed about certain geographic areas. Nobody can say, if this fear was purposefully indoctrinated into women over the time span of many centuries to make sure women would be emotionally inhibited from straying far from home or how it has developed over time, but throughout all the studies interviews it became apparent that most women carry such a fear. Even the women who did solo recreational activities carried that geographic fear of being alone in the "backcountry" with them. These women had developed a mechanism for themselves to deal with the fear in a way that would allow them still go out and do what they love.

A recent post through Runner World made me realize that I will probably never be able to get rid of the fear completely. Whenever I have a moment of absolute confidence an article like the one from runner Sherry, who got murdered in January on an early morning run, will make me worried. But Sherry was only one mile away from her house. And if I would let myself be afraid, because of such stories then according to this one, I soon wouldn't be straying from my house further than a mile away. And I am not willing to accept that any fear will keep in bound like that. So, I do what I can. First I am joining the call to run for Sherry next Saturday, a women who did not let any fear stop her from going for a run that morning.
And then I will embark on my on trail running journey and break the "geographic fear" boundary that was set for me. The fear will probably not go away, but I decided to count my fear fighting victories one at a time.

I will combine my fear with an opportunity to make my bland office cubicle more colorful and take a picture of every trail I run on this year, with a date and a trail name and hang it into my cubicle to remind me of my little victories.

Here is the first one: