
A female journalist has shared the terrible reason she's stopped running alone on Twitter, and it makes for depressing reading.
Alanna Vagianos is a Huffington Post women's reporter, who covers gender issues, feminism and social justice, and on August 24, she took to social media platform Twitter to share the reason she no longer runs alone.
In a string of tweets, she said that she'd decided to share her story in light of the horrific murder of young female jogger Mollie Tibbets.
Tibbets was a 20-year-old Iowa University student who went missing after an evening jog on the evening of July 18, sparking an extensive month-long search in the region.
Her mutilated body was found on August 22, in a cornfield, hidden under cornstalks. 24-year-old illegal Mexican immigrant Cristhian Bahena Rivera was arrested in relation to her murder, after he confessed to following her on her run.
In a moving thread of tweets, the journalist shared why she no longer runs alone.
This is the last place I ran alone & carefree. A thread on Mollie Tibbetts and running alone as a woman. https://t.co/3V3XT28YUI— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121236
I didn’t always love running. It wasn’t until I got to college that I realized just how helpful it was for my mental health.— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121263
When I got depressed, instead of smoking a cigarette I would run (err, most of the time). I put my headphones in, s… https://t.co/NXkrt0PGe8— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121374
It was the best form of self care I knew at the time.— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121389
During my last year at school, I was napping on a Wednesday afternoon (as college kids do) when a man attempted to… https://t.co/1ZaNksVHum— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121399
The police later asked if I was a runner and if I ran the same route. Of course I did, I’m a creature of habit.— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121416
I didn’t realize running the same route could cost me the peace of mind of being able to sleep on a first floor ever again.— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121450
I graduated and moved to LA. And that city just made my depression so much fucking worse. So I ran. A lot. Like a s… https://t.co/GvHXitep6L— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121472
I lived near the UCLA campus so most of the people around me were students. Aside from a few catcalls, I ran for mo… https://t.co/lopaZx5t0f— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121490
A few months later I moved to NYC. I had stopped running in the midst of a new job & the stresses of realizing I wa… https://t.co/fUVq1SPStc— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121620
I ran the same route six days in a row. On the seventh night someone tried to break into my second floor apartment… https://t.co/YwQcPaAGOz— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121657
I will never know if the break in happened bc some random person thought my window was the easiest to get into or i… https://t.co/KCiL3XKZTr— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121752
Any woman who calls herself a runner knows just how terrifying the Mollie Tibbetts story is. The lengths that women… https://t.co/aT3dY82kXU— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121787
*Also let me reiterate that the Mollie Tibbetts murder is not about immigration, it's about toxic masculinity and a… https://t.co/b3SNBExhlE— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535132643
I found out a few years after that first break in that my sister was almost abducted by a few guys in a van while s… https://t.co/wj0l4J7fjF— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121872
Yesterday, my friend told me her mom stopped running after dark & bought an elliptical machine after her best frien… https://t.co/6EqiU0mbFG— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535121906
I live on the 29th floor now. I keep a baseball bat by my bed. I still don’t sleep very well. And I don’t really run anymore.— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535122127
Tibbetts had every right to run on her own. This is not a commentary on her actions, but a reflection on how the ep… https://t.co/2FWFUoVq3H— Alanna Vagianos (@Alanna Vagianos) 1535122109
Other women were supportive, and also shared their stories.
@BenAllain @lannadelgrey If you have female runner friends - ask them if they need a running partner. In college, o… https://t.co/RbG82P9tvP— Lena Blietz (@Lena Blietz) 1535144126
@lannadelgrey No matter what time of day I run with a stun gun made for runners. Today, I went on a run at 2:30 pm… https://t.co/hUs8y42yGj— Your majesty🌱 (@Your majesty🌱) 1535148369
@lannadelgrey I used to walk/run in a beautiful park with my husband almost every evening. The first time I walked… https://t.co/Ta0bkKqcIN— Charlene E. (@Charlene E.) 1535133657
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