Night Running Ninja – Running Safely in the Dark

Winter is upon us and what that means is more often than not running in the dark. Whether it be 5 PM in the afternoon or midnight, darkness is falling earlier and earlier. While it’s seemingly dangerous to be running along the road at night time, especially with all those horrible drivers out there, there are couple of things I do to try to make it just a little bit safer.

Other than trying to wear lighter coloured clothing (which is not always easy based on my laundry schedule/pure laziness), I wear a couple high visibility items (see picture below). The first being a reflective hip belt. All it is, is a high reflective belt with a plastic clip on the front. They seem to be an easy find on the internet but unfortunately I can’t guarantee the quality of those ones as I got mine in Afghanistan. It was super dark at night when walking around at night at Kandahar Airfield and these are the only things that prevent you from getting hit by an armoured vehicle! Just make sure the material is durable and you should be ok.

The second is my absolute favorite. It’s a smaller reflective band that can be worn either around your arm or leg. What makes it special is there is an LED strap built in that can either flash or stay lit up solid. As you know, it takes external light for a reflective strip to be effective. With the LED strap, cars, bikes and pedestrians can see you from afar with shining light at you. It is really great and I fully recommend these for whatever nightly activity you may do, above and beyond just running. They can be bought for MEC from $8.50. Well worth it. Especially as it will keep you safe.

Be sure to check this stuff out. Happy running!