Women - what safety precautions do you take?

I carry a knife.

I don't go near any suspicious looking people and double back to avoid them. I look ahead.

I don't stop for anyone who asks me for directions or tries to engage with me. I'm rude, and suspicious.

I don't wear hi-viz when running after dark. I don't want to be more visible and if I need to get away from someone, I don't want to advertise my kovenebts. It really annoys me when I run after dark with a local group, and therefore have to run to their meeting point and back alone, that they are hi-viz zealots. Every time I turn up, I get the talk on wearing hi-viz from men, and they refuse to listen when I point out it can actually be dangerous for women to do so.

Please have some awareness that women may not want to make themselves visible after dark for safety reasons.

I was thinking the same thing about hi-viz.

How do you carry your knife?

This is sad. Women are not safe.

Was looking into this as well.

Easy: Having moved away from the USA. This country just is not safe. For real. Since I moved to Europe I feel so much safer on my runs. No guns, no random durggies that camp out on trails and will yell at you. Denser cities meaning more people out and about not these deserted suburbs. In the US you are only safe in enclaves of richness.

I visited in spring a typically very safe US city and I had a terrifying experience of some random druggie chasing and yelling at me that he wanted to kill me. Guess how many times that has happened in the last 3 years in Europe? Ah yeah well exactly zero. And when it happened the area was deserted and no one could have come to help me. Here in Europe I have never had that experience and never have felt "alone" while in the city. Help is always nearby even at 6AM.

Since one of my rules is to not engage or give out pointless personal information, the appropriate response to this question is "Why do you want to know that?", and moving on not waiting for an answer.

Carry bear spray or mace. Or find someone else to run with. Or run with your dog.

Yes in fact I lived in Paris a while and ran everywhere. No place is without issues BUT all my worst experiences are within the US. All of them.

I do that. I carry bear spray - surprisingly - for/against bears that are frequenting the trails in my country. I have never had to use it against the bears, but I had used it against several attacking dogs without owners in sight (VERY effective), once against deranged/drugged individual who had grabbed my hand whilst being passed by me from behind and punched me several times. Again - very effective.

I don't carry anything when I run with my dog. He is an aussie (Australian Sheppard), very unfriendly to strangers that approach without calm greeting. I had to hold him a few times with everything I had, when being yelled at by idiots that were stupid enough to come within 5m (15ft).

My wife doesn't want to carry any self defense weapon, runs with music, doesn't like to run with our dog and has been mostly safe for the last 30 years. The few times she had unpleasant experience was in city parks during the day with pervs exposing themselves. When on trails, she mostly fears getting lost and being attacked by boars which are plentiful in our area.

Some people attract trouble, and I may be one of them. Thus I carry, or run with my dog. I am OK with it and it doesn't bother me to have to carry extra 100g in the waist pocket.

I guess you're not too big on statistics and averages. Sure you can find examples of violent crimes in some of the safest communities around the world. But let's be honest, if you gave me the choice between going for a run in Memphis or just pick your city in New England. I'm going pick New England any day of the week. Have you ever been or lived in the south? I have. Without looking up the statistics, I can tell you which one is going be safer. Personally if I ever do have to go to Memphis, I'm going stick to a treadmill during my trip their than risk it running on the city streets of Memphis. On the matter of trails, when you hear a story of a hiker or a trail runner getting jacked, that's super rare. Especially compared to all the times people get hit and injured or killed by cars.

I'm not a female, but I used to live in a violent city and now live in a rural area with animals. I carried pepper spray and a taser in the city - if I shoot someone ghetto trying to mug me, his cash-chasing family will sue me, so these are non lethal.

I carry my Glock and another backup pistol when I run now. I once had to use it on a coyote (or another aggressive small-ish wolf-like animal), and I also had to empty my clip into a feral hog to stay safe.

I don't know where you live, but you can't just say "here in Europe...". It's way too diverse to generalize.
I've run in various places in the US, France, Italy, Spain, England, etc. and for me, I feel safe in urban areas. I don't mind running in the evening by myself if there are cars, passerby, etc.
On trails, I only run during daytime. I've had a few bad situations in France (a guy stalking me in the woods), and now I don't run if the trail is deserted. Sad I can't enjoy the solitude, but I hate feeling unsafe. I wait until other runners show up.

I run with nothing, other than when I run with the dog. I grew up in the inner city and ran through bad neighborhoods most of my formative years. As a guy you are a lot safer. In general, criminals who would target men are lazy and out of shape. For most of my life I have been faster than those who were stronger than me and stronger than those who were faster than me.

A Beretta 92f tucked in my waistband, the Martin Riggs special.

Canada just had a mass stabbing. Try going for a run in almost any country if you are a woman. Report back to us.