How not to get your ass kicked on a run

On Monday, I wrote about a semi-fictional scenario where a runner is about to be attacked by some local dumbasses. In that article, I introduced Condition Orange, which is one of the four colors of Col. Jeff Cooper’s Color Code of Preparedness, now commonly referred to as the Color Code of Awareness.

What is the Code? In short, it describes various states of mental awareness to your environment. You’ll find the term bandied about in the self-defense community as preludes to a fight. In my 24 years as a martial artist I’ve come across several versions of the Code, but, before I show you why you should give a shit as an endurance athlete, let me share Cooper’s original version with you.

Cooper’s Color Code of Preparedness

• Condition White: In White you are unprepared and unready to take lethal action. If you are attacked in White you will probably die unless your adversary is totally inept.
• Condition Yellow: In Yellow you bring yourself to the understanding that your life may be in danger and that you may have to do something about it.
• Condition Orange: In Orange you have determined upon a specific adversary and are prepared to take action which may result in his death, but you are not in a lethal mode.
• Condition Red: In Red you are in a lethal mode and will shoot if circumstances warrant.

Hak’s Color Code of Awareness
I don’t take credit for what is to follow. It is an amalgamation of concepts I’ve learned from my instructors, colleagues, students and direct experience. Let’s see how we can adapt the Code to the endurance athlete from Monday’s story.

• Condition White (Duh?): This is the condition most of us live in 80 percent of the time. Were you ever so engrossed in a book or TV program that you tuned out the outside world? That is Condition White. You don’t have a friggin’ clue what’s going on around you. You are focused on the endless inner chatter of your brain. This is the driver yakking on his cell phone who sideswipes the car next to him because he didn’t see it move into the lane. It’s the woman fumbling with her car keys, worrying about her to-do list, not noticing the guy walking up behind her in the parking lot. It’s our endurance athlete zoning out to her iPod, mostly unaware of her immediate environment. The only place to be in Condition White is in your own home.

• Condition Yellow (Relaxed Awareness): This is the condition where we should be. You are not paranoid that the mailman is going to go, well, postal on you. You simply pay attention to your environment. You note to youself, “Hey, there’s the mailman.” Sounds simple, right? It’s very difficult to do in practice. Later on, I’ll share some exercises that should help you develope this situational awareness. For our driver, he’s put his cell phone away and is noticing the traffic in a 360-circle of awareness and his relationship to that traffic…vehicular and pedestrian.Our parking lot lady has her car key already in hand and notices that there is a guy loitering two rows down from her car.The runner has unplugged from her iPod and is continuously scanning her environment. From Monday’s story, she notices the white sedan drive by, slow down and park ahead of her.My friends, when you walk out your front door, you’d better be in Condition Yellow.

• Condition Orange (Possible Uh-Oh Ahead): Here is where life has the potential to get very interesting for you. Something, or someone, has now popped up on your radar as having the capability of causing you grief. It may never happen, but it’s presenting enough of a concern that you start focusing your attention in its direction.The driver notices an oncoming car nudging out in the median to make a turn in front of him. Is that car a potential threat? You betcha.As our parking lot lady walks to her car, she notices the loiterer starts walking on what appears to be an intercept course. Does he want to give her a car detailing coupon or stick a knife in her face and grab her wallet? Either way, he is now a person of interest.The iPod runner sees four men exit the white sedan and start walking her way. They could care less about her or they may have something more sinister in mind.With Condition Orange, you’ve gone from active observation (Condition Yellow) to focused attention. This is a great time to start running “what if” scenarios in your mind. What if the car pulls a left turn in front of me? I should move over a lane to give myself some more space. What if the parking lot guy is after me? I’ll make a hard right turn and head toward another row to see if he follows me. What if the guys from the white sedan are up to no good? I’ll cross the street to see if they alter their direction.By running these scenarios before they happen, you will have options. If someone does A, then I do B. It’s not if someone does A, I’m a fucked over deer in the headlights with my last thought on Earth being “This can’t be happening to me.”
• Condition Red (This is Going to Hurt): It is now enevitable that you, and/or your new friend, is going to get fucked up. Do you walk away from the incident with your honor intact or do you get a county-paid trip to the morgue? The car that looked like it was going to make a left turn in front of you does. The guy following you in the parking lot follows your change of direction and picks up his pace. Likewise, the white car gang crosses the street to follow you. This is the point where you take evasive action or if you’re ballsy, and can back it up, postive offensive action.

• Condition Black (Can I Survive?): You are now in the thick of the fight. The starting gun has fired. Our driver has hit the car that pulled out in front of him. The parking lot lady is fighting off the mugger. The iPod runner is putting her Nikes to good use and is hauling ass away from the bad guys who are in hot pursuit. Or, perhaps she is putting her C2 to good use or is using her BGBG stick to unleash holy hell on anyone scumbag within arm’s reach. No matter what it is, you want to do your best to never, ever, be in Condition Black. Ever.

The time it takes to go from Condition White to Condition Black could be the snap of a finger or minutes. You just never know. I do know that it takes longer to move from Condition White and orient yourself to what’s going on in your world. This is why I, along with others, advocate flipping on your Condition Yellow switch anytime you leave your home.

You can see how these ramped up states of awareness can not only help you avoid trouble in the first place, they also help speed up your decision-making ability in times of a crisis. Hell, the Color Code of Awareness doesn’t even need to be used for self-defense. Use it to identify hazards on the mountain bike trail or the next time you sit behind the wheel of a car.

A special message for the Pink Pony Brigade
I realize that there are some folks who have bothered to read this far and think I’m full of paranoid shit. You’ve probably never been threatened in your life (by human, animal or inanimate object) and believe the world would a better place if everyone had a pink pony. If so, then please explain that to Meredith Emerson, this Scottish teenage jogger, this Kansas runner, or this jogger from Bloomington. (Note that these are all recent)

Better yet, why not take Richard Gillmore out for a cup of coffee and a moonlight jog to discuss how his “problems” could be resolved by a pink pony.

After the Virginia Tech shootings last year, one of our local academics went on the air to say we should focus our resources on why the crazies commit crimes. Focusing on defending ourselves or improving security was a waste of time to this genius.

To the Pink Pony Brigade and the academic thinkers who live in the fifth Color Code Condition, Condition Brown (head up their ass), perhaps the “black box” concept might be a useful analogy.

Let’s say you have a black box and on top of that black box is a switch. Every time you flip that switch, the box will zap you with 20 volts.

What’s in the box? Maybe it’s a battery-powered motor. Perhaps a nuclear generator. Could even be one of the Invisible Mole People running around in Saran-Wrap slippers on a tiny piece of shag carpet to zap you with a mega-dose of static electricity.

It doesn’t matter what’s inside does it? Throw the switch and you get shocked.

Let’s use your imagination and transfer that analogy to someone trying to cause you harm. What’s inside this person? Is he the product of a broken home? A member of a disenfranchised community? Or did he simply forget to take his medication the day he decided your iPod was more valuable than your life?

Again, does it matter?

The point is this: Unless you turn off that switch, you’re going to get hurt.

How to improve your awareness
My goal is not to scare the piss out of you with gloom and doom scenarios and have you believing that there are rapists behind every bush on your running trail. There aren’t.

But, sometimes one freak might be lurking there waiting for you to obviously jog as you zone out to your iPod.

Your best bet is to learn to be in Condition Yellow. Again, don’t be afraid of the Bogey Man. Just avoid Condition Brown and acknowledge that he exists. Our job is not to fix his problems, but to keep him from mingling his fucked up world from messing with our happy one.

Here’s a simple exercise to get you started:

1. While you’re sitting here reading this, stop and listen. If you’re at work, listen for the conversations going on down the hall. Who’s talking? Can you hear the hum of the flourescent lights or your computer fan? What can you smell? Stop reading this and do it right now. What did you notice?
2. When you leave your house, or work, and walk to your car, notice who else is in the parking lot. What are they doing? Do they notice you are there? Bonus points if you can identify any bird by sound.

Mentally note everything…and move on. Don’t fixate. Just scan and move.

Martial arts instructor extraordinaire, ninjitsu practioner, Black Belt Hall of Fame inductee, and of course, fellow Miami University alumnus, Stephen Hayes, used to encourage his students to increase their environmental awareness with a series of morning drills. Every day for one week, you use one sense (hearing, touch, smell, taste and sight) to check out your immediate environment. Upon waking, don’t move. Just lay in bed with your eyes closed and listen for a few minutes to the world around you. It’s amazing what you will hear.

The next week, use your sense of taste. Don’t lick the bedpost, but just lay there and open your mouth. Taste the air.

It’s a fascinating exercise.

Note to the remaining members of the Pink Pony Brigade who are still with me: Click the Stephen Hayes link and note who he is sitting next to in the photo. Yes, my hippy friends, even the Dalai Lama needs protection from his fellow mankind.

Find your edge and dance upon it.

p.s. I’m setting up an interview with a personal protection guru to see if we can get some valuable advice to share with you on your outdoor journeys. My goal is not to teach you the dim mak death touch, but to use some common sense that you may not be carrying with you all of the time.