We were in high school and somehow took to night running. Nick, Dax, and I would hit the HV ‘hood; I remember the route we used to take: Southmoor, Skokie, Sleepy Hollow, Tamarisk, Pebble Beach, Hidden Valley Drive…sometimes jumping the fence at the golf course to cut across the lawn. I have no idea why we started doing night runs (was it to get slurpees?), but they were so fun b/c Nick and Dax are hands-down the funniest people I know. Time goes on though. Couldn’t do much night running in San Jose; heck, I sometimes had a sketchy feeling running around that city in broad daylight. Night running came back to me at Carlsbad Caverns though b/c it was too hot during the days. Holy smokes, it was dark out there though on the Loop Road in the middle of the desert. No worries of scary people there unlike my time in California; my only 2 concerns in running there (day or night) were 1) rattlesnakes and 2) mountain lions (thanks Val Newman for freak’n me out about mt. lions!). Eh, whatcha gonna do though? Not much night running for me in St. Paul (not much running for me in St. Paul!), but when I returned to Reno I picked it up again somewhat.
I’m on the night shift now though and I find myself up at all hours on my days off. At first I was frustrated to get off at 8am, sleep until five, and then be awake ’til 4 in the morning. What would I do during the middle of the night? Turns out, it is pretty much the same as what I would do if it were the day. Wash the dishes, read a book, play on facebook, cook, walk Muffin, and run. So, I’ve found that about 70% of my runs in the past three months have started between the hours of 9pm and 3am. The good news is Bend seems to be a really safe town and of course there are exceptions to the rule (yeah, like what the heck w/ that guy on the bridge walking his bicycle and wearing a motorcycle helmet w/ the face shield down at 1am? kinda creepy), but overall I feel secure running at any hour. Yay!
So far I’ve found no difference in my probablility of tripping or running into anything during the dark as during the light. I’ve also been surprised at some of the things that I’ve seen during my night runs: an owl, a beaver (well, I did nearly have a collision w/ that one), a great blue heron (last night!), many more Christmas lights than I’d seen in just my drives to work, and a lot of amazing starry skies.
Miss those days w/ my “brothers” though.
