In case you haven’t noticed, daylight saving time has ended. And what does that mean? It means that it gets dark at about 2:00PM now. Ok, maybe I exaggerate a little bit, but it sure seems like there is a lot less daylight these days. With this change, it is important to remember to make yourself visible while you are out and about.
Lindsay @ Chasing the Kenyans posted this video a while back and with the change in the amount of daylight, I thought it was a good time to re-post it.
Today, Jennie and I headed out on a run at about 6:00PM and it was already dark enough to see stars in the sky. I wore a Brooks NightLife Podium Shirt that was the race shirt for the Brooksie Way Half Marathon and let Jennie borrow my Brooks NightLife Hat. The hat has blinking lit on the back, but unfortunately it has stopped working. Hopefully a new battery will fix it. Even without the light, it is still a great way to be reflective. I’ll have to remember to wear my headlamp for our next run though. While I felt we were plenty reflective, it was almost too dark for us to see where we were going. I’d feel better if I could see the sidewalk and watch for cracks and uneven surfaces.
If you are in need of reflective gear, but on a tight budget, Lifehacker has a great way to potentially create your own. The author visited his local traffic office in search of scrap reflective street sign material. He then used the material to make his bike reflective. Obviously, you probably don’t want to go sticking this stuff to your fancy tri bike, but I could see sticking some of it to the back/sleeves of an old shirt or brim of a hat. If you can’t find any free reflective material, just Google “reflective tape” and you can find lots of reasonably priced alternatives.
And finally, another change – this one to my blog. I have updated the comments area to have a (hopefully) a better system for replying to and managing comments. Until now, I have managed comments by simply replying by email to commenters. I’ve never liked that method because sometimes I feel like others may benefit from my replies. I think I have finally found a solution. I (and you for that matter) can reply to any comment and the original commenter will be notified by email of the new comment. To reply to a comment, simply click the “Reply” button next to the comment you want to respond to.
If you don’t want to receive an email notification when someone replies to one of your comments, simply uncheck the “Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail” box when you post. If you uncheck the box, others can still reply to your comment, but you’ll have to manually check back to see the replies and won’t get an email notification.
Let me know what you think of the new comment system. If you love, say so. If you totally hate it, say so. The last thing I would want to do is alienate my readers by doing something stupid.
Thanks for reading and remember to be safe out there!
13 comments
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Lisa
November 9, 2010 at 8:10 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I have a brooks nightlife hat with the blinky light too. let me know if you figure out how to change the battery. mine still works, but at some point, i’m sure i’ll have the same issue.
kevin
November 9, 2010 at 10:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I just changed the battery on the hat this morning and it is working again. It takes 2 watch sized batteries (LR41 is the actual battery size). I actually had a couple laying around otherwise I am sure that you can find them at RadioShack or something. To replace them, just pull off the red cover and there will be a tiny circuit board where the two batteries clip in.
lindsay
November 9, 2010 at 8:29 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
i have that hat too! except i’ve never washed it b/c i forget how to take the light thingy off…
delicious, i know. i mostly only wear it in the winter anyway since there’s typically daylight in the summer/spring/fall, and who sweats in the winter? that’s my excuse…
that guy was hardcore going to the DOT.
Jeff
November 9, 2010 at 10:24 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
At least we have some light now when we wake up right?
Good post and you know we should be extremely careful training in the dark. I think sometimes we forget to take precautions and it is good to be reminded!
Viper
November 9, 2010 at 12:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Great video and reminder. Light yourself up like a Christmas tree. Better to look foolish than to be dead. Cheers!
BDD
November 9, 2010 at 1:27 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Are you part of the Brooks ID program? or just like Brooks?
Ironman By Thirty (Kevin)
November 9, 2010 at 1:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Haha – Just like Brooks. I have probably have half/half Brooks/Nike gear for the most part.
Nitmos
November 9, 2010 at 2:26 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The nice thing about working from home is that I can put up the ‘in a meeting’ icon on my PC and jsut go for a run during the nice, bright middle of the day!
onelittletrigirl
November 9, 2010 at 3:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I have been using this system for commenting as well- so much easier than emailing
Aimee (I Tri To Be Me)
November 9, 2010 at 4:21 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That’s a great video! Thanks for posting it! It’s sooo important to be visible!
regina
November 10, 2010 at 1:17 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
great video. I usually do not run at night, but I should have some reflective stuff around. Thanks for the reminder.
Joel
November 10, 2010 at 10:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Great post. I do the vast majority of my runs in the dark, so I really need something. I’ve been thinking about what to do differently, just haven’t landed on anything. Thanks for the ideas.
Mandy
November 12, 2010 at 8:42 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Brooks has great stuff!
Man, I wish I wrote about what I was wearing when running at night – I have the Brooks reflective stuff too. Like an array of stuff, plus I put a headlamp on my head backwards…now that is cool….that is a great video.
I need to figure out a way to do the follow up comment thing in an easier way. Hmmm Sounds like a good project for this weekend.