Seattle Runner Escapes Attack By Using Self Defense
Kelly Herron was out on a 10-mile long run during her marathon training when she found herself fighting against an attacker.
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Seattle runner Kelly Herron was 4 miles into a 10-mile long run in Golden Gardens Park when she had to use the restroom. That’s where she was attacked.
“I stopped to use the restroom and was assaulted by a man hiding in a stall…” she wrote on Instagram. “I fought for my life screaming (“Not today, M**F**er!”), clawing his face, punching back, and desperately trying to escape his grip—never giving up.”
Those frantic red lines in the photo? That’s her GPS data from the attack.
Herron told ABC News that as she was drying her hands she turned around and saw a man come out of the stall—who the police identified as Arizona registered sex offender Gary Steiner—just before he attacked her. Steiner tackled her to the ground and held her down, but Herron fought back.
Herron had just taken a self defense class offered by her work and used what she learned to fight him off—locking him in a bathroom until the police came.
She received stitches and was bruised, but has since returned to her running route and according to her Instagram she “encourages women to never stop fighting and never stop running.”