It's probably a good thing you had the helmet and glove on. Good job.
This was about 20 years ago. Honestly, I shocked myself because I never really thought I’d respond that way. We looked over, and a block away this kid comes running around a corner at full speed, followed soon by a pack of seven or eight other kids, clearly catching up. Once they got to him it was mayhem like I’ve never seen this side of a movie screen. I handed my coffee to my wife (we’d stopped for starbucks) and, at first, I remember thinking, “this could be dangerous”, but saw what they were doing to this kid and I just ignored that thought and went in full speed. As I got there a taxi stopped and he ran over to the fray and the two of us were just pulling these kids out of the way, yelling for them to stop.
Honestly, I think the Lord was protecting us and also I think what I call the “cats and dogs” theory may have applied a little. That is, they are cats and we are dogs. In a neighborhood, cats don’t respond to the arrival of a stray dog, but they’ll tear a new cat to pieces. They don’t mess with dogs. Only cats. If we had been a couple of asian guys it may have gone differently. But that’s only a theory.