To prepare for my upcoming 24 hour run in November, I figured it was time for a night run to see how my body dealt with fatigue and running in little light.
After work on Friday a couple of weeks ago, I went home, made dinner and packed some water and snacks. At 10pm I left for a well-known park in the Raleigh area. I planned to go for four hours, but cut it short after 13 miles due to a turned ankle. There were pros and cons to doing the long run at night.
Pros:
This was a great twist on a long run and broke the recent monotony of long runs.
It cut into prime beer drinking time, so I felt great Saturday morning
I had the whole park to myself
Cons:
It's hard to tell debris from horse poop at night without a headlamp
Horsepoop on your shoes makes them slippery
It's hard to see ruts in the bridle paths due to recent heavy rains
When you step in these ruts you can twist your ankle pretty badly
Running on smelly twisted ankles sucks.
