I do most of my running at night. Generally, I’m a morning runner, but with my schedule, running after work is convenient. Of course, during these cold, winter months, it gets dark around 3:00p.m. (okay, slight exaggeration). This gives me one extra thing to worry about when gearing up for a run – safety.
At first, it amazed me how little reflective gear I had (zero). And no, the reflective parts of my shoe don’t count. Actually, in order to be seen by ignorant drivers (seriously, most of them don’t pay attention to pedestrians) you need more than just a reflective swoosh on your shoe to be seen.
While parts of my apparel are reflective, it’s not enough to stop that SUV from barreling through the intersection. While I do wear a blinking light on the reflective backpack I run with, I’ve been noticing that while the back of me is “lit up,” the front of my body is not visible to people in motor vehicles.
Thus, why I want this Nathan Photon L.E.D. Vest. Not only is the vest itself reflective, but the L.E.D. lights ensure that I can be seen from all angles, which is important, if I want to keep all my limbs or resist being run over by a cyclist (it’s happened to me before, in broad daylight too!)
Safety isn’t always fashionable, but neither is being dead.
Although the vest pretty much lights you up like a Christmas tree, on the super cold nights, I’d also like my headband to be reflective. Athleta Base Miles Headband has reflective detail. As a bonus, it even has a pony-tail holder (which is great for when I grow my hair out never). This should balance out the ugliness of the vest, right?!
What are your reflective gear staples when running or just walking to the gym or yoga?
I definitely need to get some of this gear, too!
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I WISH more people would take these precautions at night. I almost ran over some guy the other {early} morning because he was running across the street, in ALL BLACK, and not at the cross walk. SAFETY FIRST!
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