I escaped an attempted potentially armed robbery Sunday night

Good morning everyone,So just as the title says, I escaped an attempted robbery Sunday night and I have my knife, cardio, and situational awareness to thank for it. I am currently in graduate school in a very anti-2A/gun rights city, no campus carry, and live right off campus, so I tend to avoid carrying when I can. I also stay indoors after sunset, but I had a few friends over and my female friend who lived a short 8 minute walk away opted to just walk home at 11PM and I volunteered to accompany her (because obviously). I keep my CCW to myself and there wasn't an easy/sly way I could have grabbed my firearm with these people over, so I regrettably left it home.​Before I left, I grabbed my folding, assisted opening pocket knife and POM OC spray, one for each front pocket. I am a pretty fit and athletic guy, walk with confidence, and was wearing dark clothing with a dark baseball cap (ironically as I walking out the door I grabbed it thinking "who would fuck with a guy in a dark baseball cap and dark clothing in the middle of the night".... oh was I wrong). Basically, I was not an easy/soft target. I also do not wear headphones and do not use my phone when walking alone as I like to stay as situationally aware as possible. There were also a number of drunk college students out walking to and from house parties off campus in the area, so this had me thinking that I would be even less of a soft target by comparison.​So I drop her off at her apartment building, say good bye, and turn around to start my walk back. I walk maybe just 2 yards and notice two men on the same sidewalk, but both on the left side (so keeping to their side), about 15 yards away, and think little of it. Once they get to around 10 yards away, one pf these men splits, walking to the extreme right side of the sidewalk, which has me alert now, and I slide my hands in my pockets and hold my knife and OC. At around 7 yards, the one on the left places his hand in his pocket and says "Hey man, we want to ask you a question". At this point, I know what's about to go down. As they are still approaching and the man on the right is trying to flank me, I tell them I don't want any trouble and I don't want to answer any questions. The man responds with "no we just want to ask you something, it's ok". I am slowly moving back and they are about 5 yards away before I draw before my knife and OC, opening the knife with an audible click (it's also a silver knife so visible as well). I know they see it because they both raise their hands to their torso, open palmed, and tell me "woah woah relax man" and take 2-3 steps back. I give them orders to stay back and (this is the shocking point) go back to approaching me, with the man on the left now digging in his pocket more aggressively and telling me they just want to talk to me.​Now it's clear that this isn't an innocent question. To me I knew back when they split that I was going to get robbed, but up until now a responding officer/prosecutor/friend can say "maybe you were over reacting and they really did just have a question". I make a double take to the street as I am backing up and when they get 2-3 yards from me, I book it as fast as I have ever run across the street. As I am halfway across the street, I look back for a mere half second and see that the man is still digging into his pocket, which makes me think "GUN GUN GUN" (because why would you still be digging into your pocket after the guy shows an open blade, is sprinting away, and you are not giving chase), so I try to make it behind the cars parked along the street and sprint behind them for cover.​I make it two blocks away before placing the OC in my pocket, replacing it with my knife in that hand, and pulling out my phone to tell the virtual assistant to call 911. I memorized every descriptor of both men (down to the color of their shoes), but it was all worthless because police took 10 minutes to get to me and then another 10 minutes to ask me what happened (even though I told 911 all this and they could have started their search then). Instead they asked me to hop in the car after a total of 20 minutes from the event to survey the area, and I knew they would be long gone by now. The officers were all amazed by 1- how prepared and aware I was and 2- how far and fast I sprinted. In the moment I thought I sprinted 2-3 blocks when in reality I booked it a little over 4 blocks. My abs and sides are incredibly sore at the moment because of this and according to my fitbit I hit 198bpm. Adrenaline and fear are huge cardio motivators fyi.​I was dropped off home at 1AM, haven't heard anything back and I doubt I ever will and I'm thankful for how it all went down. Even if I did have my carry gun on me, I fear that it would have ended with shots fired. Seeing as they still approached me with an open blade and after I presented myself as a confident and aware victim (and also no backpack or anything on me other than a wallet and phone), I fear that they would have still done so if I presented a gun. Even worse if they quickly displayed something from their pocket and it wasn't actually a knife and gun. I can easily see a prosecutor or DA going after me for having a cop's complex and mount a prosecution saying that I had nothing to fear because the statements I was given were "asking a question" and I was never verbally threatened. Also no cameras in the area and no witnesses.​Surprisingly and honestly very scary, the responding officers said that they most definitely would have shot at me as I running away just for fun and to gain street cred and I did the right thing making distance and trying to get behind cover.​In short, I learned that:- Holy fuck are criminals ballsy and stupid- A knife is actually better defense than OC in the sense of a deterrent (speaking to that female friend afterwards, she told me that she's pulled her OC a number of times and was met with "put away your lipstick" or something similar most of the time; the aggressors did not really take it seriously). The knife gave me just a bit more time and also probably deterred them from chasing me, while I fear that with OC they probably would have tried to fight through it, especially if they actually did have a gun or I missed them with the spray- I won't be going out after sunset and if I do I am going to be extra cautious and will be carrying- Carrying medical always (I usually carry medical in my backpack and not when I go out for short walks). Seeing as police took 10 minutes (after I placed the call) to get to me, I fear that if I ever am shot or stabbed, I will bleed out before I receive medical attention- I need to keep up with cardio- I truly think I did the best I reasonably could in the moment, but it is scary to realize that if I froze up at any time (especially after drawing my knife) or if I had tripped early on into sprinting away, I could easily be beaten/stabbed/shot/or even dead right now, I am very very thankful for all the dry fire and imagining scenarios practice I do that prepared me (not this situation exactly to the detail, but still the jist of it) for this. via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/2R3mp0k