Last March, Kelly Herron was four miles into her 10-mile long run in Seattle when a man attacked her in the public bathroom on the trail. She fought back physically, with the self-defense tools she learned at a class offered through her work just three weeks earlier, as she told Runner’s World in 2017.

The experience prompted her to start the platform Not Today Motherf***er (NTMF), which Herron said she created to share her own experience and provide general personal safety tips to women, especially around runner safety.

But the issue took another personal note on October 14, when Herron was racing the Girlfriends Run for a Cure Half Marathon in Vancouver, Washington. There, she was assaulted for the second time while running, she said.

Herron described the race as a beautiful course that was well-patrolled by cyclists and had a good police and volunteer presence. But by mile 12, participants were pretty spread out.

It was near mile 12—which she described as up a hill and around a blind corner, where the course transitions from the waterfront to a pathway—where she came upon a man on the side of the course.



“He was looking in my direction with a creepy look on his face, smiling like he knew me,” she said in an email to Runner’s World. “He took a few steps in my direction, and I kept running straight on the course, his arms were in a low-hug kind of position. He ran up to me and grabbed my rear end, full-on.”

The man ran in the opposite direction, and she said she had to make the decision whether she should keep running, or go after him. Herron decided to go after him—she did not want him to get away with it, or do the same thing to someone else.

“I sprinted after him, yelling, ‘Assault! Assault! Assault!’ hoping someone down the course would hear me,” she said.

Spectators saw the chase and called 911, according to a police report obtained by Runner’s World.

The man, who told police he was schizophrenic, according to the report, was taken into custody and arrested. According to Fox 12 Oregon, a mental health evaluation has been ordered for him, and he will appear back in court in December.

In the meantime, Herron is using what happened to her and her NTMF organization to help encourage other women who may have had similar experiences to speak out.

“[NTMF] also has enlightened me to how frequently this type of thing happens and goes unreported,” she said. “Once again, I hope to use this experience to show women that we do not have to ‘let it go,’ and only by reporting it can we hold these predators accountable for their actions and prevent it from happening to the next woman.”

Herron’s story is a sad reminder that these kinds of things are still worries for women running. In fact, according to , 54 percent of women runners said they are sometimes, often, or always concerned about being physically assaulted or the recipient of unwanted physical attention while on a run—and 3 percent say they have actually been grabbed, groped, or otherwise physically assaulted.

“I don’t think it is uncommon for a woman to experience harassment or assault more than once, especially runners who are logging high weekly mileage,” Herron said.

While Herron’s experiences may have made others shy away from running, she continues to look to the future—one that contains running front and center.

“There is power in sharing experiences because it helps other people to think about what they might do in a similar situation,” Herron said.

Following this race, she is looking ahead to training for the Honolulu Marathon in December and said this incident in no way derails her enthusiasm for running.



Jordan Smith Digital Editor Her love of all things outdoors came from growing up in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and her passion for running was sparked by local elementary school cross-country meets.

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