Should Women Let the Dangers of Running Alone While on Vacation Stop Them From Exploring the World?

I’m a woman who loves to travel and loves to run, so I was very distressed to hear of two separate cases of women disappearing during daytime runs while vacationing in Greece. Both of the women were on different Greek islands on solo runs in broad daylight. Sadly, the bodies of both women were found several days after each went missing. One died after being violently attacked by a man, and the other apparently fell to her death by accident off a steep embankment down into a ravine.

Both cases broke my heart and sickened me, but the woman who was violently attacked keeps returning to my thoughts for so many reasons. Suzanne Eaton was visiting the Greek island for a conference and went for a run every day to take in the sights of the beautiful setting. Like me, she was a woman who used running as a means of exploring the places she visited; like me, she was a woman in her fifties; and like me, she was a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. So what separates me from her, and what can I do differently to avoid the same fate?

Many of my favorite memories from my travels around the world involve the runs I’ve taken wherever I go. Running even proved to be an invaluable form of transportation on one particular trip to the UK. I brought my family to the small town in…