And A Side Order of Lecture

There are never enough hours in the day to finish all of the items on your to-do list and at this time of year, there are even fewer.  The shortest day of the year is fast approaching.  This past week the days were about 9 hours and 25 minutes long, therefore we had about 13 hours and 35 minutes of darkness each day.  Assuming you have a day job and that your typical run is about an hour long, this means you are most likely going to be running in the dark for some part of your run.  This is the time for safety.

The other morning I was running along a fairly well traveled road near my house.  There are light posts spaced about 100 yards apart.  I use these as focus points for my Fartlek runs.  The intervals between the lights are relatively dark stretches.  It was in one of these sections that I was startled when a figure emerged out of the darkness.  They had been bent over stretching, and stood up; scared the bejeezus out of me.  They were dressed all in black with a dark red ski hat.  They were better dressed for a robbery.  There was not a stitch of reflective clothing on them.  This interaction took place just a few hundred yards from the intersection of Dad Clark and Broadway where Sherry Peters was struck and killed by a car while jogging in the crosswalk this past spring. 

Being alert and safe doesn’t stop when the sun comes up.  A neighbor of a co-worker was hit by a car in the middle of a sunny Saturday afternoon.  The driver was looking at on-coming traffic from the left and did not look to the right to see this runner.  When asked if the accident could have been avoided if he had just stopped, the runner said yes, but he knew he had the right of way.  Being in the right won’t mean much if you’re dead. 

A quick Yahoo search uncovers hundreds of stories of runners who were killed after being hit by cars, many due to errors in judgment by the runners.  When runners and cars collide, the runner always loses.  Most of the time drivers are looking out for other drivers, not runners.  It is your responsibility to protect yourself.

I wear a reflective vest when I run in the dark.  I run on the sidewalk.  I almost never cross major thoroughfares.  If I approach an intersection and there is a car present, I come to a complete stop and wait for them to go. 

Life is short.  Don’t make it shorter by doing something stupid.