“You could try wearing more clothes. Running in shorts and a sports bra isn’t smart.” I wish this comment surprised me. Or that it was the first time I had seen such victim-blaming disguised as a well-intentioned remark.

A fellow runner received this “advice” after she posted on social media about a distressing experience during a run. The runner had noticed a group of men loitering in a parked car on an empty road next to a house.

Panic ensued. What were these men doing? Were they going to harm her? Could she escape, if necessary? Luckily, a moving van soon arrived, and it became clear the men were there for a job. The runner exhaled a sigh of relief and finished her run.

Dozens of other female runners are not as fortunate. Last month, 34-year-old cybersecurity professional Alyssa Lokits was murdered as she exercised on a recreational trail outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Before Alyssa’s killer shot her as she cried out for help, he emerged from behind two parked cars, followed her, and sexually assaulted her.

Alyssa deserved to finish her run. So did 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley, who was murdered in March as she ran on a track at the University of Georgia. Thirty-four-year-old educator and mother Eliza Fletcher should have finished her run, too. Eliza was kidnapped and killed in Memphis, Tennessee, in September 2022 as she ran near the University of Memphis campus.

Tragedies like Alyssa’s death have even happened in Maryland. Thirty-seven-year-old mother Rachel Morin was raped and murdered last August as she ran on the popular Ma & Pa trail in Harford County. Rachel deserved to finish her run and see her five children grow up.

As a female runner who has had harrowing experiences of my own, I am painfully aware of the dangers female runners face. I have been chased, harassed and had men expose themselves to me while running in the city where I live, Washington, D.C.

Every time I start my run, I worry my name will be added to the growing list of women who have been killed while practicing the sport they loved.

The nation’s capital is arguably one of the country’s most heavily surveilled, frequently patrolled cities.

Yet despite the significant police presence, 35-year-old government services chief of staff Wendy Martinez was murdered as she ran in a Northwest D.C. neighborhood in September 2018.

Wendy had become engaged a week before her death. Like Alyssa, Laken and Eliza, Wendy deserved to finish her run. She deserved to get married, too. Instead, Wendy was laid to rest in her unworn wedding dress.

I am heartbroken that another female runner has been murdered. I am angry that some people continue to believe the threats female runners face are invented, exaggerated or non-existent.

From late 2022 to early 2023, the global athletic brand Adidas surveyed 9,000 runners in nine countries to better understand runners’ attitudes about safety and running. Ninety-two percent of women surveyed reported feeling concerned about their safety. I am not at all shocked by this number.

I am frustrated that I, and the many other female runners who dare to practice their sport in public, can do everything right and still be attacked.

We run with pepper spray. We run with a retractable blade. We run during the day. We share our route with loved ones and tell them when they should expect us back home — the checklist of preventive measures is as exhausting as it is maddening.

We are going for a run, not to a warzone. Why should a female runner in America be equipped with enough gear to rival an Army Navy supply store? Because female runners are being hunted, targeted and stalked.

We shouldn’t need to suit up like Rambo whenever we lace up for a run. But we do.

Yet some people prefer to shift blame to the female runner instead of the perpetrator who has committed the heinous act. In the aftermath of Eliza Fletcher’s murder, online trolls were quick to blame her for running in a sports bra, just as the social media comment I mentioned above did.

It is never about the clothes. I have been bothered almost as often in frigid temperatures as in the insufferable humidity of the D.C. summer. I doubt my triple-insulated puffer jacket meant I was asking for it.

It is not about the time of day or the multitude of fill-in-the-blank whataboutisms, either. Alyssa Lokits was killed in broad daylight. As were Wendy Martinez and Laken Riley.

The knee-jerk reflex to victim-blame is a self-protection mechanism of sorts. I suppose it is easier for online trolls to imagine a female runner was responsible for her demise rather than to accept the reality that evil people will always do evil things if given a chance.

Running down the impossible list of what a murdered female runner should have done may make someone think they are less likely to meet the same fate, but it can happen to anyone, anywhere and anytime

“You shouldn’t run outside anymore,” my mom texted me after Alyssa’s death. She sends a similar message every time a female runner is killed. I refuse to give into fear. I won’t let the predators win.

Like Alyssa, Laken, Eliza and Wendy, I have goals. I plan to keep running and finish the run for each slain female runner who couldn’t.

Melissa A. Sullivan (melissa.sullivan.a@gmail.com) is a runner and a public affairs specialist for the federal government who lives in Washington, D.C.