Thinking about trail-running at night? Here are some tips to get you started.
With the light dying early these days, if you want to get out trail running, you'll need to get out at night, but running off-road in the dark is a whole new game, so this week's Monday Tip aims to help you find your way.
Let There Be Light...
The first obvious addition you'll need is lighting. A headtorch is ideal, but the motion of running means lightness is a big advantage and more important than when walking. A torch with a remote battery pack is ideal.
Running also makes odd demands of your light. Ideally you want both a bright pool of flood around you which oddly seems to help both with your balance and preventing straying on less distinct tracks and a bright spot for longer distance vision. Silva makes a couple of remote battery headtorches which do just this thanks to a mix of central spot and peripheral flood LEDs – the X-Trail and the X-Trail Pro, which has an integral rechargeable battery.
The other issue with headtorches is that a single light source close to your eyes tends to flatten terrain and make it hard to distinguish the depth of features and tell, say, a step and small hollow apart. One way of countering this is to carry a secondary light in your hand which you can use on more nadgery terrain to improve depth perception, but also, to pick out distant features like stiles and gates.
Whatever light you use, make sure you have more than enough power to complete your run.
Route Choice
Running familiar trails will help with navigation, but in the dark it makes sense to choose paths which are distinct and hard to wander off and have a relatively smooth surface – even with good lights, it's easy to misplace a foot in the dark with painful results.
If you're running in an area you don't know well, take some time in advance to plan your route and stay on top of your navigation as you go. Navigational techniques like aiming off and awareness of the overall lie of the land will make your life easier. It's easy to get disorientated in the dark, so focus on making sure you're on route at all times.
Choosing routes that follow distinctive features and hand-rails like edges, walls or streams can make your life easier too. Big expanses of featureless moorland are simply harder to navigate.
Be Seen
Having a good headtorch is one thing but you also need to be visible yourself, particularly if you may need to run on unlit roads to reach the trails. A small but bright rear light is a good call – you should be facing oncoming traffic, but remember, a car coming the other way may not see you from behind and try and dodgy overtake.
On top of that, reflective is your friend. A lot of running and outdoor clothing, footwear and gear already has reflective patches incorporated, but you can supplement it with reflective wrist and ankle bands and maybe even a high-viz vest or jacket – mesh ones won't overheat you either.
Be Safe
Running in company is both safer and psychologically reassuring, but whether you head out alone or with others, let someone know where you're going and when you expect to return plus specify a time when they should call for help. You could also consider carrying a mobile phone, but don't assume it will definitely have reception in the hills. Bear in mind too, that you may move more slowly in the dark, particularly on trickier terrain and factor that into your plans.
All that might sound a little daunting, but the pay-off is an almost magical sensation of solitude and isolation, you don't have to go far from the road to feel right 'out there'. Give it a try, start modest and work your way up to longer runs and you won't look back,
