After a full work week, Alicia Kropelnicki's alarm goes off at 5 a.m. every Saturday morning. She clocks-in miles before her children wake up, and she has a checklist of things to get done for the day.
"I run for my physical health, but more-so for my mental health," Kropelnicki said.
She's crossed the finish line for three Twin Cities Marathon races, and is training for the New York City Marathon this fall. She is no stranger to the long training runs in the dark.
"You never know what could pop out in front of you on the trails," she said.
She tells her husband her route before she leaves for a run, and makes sure her watch settings are setup in-case of an emergency.
"It's hard," Kropelnicki said. "You hear about Eliza Fletcher, and you can't help but think that could be any of us."
Eliza Fletcher was found dead after she went missing while out for a run in Memphis. She joins the tragic list of women who have been killed, or attacked while running outside.
"I think it's a fear that all women have," Kropelnicki said.
Kropelnicki experienced what she describes as a fluke incident, but says it was enough to shake her up one night in 2018. While training for the Twin Cities Marathon, Kropelnicki was running with her dogs in the evening when a man jumped out of the woods at her. Her dogs barked and scared the man off, and Kropelnicki sprinted away.
"I definitely took a break from running outside after that. I switched over to the treadmill for a couple of weeks," she said. "I had to give myself (time to) process what exactly happened."
She says she didn't let fear win, and returned to her trail runs eventually after deciding to run with more safety precautions. Now, she does her long runs with her friends and plans for a more public route while running alone with her dogs.
It's an adjustment that Andrea Haus has seen numerous women do. Haus works for Mill City Running, which offers group runs multiple times a week at various times of the day. She says running with a friend can deter others from doing harm to you.
"I was running alone in St. Paul and a group of guys were walking towards me, then one grabbed me. They all started laughing like it was a joke," Haus said.
Haus said it's best to be prepared for the unknown because you can't control how others act. She says a lot of a marathon trainers have to run early in the morning because of their work and family commitments. She says there is a growing rise in purchases of pull-string sirens, and lighting tools for runners.
"That siren is as loud as an ambulance," Haus said about the pull-string gadget.
As runners continue to share safety tips across social media, Kropelnicki hopes people don't give up on an activity they love out of fear.
"I just think it's so important for us to keep running and enjoying the sport." she said.
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