Summer made a re-appearance here yesterday, scuppering my plan for an afternoon run. So I figured I'd go out in the evening. What with one thing and another we only had our evening meal at around 8pm, and I wanted to wait a couple of hours. This meant I headed out for a run at 10pm and in full darkness (I guess the nights are drawing in !) I've done a few runs after 9pm in the dusk, but that was back in early July, so the full darkness was kind of a surprise.
For safetly precautions I wore my most flourescent top, took my phone and told my hubby where I was going and when I'd be back. (He did offer to come with me, but with no great enthusiasm so I said he didn't have to) I also decided on a route that was a round trip on a well lit main road with lots of houses and a fair number of late opening fast food outlets (decided that if anything bothered me I could duck into a kebab shop and phone to be fetched). In fact that side of things was fine - there will still plenty of folk out and about (doggy walkers, kids out, cyclists, not to mention folk sitting in their open windows to catch a breeze).
Good things about running that late:
* Not too many cars about, so didn't feel I was breathing in exhaust fumes
* cool enough to run - really couldn't have done it earlier in the day
* dinner more or less digested
* good way of clearing my head at the end of the day
* straight into pjs after shower when I got home
Less good things:
* Safety constrained my route. I ran mostly on the cycle paths (better visibility, fewer roots to trip over) but this was quite hard on my knees. Our local park has nice running paths, but I would't go there after dark (dealers and mozzies move in around sunset)
* I did get more of a stitch than usual, so 2 hours after a meal was probably a little snug for timing
* Ended up staying up too late as I wasn't ready to go to sleep straight afterwards
* Hair obviously wasn't completely dry when I went to bed, so its kind of sticky-up today !
Overall definately do-able though, and will no doubt be done again from time to time. I did STAMINA and although my pace was slow I actually managed the negative splits - so pleased with that.
happy running everyone