[Susie]

I can relate. I just started up running again two days ago. Also for me as a female I have to stay alert because of the possibility of being assaulted, yay!

One thing that was helpful for me to break past the anxiety of running in public was to go out and walk the route that I was planning to run and paying attention to how I felt, which was completely at ease. I tried to keep that feeling in mind when I was running that same route the next day and it did help.
Also when you get started you can try doing a run/walk program. There are good ones where you start out slowly, running say only 30 seconds and then walking for a few minutes, then running 30 seconds, then walking, for a total of 20 minutes or half an hour. So that way you only have to endure feeling silly for 30 seconds and then you can return to your comfort zone of walking, gradually building up to solid running. That's what I did and now that I think of it, not only was that method good for building up my physical endurance but also my psychological endurance for running in public! "Couch to 5k" if you google it is one of the plans, but there are others if you google 'run/walk program" or something like that.

Also, I agree with others who have said to wear sunblock (that's what I do) and to jog in the early morning or in the evening. Alternatively you can join a gym and run on a treadmill.