Running in the Dark

There is no attractive way to run in the cold, damp dark of Seattle. I'm just over a month away from the Seattle 1/2, and it's getting chilly and wet out there, and the light is definitely not there in the morning, and won't be there for long in the evenings after work. I have purchased my exposure protection, however, even though they all have reflective striping, they all come in fashionably dark colors, so unless the drivers are looking for Tron-like costumes, being seen is nearly impossible.

Not to mention that I'm pretty sure that NO ONE driving at 6:30am is looking for runners. They sure as heck aren't stopping at stop signs, and even after I saw a man stop, look both ways, and nudge into the intersection, looking both ways again (and towards me), he still ended up clipping me, requiring me to place my hand on the corner of his car to scoot myself out of the way. I looked at him, he was stunned, and I yelled something like, "Stop sign, Asshole!" and jogged about two meters past, tripping, and skidding myself on the left side forward on the asphalt. I called my husband for a pick up, limping a bit, bleeding from my knuckles, hand and knee, with a few abrasions in between. My hip was deeply bruised, and I was a bit shaken up.

It's dark and lonely, and a bit scary to run that early in the dark. I've noticed that my usual early morning companions have dissipated - perhaps they're all electing to go into work a bit later. I need to find a better solution as I prepare for this race, and it turns out the best solution might be a gym membership near work, that might allow me to road-run during lunch, shower, and be back to work at a decent time. Treadmills for over an hour are dull as dirt. I did that yesterday, since the forecast was for nasty weather, and I had procrastinated towards dusk.

It's tough. Even if I was wearing electric yellow from head to toe, I wonder if I would be seen. It's scary out there, solo, female, cold, damp and in the dark. I'm increasingly convinced that they don't make running gear for Northwestern runners in mind.