Running with Lights

If you haven't run at night, you are missing out on a great treat! Most Runners, have a few running courses they run a lot during the daytime. Familiarity with those courses is good, but is sometimes almost boring. Running that same course at nighttime brings an entirely different feel to your run.

Some runners prefer to do their night running on the roads, sidewalks, or off road somewhere. Before you run anywhere at night, be sure that you have a good lighting system to keep you safe.

A host of lights are available to suit your needs. There are lights for you to see with, and lights that are primarily used to be seen by. Personally, I prefer a "light to see with", because it illuminates the road or trail far enough forward, so I can see where my feet will tread. A light with greater reach, also provides enough light to be seen by... making it a good choice, for a duel purpose solution.

The lights that are used to be "seen by", are usually a smaller lumen light that can been seen by others but they do not provide enough light for you to see where you are stepping. This style of light helps you to be seen by runners, walkers, and motorists, but will not give you enough light to see what the road or trail looks like more than one step forward. A good use for a light to be seen by, is a "tail light", with red flashing light.

In addition to lighting systems, reflective tabs on shoes and clothing, work like "a like to be seen by", but they are only visible if there is a light source that reflects off of them. They are not a real light source, but they reflect light, and they almost look like a light source.

Presently Inside Out Sports has a lot of great choices for Lights to see with, and lights to be seen by. We also have a nice selection of products that have reflective tabs built into them, such as, vests, hydration flasks, etc.

Next week we will talk about various styles of lights, and the quality of light provided by each of them. (measured in lumens).