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Herron said she was able to employ self-defense tactics that she learned in a class just three weeks earlier.

\"I learned hard bones and soft fleshy places, so I just started hitting the side of his head,\" she said.

Jordan Giarratano, an instructor at Fighting Chance Seattle who has taught self-defense for over 20 years, told ABC News, \"This is one of the most surreal things I've ever seen ... in the four years I've been running this workshop. It's very inspiring and overwhelming and humbling.\"

One survey in Runner's World magazine found that 43 percent of women experience harassment while running. Unlike in Herron's case, most incidents are not life-threatening, but in a nine-day stretch last summer, three women in three states were murdered while running.

Giarratano told ABC News that people who are attacked should trust their intuition, be loud, fight as hard as possible, respond immediately and hit with an open hand.

Herron said she feels empowered after her experience and is still training to run the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon this summer.

Steiner has an assault record against multiple women dating to the 1990s, according to authorities.

He is being held in jail on $750,000 bail and faces charges of attempted rape in the second degree and second degree assault, according to court documents. His public defender did not reply to ABC News' request for comment.

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