Running and women's safety

I just got back from my weekly hill run. ~4.3 miles with a couple of rounds on Lemon Hill. Lemon Hill is pretty deserted even in better weather when more runners are out in general, but today was the first time I ever felt threatened up there running on my own. It really stinks that as a woman I have to constantly be aware of my surroundings, where and when I run. A lot of the time I either run with my running club, and I have sort of made my boyfriend into a runner as he joins me so often for safety (and health) reasons. Today though, I when in the late afternoon and Dave was at work and we have some errands to run later, so it was now or never, and no running partner.

When I got up to Lemon Hill there were two cars up there with some shady characters hanging out. I ran by and continued my run as planned, making note, but just trucking along. On one of my passes of Lemon Hill though, the one car moved out of the place it was parked and actually seemingly started to follow me. When I turned down to head back to Kelly Drive, they took off in another direction. At that point I saw a young couple heading up Lemon Hill so I tagged along and finished my run as planned.

It sucks that I have to feel like the only places I can run have no hills (Kelly Drive and Center City), and that I don't feel safe when I am out trying to be healthy and training hard.