Day and Night Running

Lately, I have been trying my hand at some night running, with some interesting observations.

For one, although I am near-sighted, I don't wear glasses while running. In the day, I can still easily see distant objects, with the color-sensing cells of my eyes (are they the rods or the cones, I forget) compensating for my difficulty in far vision. I know this must be true, for at night the distant view becomes much more blurry for me. Maybe I just need to start wearing glasses then!

On November 29, I had just driven back into Gainesville from Jacksonville. It was already well into the evening, but I wanted to run. So I ended up going over to the University of Florida and running an improvised course through its campus. My running pace was slower than usual. I attribute that to being more careful about where I placed my feet in the relative darkness. But this past December 29, I ran pretty much the same course in broad daylight and, although I ran it faster, the extreme hilliness of the terrain strongly affected me. But I didn't seem to care much about this the month before, in the dark!

Running at night is a vastly different experience from running in the daytime. Of course, if you're going to run around a well-lit track at night, that is more like daytime running. But I'm talking about road running. In the day, it is more of an assault on my senses, with the lighting and sounds (and somehow even the sloping road) having more of an impact on my mind. In the night, though, sounds are more muffled and the view is dimmer and blurrier. In a way, this frees me to enjoy the experience more. Besides, nights are cooler and more pleasant. Will my speed pick up at night? Eventually, once I am more confident about the courses I run on. In any event, I intend to pursue night running more, with the UF campus being my main focus. Watch out Gators, here I come!