Stay Safe

Summer is quickly ending, which means shorter days, cooler weather, and school. This fall, it is important to keep your safety in mind as you run outdoors. Most safety precautions seem like common sense, but it is easy to overlook our safety when we find it inconvenient, time-consuming, or just uninteresting.

With the days getting shorter, and nights getting longer, one of the most important things for runners to do is make sure they are visible. This means that you should be easily seen by all cars that drive past you. The easiest way to do this is wearing brightly colored clothing. Most running clothes nowadays also have some sort of reflective material in order for cars to see you even better. Headlamps and other reflectors also make you more visible to road traffic.

If you do happen to be running on the road, whether it’s during the day or night, it is very important to stay safe from traffic. The most common, and possibly best, way to do this is by running against the flow of traffic. By running against traffic, you are better able to see oncoming cars and react in the case of an emergency. In case there is an emergency, it is important for runners to have some form of I.D. with them. Some runners choose to wear I.D. wristbands, others choose to carry a cell phone or driver’s license.

Lastly, runners should always make sure that they are never alone. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should always run with a partner. Sometimes this means you should make sure that somebody knows where you are going and just about what time you should return. That way, if something does happen, people you know and trust will know that something happened and may be able to find you easier. It is also a good idea to run in familiar, safe places.

As a runner, I do my best to put my safety first. Being at college, I do find it hard to run during daylight hours. This usually results in me running at, or slightly after, sunset. Luckily, I really like colorful shorts and t-shirts, so wearing brightly colored clothing doesn’t prove to be too much trouble. Going to school in a small town also ensures that I always have a sidewalk to run on, as well as little traffic to worry about. It is still important to me to run against traffic anyways just in case something would go wrong. As far as identification, I keep my student I.D. card in the tiny key-pocket of my shorts. Having a roommate, as well as a bunch of friends living on campus, it is usually fairly easy for me to find someone to tell them where I am going. As I said before, our town is not very big, so I never go too far, but I am always sure to tell at least one person where I am going and how long I plan on being gone.

I sincerely hope that all of you reading this post either take these safety precautions already, or plan on playing it safe in the future. Always put your safety above your workout.

Stay Alive!

Danielle ♥