This time of year I do a lot of running in the dark of the very early mornings. One of the nice aspects of training this early is that I don’t have to share the road with many cars. I know that I said below that I normally run on sidewalks, but I can’t do so in the dark without killing myself by tripping because they are uneven.
Speaking of headlights…… one of my real pet peeves is the fact that drivers don’t think that their high beams are blinding to runners!! Why is it that the same driver that will automatically dim his headlights for an on-coming car won’t even think about it for a runner?? And don’t tell me that it’s because he can’t see me. I wear a reflective vest that lights me up at least a half-block away.
I always wear a running cap when I run for several reasons. One of which is that the only solution I’ve found to blinding headlights is to be able to pull the brim of the hat down. Even pulling the brim down doesn’t completely solve the high-beam issue because the amount of light all of the sudden makes everything sort of black out. So the fact that your eyes had adjusted to the dark and you could see obstacles or holes in the road has just been wiped out by the on-coming klieg lights!
One time I got so mad that I stood in front of the car waving my arms trying to get the person to switch to low beams. He never did, so I stood in front of him and made him stop and politely asked him to “please lower the beams next time”. Probably not a smart thing to do, but my emotions got the better of me that time.
Speaking of headlights…… one of my real pet peeves is the fact that drivers don’t think that their high beams are blinding to runners!! Why is it that the same driver that will automatically dim his headlights for an on-coming car won’t even think about it for a runner?? And don’t tell me that it’s because he can’t see me. I wear a reflective vest that lights me up at least a half-block away.
I always wear a running cap when I run for several reasons. One of which is that the only solution I’ve found to blinding headlights is to be able to pull the brim of the hat down. Even pulling the brim down doesn’t completely solve the high-beam issue because the amount of light all of the sudden makes everything sort of black out. So the fact that your eyes had adjusted to the dark and you could see obstacles or holes in the road has just been wiped out by the on-coming klieg lights!
One time I got so mad that I stood in front of the car waving my arms trying to get the person to switch to low beams. He never did, so I stood in front of him and made him stop and politely asked him to “please lower the beams next time”. Probably not a smart thing to do, but my emotions got the better of me that time.
1 comment:
While I agree with you on the high beam issue I don't think I am brave enough to be jumping out in front of cars!
Be careful out there DeMan!
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