Road ID Elite
Amphipod
Recently I moved from the city to the burbs. The biggest difference I have found is safety. I was actually safer running downtown in Baltimore than I am out here in the county. I don’t think the drivers are looking for pedestrians. Not only have I had close calls, I have witnessed other runners almost get hit in cross walks going with the light. This has convinced me to go full DORK. I have always run with my RoadID, it makes my wife feel better but, now I have taken safety to a whole new level. Tonight I ran with my Amphipod reflective belt thingy and a PETZL headlamp. I admit I felt pretty silly however, something was different in the run tonight. People saw me. A car was getting ready to make a left turn through the cross walk I was crossing, I looked right at him with my lamp blazing and he stopped in his tracks. I felt like I had a new super power. Other times during the 6 mile run I saw cars take more precaution as they approached, maybe it was just a foot stepping off the gas to slow down and look at the one man light show but, who cares, they saw me. I felt a little safer.
Another benefit was being able to see the bent up sidewalks in the dark. So if you see a well lit runner in the Baltimore are give me a wave.
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I had a very good winter with a lot of running in the dark. Before the snow came, it went pretty black. I had a 2 gram led light hanging on my pinkie. I tried to run without it which resulted in a closer feel to nature, higher knee running (couldn’t risk tripping now). I knew the tracks pretty well though but I regularly ran 20 km in blackness. What I hated most was some dofus coming at me with this big bad headlight! But each to his own – I liked running in the dark. Did I need to see something I could just press my little led light which, with night adjusted eyes, was very sufficient.
Anywho – thanks for your blog – very informative.