This is great, thanks for creating it!

I'd only add is that in many places it is entirely possible to run without a flashlight for at least an hour after sunset. If you are out in nature as the sun is setting, your eyes should adapt enough to let you continue running for a while in the afterglow (i.e. the light from the sun that's reflected in the sky even though the sun itself is below the horizon).

I'm a lamp-hater since my days in the Swedish army. I feel that flashlights destroy the adaptation to darkness and give tunnel vision by only providing illumination for a narrow spot in front of me. So whenever the terrain and light conditions admit, I'll go without. And that's more often that you would expect.

However, I've never tried the two-lamp trick. I'll do that on my run tonight - I'll probably finish an hour after sunset.

Also, I totally agree on the mental preparedness for noises. During my last night run I had deer take off from both sides of the narrow trail I was on. That's a lot of sudden noise when you are alone in the forest.

If you are running from daytime through sunset : Don't forget to take off your sunglasses !  (It happens....)

Its just a great way to accelerate your adaptation to low-light conditions!

I turn on my phone, with music coming out of the speakers, during night runs to "ward off the animals"

Just an FYI...October 18 is the first night of a full Hunter's Moon. Should be an awesome night for a run if the weather cooperates.

Awesome! I've scheduled a long run for the 17th. Will make sure to make it a night run!

Btw, has anyone here ever had trouble running in parks that are "open dawn to dusk"? It seems like a stretch that the rangers could catch you, especially if you aren't using a lamp.

 

I've been pulled over 2 times (and given a $60 ticket the second time) for running after sunset on roads in the Gettysburg Battlefield.  The battlefield area is National Park Service land, and even though you can drive around, you can't be on foot after sunset.  The time I got the ticket, I was returning after a 10 miler and left well before sunset.  It was a new park ranger, and when I tried to tell him all the rangers I knew, including his boss, I think I pissed him off.  I just paid the ticket, because I knew the law.

Ha, that sucks. I once received a warning for changing from office clothes to running clothes in the parking lot. I felt that was pretty ridiculous since my dress shirt covered more of my thigh than most skirts I saw that day, and that I was standing behind my car door.

Depending on how wild the area you are running in is, you might give some thought to waiting until full dark to run. It is good experience to run from daylight into dark and from dark into dawn. It is also good to be aware dusk and dawn are prime hunting times.  Generally, the animals you hear are okay.  It is the quiet ones that might be bothersome.

If you are going out in the woods at all, you should have some awareness of what is out there and know a little something about their behavior, around or not around people.

Familiar trails are good. If you are on unfamiliar trails be overly cautious, quick to backtrack, quick to consult a map (if you have one).  Don't get lost farther out.

You should have one light that is not used. It is in your pocket, vest, fanny pack, backpack, whatever. It is checked for brightness before going on a night run. It is the light you use when your other light(s) fail. If you normally only use one light, it is the light you will use if you need to change batteries or bulbs (not with the LED lights). You cannot do those things in the dark. A single LED using one AA or AAA will (might) be enough to get you out safely.

If you are wearing a headlight, please don't turn to me and say, "What?" when I say something to you. You will have just blinded me. Others will appreciate it too (not being blinded by the light, they probably don't care about me).

Teasing the rangers is not a good thing--especially with two thirds of summer gone. They are just as irritable as the tourons.  In our park we are operating on reduced pay, reduced hours, and reduced stuff to do the things we do.  Behave, please.

Changing clothes in plain sight, though "hidden" by a door... you can be out of hiding and in plain sight to flash a passerby... does happen and a person can keep a straight face as he explains to the nice park employee it was an accident. Then it happens again. I realize that is not what you were doing, but it is a way of getting to expose some things best left unseen by people who enjoy it.

On the other hand: There are few things more enjoyable than a night run, especially under a clear sky---either dark so the stars are out or under a full moon where you might not need a light--and loons or wolves or coyotes or owls can be heard--good stuff.

Run gently out there.

I apologize for straying from the night running topic to legal philosophy. I will refrain from continuing that discussion here.

 

During my night run last night I tried using a lamp for the last 20 minutes. Putting the lamp around my chest instead of on my head was an amazing improvement! I was less blinded, had more stable light, AND I could make cool shadow creatures with my hands! 

No apology needed, just offering the view from a park employee (pay cut from $10.34 to $10.13 this year), hours cut from 40 to 18, making almost every day somewhat tense because I just never feel like I can get everything done.

On the head light thing, do you wear a cap?  Some don't and are pleasantly surprised with how much better a head light is when you have a cap on (light above the bill <= joke).

Edited to incorporate the editing done by the person responsible for the stuff inside the little rectangle up above.  The fun of language differences has me seeing him run down a trail with a lamp (U.S. mind) and a very long extension cord  trailing behind.