The Dark Forest
As fall begins it can only mean one thing
but I still get panicky so after freaking out yet again trying to run in the dark forest this morning I have come to the conclusion that I either A, need to find a non-bike path 8 mile run preferably well lit and safe or B, split my runs up so I can hit the path when it gets light out and avoid the freak out. This is what led to my first two a day since well probably ever. This morning I ran 6 and this evening I ran 2 for a total of (carry the one, divide by two, take the square root) oh yeah 8. That seemed to work okay. I mean going back out for a run in the evening after a long day of work and heels seemed like a cruel form of torture but I felt better after and I knocked'em out at an okay pace for me so they couldn't have been that bad. So perhaps a day or two a week I will resort to this method to cut down on early morning darkness/ cold runs and still fit in my miles.
And with winter comes darkness.
I am an early morning runner. I always have been. I like waking up and after a good fifteen minutes of staring into space/sipping coffee putting my shoes on and heading out the door. I like to knock my runs out first thing so inevitably when something comes up later in the day I don't have to wonder how I am going to fit my run in. Instead I can feel all smug that I knocked out 8 miles before most people are out of bed. That is right. Winning with the early morning runs. But I have recently run into a problem with my smug early morning runs;
The Dark Forest (aka the bike path I run on surrounded by early morning ominous trees.)
Running in the early morning hours increasingly means running in the dark. I have a super bright flash light I carry and a pretty hip neon yellow reflector waste band thing so I can be seen. But that does nothing to stop the weird panicky claustrophobic feeling I get running on the bike path in the dark surrounded by trees. This has happened a few times now. Get on path. Get all freaked out by darkness and weird sounds. Now I know the only thing in the trees are these
 |
| Freaking terrifying |
That is of course until I have my treadmill........I dream big.
I get creeped out in that scenario even when it is light. We have a wooded area that the sidewalk by our house runs through, and I always sprint through it. I love trees and trails, but I want to run them with other people to stay safe!
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of sympathy for Catelyn - I'm not a Stark either! If yo get a treadmill I am going to be soooooo jealous.
ReplyDeleteEeek! A dark forest is scary! I don't blame you for breaking it up ... although I don't know if I could do that. After the first, I'd think I was done.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds really creepy :S Breaking up your runs sounds like a good idea, I admire you for getting out there twice in one day!
ReplyDeleteHaha...I have been saying 'winter is coming' ominously all week and had LITERALLY just said it, darkly, to my little boy when I opened this post!! I'm G.O.T obsessed at the moment, most unhealthy.
ReplyDeleteI'm always very cautious about trails so my advice would be not to run them in the dark. It just takes one person!! Any chance you could run somewhere better lit in the dark? A residential neighbourhood??
(We've only seen series one and, having had a 20 year crush on Sean Bean, I was horrified by the series end!!)
Running in the early morning hours increasingly means running in the dark. I have a super bright flash light I carry and a pretty hip neon yellow reflector waste band thing so I can be seen. But that does nothing to stop the weird panicky claustrophobic feeling I get running on the bike path in the dark surrounded by trees. This has happened a few times now. Get on path. Get all freaked out by darkness and weird sounds. Now I know the only thing in the trees are these
ReplyDelete