Pepper spray comes with me on each and every of my runs, even if its just a quick 3 miles around my neighbourhood or a long slow 10 miles around town. Before you make your first purchase of pepper spray you need to know a few things about it. First you need to find if its legal in your area, you can do a search online or call your local police department.Next you need to decide what type you want. I purchased a 3oz canister, it is a nice size that I can hold easily, but its about time for it to be replaced and this time Im going with a half ounce ‘jogger friendly’ version. Its a 3 pack for about twenty bucks! Im sending one to a friend of mine who just started running and keeping the other two for myself.

How does Pepper spray work? The capsien in the spray causes inflamation of the skin and major burning! When its sprayed in the eyes it forces them shut. Even if the person is tweeked out and cant feel the pain it will still make them close their eyes for about 30 seconds. This is your time to get away. Always aim for the eyes! And try to be upwind so you dont get a face full too. If you are downwind youll get the same face full as your attacker.

Be sure to take your new pepperspray outside and test it, make sure you stand upwind and have all your pets inside, and keep them inside for several hours. Store your pepper spray in a secure place, get some good child locks and lock it up. This is serious stuff! You can keep this in your chemicals cabnet if you have one, most houses have this cabnet well secured.

You will need to test your spray every 90 days (I test it every month). Check the bottom of the canisters for an expiration date and chuck it when it nears. If you test as often as I do, especailly if you have a small canister (like the pen type) youll need to replace it within a year.

Posted by Shelley in Whatever on February 18th, 2007 |