Night Moves*

7 Rules for running at night

Have always loved this storefront I saw on some night runs in a town in upstate New York I once spent a week in.

The days have started to shorten. The long funnel to the winter solstice has begun in earnest, even as the days remain blazingly hot and the threat of wildfire surrounds us. Hurricanes and typhoons kick up above the oceans, and tornado winds threaten the plains. We’re hardly in Keats’ season of mist, but arguably most of us never are, at least not now. 

Through all this atmospheric drama, the light in the northern hemisphere steadily extinguishes. More and more often I end my runs in total darkness, in the cool and loneliness of actual night instead of soft evening. Most people, I’ve noticed, do not run at night, and definitely not alone. But it’s worked for me for decades.** 

This is not possible in rural areas, of course. The animals and darkness are far too dangerous. But if you live in the well-lit suburbs or cities, you can manage it well, and it can extend your time to run far after children go to bed and work emails slow. 

The advantage to evening runs is that they provide a solid seam between my daytime and nighttime self. I can start my run dog-tired, worn out and stressed to oblivion by my day, but when I go run, I come back refreshed and new and proud of myself. I can hang out with my husband; I can do little projects around the house. I am myself again. For this reason, I am the evening run’s biggest advocate. 

The benefits aside, people ask me a lot about the practicalities. How do you run safely at night? Where do you go? What do you do? So here’s a short list of my rules to get you started. Ask me any questions in the comments, and the next two weeks I’ll follow up with stories about night runs I’ve done around the world. 

7 rules for safely running at night: 

1. Run where people are. This can be tricky, because too many people can make it hard to run, but not enough people is dangerous. You’re going for a balance between safety-in-numbers and enough room to maneuver. 

2. Never run in or through a park or on a trail at night. Even if it’s well lit; even if it’s essentially a field: go around. You don’t want to be in a park, away from people, isolated. 

3. Don’t wear headphones. Cars sometimes can’t see you, and you need to be able to hear them in case you can’t see them.

4. Make eye contact with drivers. Point at yourself to let them know you have the right of way and you’re going, or wave them through if you want them to go ahead.

5. Take up space. Be super obvious. Run in the bike lane or the street if that’s the safest bet. The evening run is a little bit of performance art.

6. Give a wide berth to potential hazards. Never be afraid to inconvenience a car or make people look at you funny if you need to go around a trash can or a person sleeping on the sidewalk.

7. Ignore catcalls and comments. You’re already running away from whoever is trying to get your attention, and I guarantee they will not chase you. People who catcall and comment don’t run. That’s why they’re commenting; they want you to stop so they can feel okay about themselves. 

Top level take away

Running in public on public streets a night is totally fine. Your best plan is to use your focus and body posture to message to everyone around you that you belong there, because you do. 

Go run. 

*Yes, that is a Bob Seger reference.

**I had to start running at night, because in New York in winter the day hardly dawns and the true night descends at 4:30. So if I wanted to run, night was the option.