Swapping safety boots for trainers definitely a bonus 👍. A Saturday night free from the clutches of paid employment, I'd promised myself a dark run and I stuck to my promise 🤗.
I ran the same route as I ran yesterday morning, it's a nice easy 5k loop allowing warm up/cool down walk,-jog. But how a run differs from day to night. We're locked down in my county already ( but further stricter measures are coming next week). It's isolated and very very silent. The removal of normal noises, road traffic the odd aeroplane the night's silence is deafening. My trainer noise is lost in the dark it's like the noise is simply sucked up and vanishes. It's definitely a peaceful experience this dark running. The beam of my petzl clearly cutting the night apart for me to simply slide through, running across the Pontcysyllte aqueduct is definitely a much altered experience at night. You are simply up there this little strip of towpath, suspended in the night. Love or hate heights it's a magical run experience!! Across the other side, I loop by the canal pub and down onto the opposite towpath, seemingly darker, with a canopy of trees. The acorns falling in into the dark canal were at times quite melodic with the briefest of echoes, I kept it slow, nearly staying in zone 3 all except the last slightly uphill 5 kilometer. This was the first time since Winter I'd had the running tights on and definitely glad of the extra layer complete with running beanie✅.
5k dark running successfully completed, enjoying the slower pacing and keeping that V02 glued to 48 which I think is ok,?
Now where's my spaghetti bolognese I'm hungry 🚿🙂pasta 🍝 👍
Keep those runs healthy and safe folks remember the masks and hand washing ✅
Wow! I'll be doing a few dawn runs soon, but it's unlikely I'll be running across the canal aqueduct near Llangollen! (Especially as travelling to Wales from Manchester is verboten at the moment.)
The big problem for me is that the rest of my family is in Gwynedd. The last times I saw them was January and July. 🤬 At least we do have free phone calls these days.
Looks a bit remote and creepy for my liking lmc50, but I enjoyed reading your post, it was like the opening chapter of a good book 📖 maybe you’ve missed your vocation in life 🤔 well done on completing your 5k, enjoy your spaghetti Bolognes 👍
I’m originally from Wales myself, but now living in sunny Kent.
Nooooooooo be brave it's fine just make sure you're batteries are fully charged 👍
Oooh I'm definitely loving your write up 😁 very eloquent indeed.
My favourite genre is goth horror so I was waiting for a vampire or some other kind of dark creature to magically appear 🧛♀️
But I digress, this is about running! Running I tell you!! Dark running no less!! Love it ❤️
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Thank you Ms Burkey46 🙂 goth horror yikes really I'd never sleep 😱 coz I definitely wouldn't turn the💡off 👀.
I did dip my toes in a few James Herbert, even the odd Stephen King... But that was when I was younger and brave 💪.... Definitely more a fan of a magician called Harry nowadays 😆
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You should read Brian Lumley - the Necroscope series, tamer than King or Herbert and actually very entertaining 😁
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WhaaaaaaaaT a necroscope is apparently someone who errrrrr communicates with the dead......... For the record working permanent nightshifts generally around very dark lanes and even darker farmyards do you think it's very apt reading material......... Crikey Mr Herbert only wrote about rats🐭
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😂😂😂 Mr Lumley combines espionage with modern day vampires. Honestly it's not horror at all compared to King. Every time I read a King book I wonder wtf is going on in his head. Lumley is definitely tame in comparison but an awesome writer 👍
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I'll admit to perusing my library website 👍, merely out of curiosity for Brian Lumley books, sadly it seems they haven't uploaded any of his titles (phew😆) but saying that I love a new author..... And may end up trying him out..... As for Mr.King what's inside his head, that's a mystery probably best left well alone....
A great write-up, I felt I was with you. That would have been preferable to my evening run earlier this week. I forgot how nervous I get running at night. I've been enjoying running through all the parks, but had to change that plan since it was getting dark. Time to rethink my running routes. I'm impressed with how much your headlamp lit up the walkway. Maybe that is what I need🤔
Thank you SaskAlliecat, fact! The dark and the quiet definitely heightens your senses, and when you hear that decreet, plip/plop of the falling acorns it's kinda natural to speed up a little 😆, I must of looked like a cyclist Minus the wheels, frame etc, as I had my little blinking red light on my jacket lit up 😆. Better to be safe though 🤓
It was a new run experience for me cheekychipmunks, it made a nice change from working in the dark 👍. The peacefulness of it was quite intense, even in the daylight without music or chatter ( I prefer that stripped back running headphone free) you take in what's happening around you, but in the dark you are just concentrating on your run, where your feet are etc👍
Nah it's only the dark😆 big, brave and sometimes masculine 💪 there's nowt to be scared of.............. " Wwwwwwwwwhat was that noise, did I hear footsteps behind me............. Run faster
Yes, but I know it will get lighter, so by the time I get to the canal it's sunrise ad can be very beautiful.i remember running in early Feb on the canal in the morning and ran past the station, we're all the lights were on the platform with commuters huddled in the dark waiting for their train. That was a bit surreal.
Oooooh that sounds like bliss Roxdog, the frosty February canal and a train station, sadly most mornings about that time Im hopefully snuggled after the nightshift 😴
Lol best I look for the services of a decent literary agent 👍
Wonderful photos and a very atmospheric description that brought your run to life Imc. I can only imagine what running at height in complete darkness along the viaduct was like! You should run it again at Halloween 🎃 👻!
Hmmmmmmmmmm I think you're in cahoots with Burkey46 to scare the living daylight's out me 👀 luckily though I'm on shift that night so it'll be dark lanes and empty farmhouses for me that night 😬😳
Looks an amazing run, but one that I would be too scared to do at night by myself. Where I run and cycle in Wales it is very isolated in places and I have to admit to feeling a bit apprehensive about doing those routes by myself. I cannot wait until local running groups and park runs start again so I can find some running friends.
We seem to be back at the sharp end of the covid situation MoliJ, hopefully it'll all get sorted asap 🤞,I loved that new element of running, it's not going to be an every week thing though as work gets in the way grrrrrr
I'm hoping coggerjogger they light it up as they did last year, along with the other attractions, but given Lock down and covid-19 etc we'll have to see..... 😕 It could promote visiting if they do so we'll see. I'll run across it in the daylight if it's clear but frequently have to duck underneath and loop around, generally if there's people on it everyone operates a polite one way system✅
I read your post before I saw the photos and was definitely liking the idea of the night run, you made it sound so inviting! I even started to mentally plan for my first night run! I could run along the high riverbank, the moon would be reflected in the river .......
Glad you enjoyed it Jools2020 but ok I was happy to run on my lonesome..... I have to say I would always ( without wishing to sound or appear sexist) be happier to see ladies running in pairs or greater numbers more so in the dark 👍
Great positive post, sounds like a really enjoyable experience. Myself im a bit nervous about going out and running in the. Dark, even with my dog by my side.
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The romance of running
Running on canal towpaths
Sciatica and running 
Bad run...or intervals? 
