There are any number of different walks for a cause. You can join walks to support conditions and issues from diabetes to breast cancer to asthma to world hunger to almost anything else you can think of. Walks for a cause are a total win-win situation. You benefit your health with the activity while you're helping a good cause. But the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes cause ... well, it's unique.

The walk has a definite sense of humor. Men are asked to literally walk a mile in her shoes ... her high heels to be exact. But underneath the sense of humor is a serious issue. The walks are designed to draw attention to rape, assault, and other forms of sexualized violence against women.

This month, there are walks scheduled in Indiana, Kentucky, South Dakota, Ontario, Minnesota, Vermont, Iowa, Idaho, Michigan, and Georgia. If there isn't a walk scheduled near you, you can register to organize a walk.

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On May 21, I wrote about a rape that occurred in a neighborhood in my city. A young woman, 36, with a husband and two small children, was running near her home on a usually well-populated trail at 6:30 AM when a man brutally attacked and sexually assaulted her. The police are calling it one of the worst attacks they've ever seen.

Since my last post, law enforcement officers have been hunting down lead after lead. The community is rallying -- watch this video for proof -- and it's become more clear than ever that right here in Gainesville, Florida, bad things happen, which means we all must look out for our own safety. We must not get comfortable and forget what happened in this case, because just as we do, we may become victims ourselves.

In the spirit of exercise and safety, I offer you these crime prevention exercise tips, featured on a website created to inform area residents about the ongoing investigation regarding this horrible crime.

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In my very own city, in a neighborhood just a few miles away, a 36-year-old woman was beaten and raped while jogging this morning. She wasn't far from her house, on a trail that winds through her sprawling subdivision, when a man got out of his car, assaulted her at gunpoint, and got away when her screams beckoned another jogger. The man is on the loose. The woman, now in the hospital, is left scarred forever.

I don't know much else about this story -- I don't really want to know more -- but I do realize that my own solo darkened morning runs through area neighborhoods have got to stop. I don't like it. But I do like my life. And so I can run on my treadmill at home. Or I can run outdoors during daylight hours, perhaps with a friend tagging along, or I can focus my efforts at the gym. I don't have to run outside, in the dark, alone. In fact, I'd be pretty wise not to.

Fitness, clearly, isn't always good for your health, especially with a possible side effect like rape. So please, let this story motivate you to take every possible safety precaution when you're working out. It's exactly what I'm going to do.

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