Incredibly Sad And A Little Scared

I was riding east on the greenway at 4:30 today, and came to the crossing at 5th Ave by Ace Refrigeration. Two kids were sitting on the stone wall on the east side of 5th. A third was a little closer to the Portland bridge. As I crossed 5th, the third kid started running toward the bridge, away from me. When he got to the bridge supports he stopped and bent down to pick up something, and in one motion looked back at me and started to run back out on to the greenway. I think he misjudged my speed, and found himself about even with me when he had started back out on to the greenway. He had a stick in one hand, about the size of a 1x1 maybe a foot long. He also had a piece of cement, in his other hand, about the size of a softball. He made an effort to run into me, and I had to swerve to my left to avoid hitting him. He was not able to catch me, or touch me, but it was mostly because he had misjudged my speed. He was close enough to me that I could hear him kind of grunt as he tried to catch me. I thought he might try to throw the cement or stick at me, but that didn't happen. I was reacting to what I saw and trying to avoid hitting him. It didn't cross my mind, until after the incident, that there had been an attempt to attack me. These kids that I saw were probably 15-16 years old. They had black hair. The one that tried to attack me had a flat top. All three had an olive colored complexion. The two that were sitting on the wall were just talking, and looked very unassuming. I'm confident I didn't read more into this incident, than actually occurred, especially considering other reports of attacks on the greenway.
It is so sad that circumstance exist, where people feel, for whatever reason, that they need, or want to hurt others. I really don't understand, why I was chosen as victim of the day, and what could motivate these three boys to want to hurt someone else.
Please be careful. Unfortunately there are those that want to hurt and steal from others, for whatever reason.
Please, please be very careful out there.

I will be avoiding the part of the greenway from 35W to Hiawatha from now on.

I met my daughter and her new boy friend for beers tonight. I found myself getting angry that someone would want to hurt her dad, and the grandpa of her son. I didn't want to get hurt, for sure, but it would've hurt them as well. I find that hard to tolerate.

33/17.0