The Road Is Longer In The Dark

Running in the dark is an experience that is exhilarating while at the same time being a little stressful, confusing, potentially dangerous, but also liberating. When doing anything in the dark, your actions are somewhat disguised by all the blackness around you and it offers you a little bit of freedom because no one can see you. You can be confident in the darkness, take on a new personality, make funny faces, pretend you are a Navy Seal on an important mission. Of course, you can also run into things, fall down the stairs, and grope around in front of you for things you know should be there, but those are the less glamorous details of darkness.

The first time I ran in the dark I was amazed by how clear and quiet it was. I had all the stars over me and a full moon; it wasn’t until non-full moon runs that I realized this because it is obviously much darker when you have just a crescent moon to light the way. It didn’t occur to me that I might not be able to see as well on a dark run as I might in the middle of the day. It’s not that I thought I would be able to see, I just wasn’t worried about it. I do think that not being able to see and therefore not knowing exactly where I am at all times makes running in the dark seem to take longer, hence the title of this post. The road truly does seem longer in the dark. However, not having daylight vision also makes things more interesting.

When I can’t see clearly it’s a heyday for my imagination and I don’t have great vision to begin with so you can just imagine the creative levels I get to while running in the dark and having slightly blurred eyesight to begin with. For example, is that a rooster I see or a bush? Logic would tell me that clearly it’s a bush because I am in the middle of a suburban neighborhood, but it would be much more interesting to pass a rooster. Am I coming upon a mailbox or a child waiting for the bus? Almost always a mailbox. Is that strange shape a pothole in the road or a puddle? Moments later my soaking wet foot confirms that it was indeed a puddle. My other common “missight” is the inability to decipher between a shadow and a crack on a sidewalk which I discovered the hard way by attempting to jump over what I thought was a crack and somehow fell instead, only to discover that all along it was just a shadow. Yes, running in the dark is an exercise for the imagination. Things simply look different in the dark which is a great reason to alternate running the same route in the daylight and then at dark; it will seem different each time!

There are of course, things I could do to make life easier for running in the dark like using a headlamp or little flashlight, neither of which interest me. And you probably wonder why I would voluntarily run knowing I have poor distance vision. It’s because I do not want to wear my glasses running, I just don’t think it would go well plus it’s nice to have a break from the frames. Contacts for me are not an option. I tried 15 different pairs, none of them worked, it’s a long story. So running in the dark for me is also a good mental challenge. I like to try to remember where the potholes are, the parked cars, the roads I’m supposed to turn down (I can admit to having taken the wrong turn before but I was only off by one street so it wasn’t that big of a deal), it’s all a very good game of memory.

Despite the fact that I do not have the best night vision, I do want to be seen and my super neon yellow pull-over makes me very easy to spot. Little reflective details on the rest of my running gear also contribute to making me visible in the dark so I do feel safe. It’s much more likely that I will run into a car than a car run into me. Even though I am not cloaked in darkness because of this neon shirt, I still feel like I am on a secret ninja mission, moving through the darkness on my own path, for my own reasons, and nothing can stop me.

Running in the morning’s darkness is also incredibly rewarding because you often get to see the sunrise, and at the end of a long road, it’s always a welcome sight.