by Jimmy Ettele

Created on: July 09, 2008

You've got your new Nike CrossTrainers tied tightly. Your iPod shuffle has the first season soundtrack from the O.C. cued up. You have the pedometer ready to count your every step and your outfit still has the smell of some third world country's sweat shop on it. You are ready to conquer the streets and roads of your development or city one jogging trot at a time. But as you are monitoring your heartbeat, are you monitoring your safety?

Your unscarred shoe soles are entering public streets which can offer a jogger some safety pitfalls if you get to engrossed with hitting that six minute mile.

We have people navigated two tons of steel and aluminum on public roads. Mostly we have poor navigators on public roads. Teenagers more interested in texting their boyfriends or girlfriends, the third shift workers who are making their way home with heavy eyelids, commuters trying not to be late to work again while they try to apply makeup, talk on the cell phone, smoke a cigarette, eat breakfast, shave, and find something appealing to listen to on the morning commute. They have airbags and three point shoulder harnesses to protect them in the event of a ten mile per hour crash with your pelvis. You? You have mesh shorts and fruit of the looms.

While taking your pre-dawn jog through some of the city's less traveled roads, you find yourself jogging in some of the more crime prone areas, by yourself. The day's light has not yet hit it's high and you have just passed two consecutive abandoned buildings and a dark alley. You are now considered chum to the criminal sharks occupying these roads.

Most suburban roads are littered with those cute squirrels that seem to mind their own business. Have you ever run into one that has just the hint of foam around their teeth and eyes that look possessed? Jog in less urban roads and more rural roads and the dangers of nature can be multiplied not to mention the owner of that loud pitbull that scares you just a little with it's bark every morning. What happens when the pitbull isn't chained properly and decides his morning breakfast should begin with a healthy helping of your thigh? This may not seem like a huge concern to most, but certainly is a reality on the roads of America.

Being from Pennsylvania, I am proud to be from a state in our great republic that has roads with more bruises than Ike Turner's wife. Potholes abound! Step in the Sea of Tranquility unknowingly and not only will your mid-morning jog be over but you will get to experience the wonders of a hospital emergency room for the rest of the day.

Walking down today's roads has it's dangers. Jogging down them is no different. Cars, criminals, wild animals, an unseen pothole that turns an ankle into a fracture. These are the things you may potentially face as you sweat out last nights happy hour on your jog. Certainly the threat of danger to our persons can lurk around any lampost or street corner we happen to trot past. Does this mean you cease the workouts? It means that along with the proper stretching exercises, foot apparel, and choice of music, we need just be mindful of the other potential situations that are jogging next to us tomorrow morning.

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