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my biggest pet peeve with those joggers is running on roads when there's a perfectly safe, paved, dry sidewalk!
It is virtually impossible to run at night on sidewalks in residential areas. There are two issues: low hanging tree branches that will poke your eyes out; and raised sidewalks that you can trip over.
Towns are a different story. They can be a good place to run at night on sidewalks. They usually have well lit, wider sidewalks that are in better shape.
Quote:
Originally Posted by brocco
I am glad I have dirt trails near my house! Especially after reading some of these responses jeez. The trails are certainly not well lit though.
First of all, I'm a guy but have a wife and tow daughters who run. We often run on a nearby trail. The trouble is their is a hill that runs along side a long portion of the trail and it gets pitch black on the trail soon after the sun goes down. We have all been on the trail after dark but I worry when my wife and daughters are still on the trail when it get dark. It is secluded enough that it would be aperfect place to attack a female.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ncole1
No. What if somebody forgets to turn their headlights on?
I trained for three marathons mostly running on country roads at night. Your eyes get accustomed to the darkness. You do have to deal with passing cars and the worst part are the headlights of an oncoming car. You have to look away to not get blinded by the headlights. The worst situation is when you have two care going in opposite directions on a narrow country road. I would usually have to stop on get as far off the road as I could.
BTW, anyway who is out running in the dark is probably not jogging. Jogging is slow running barely faster than walking, and what most runners do to cool down after they run. It drives most runners crazy to describe running as "jogging."
Hopefully the person running was running against traffic. The sidewalks as many have stated are not as safe as you would think.
You really don't want to run against traffic. I run on the middle of the road at night. When a vehicle approaches, I go to the opposite side of the road. You don't want to be caught on the side of the road facing traffic if you can avoid it. There may not be much room off the edge of the road. I've had people drive by at 70 MPH and faster, so I want to be as far away as possible. Headlights give you plenty of warning of an approaching vehicle. During the day, I have had vehicles sneak up on me before I'm aware of them. This is why you should run against traffic during the day and never listen to music.
Ughhh. How awful! I think part of what differentiates people is in how they respond to an experience like that. Not in the immediate sense, but over the long term. Some will conclude that their activity is not worth the risk. Others will have more of a 'I won't let them take away my fun' attitude.
I used to hike alone a lot, in broad daylight, but often during business hours when not many people were on the trails. I had hiked hundreds of times & twice had uncomfortable situations. One, enough so that I called the cops afterwards & had lengthy discussions with a cop friend.
For me, I refuse to allow a couple of bad experiences to stop me from all the pleasure I get from hiking alone. But experiences like that sure do make you think twice They make me angry
I kep going for awhile longer. I had my dog and added some mace to my arsenol. A few weeks after my encounter, i pulled up to the park and someone left a note on the park map board that she was accosted by a man on the trail. Cops were called, search was done and he was not found.
That is when I decided it was not worth it and quit going.
I thought about that, perhaps they are uneven? I remember falling once, while jogging on an uneven sidewalk, so?
Depending on where you live, yes. When I lived out east, the sidewalks were filled with holes, extremely uneven. Branches would be hanging low, trash cans out on the curb fallen over.
I am now in Texas and the sidewalks are fine. I run on those 99% of the time.
During my brief urban stint it seemed to me that people coming out of driveways were more of a danger than people on the road. They look for traffic, not pedestrians. So I didn't find the sidewalks all that safe even besides trip hazards, etc.
Here there are no sidewalks.
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They make me angry 
