Are you feeling lucky, punk?

Ahh... the bewitching hour. Actually I have no idea what or when the bewitching hour is but I'm back to running in the wee hours of the morning. When I first started running I would go out at 5 a.m. because I knew that I wouldn't be able to run any time during the day. But over time, I started getting scared of running in the dark. Nothing crazy happened to me but I slowly became more concerned about my safety. On the news in my area there were more and more reports of women who were being attacked or assaulted during a walk/run in their neighborhood. Some of these attacks happened at sunrise or sunset when there was still light outside. I may be strong and quick but I'm still a small female.

So I gave up my early morning runs for late morning and early evening runs. The positive of the transition was that I could bring my (now) 17 month-old with me in the jogger and enjoy some quality time. The negative was that there were many days when I had to "squeeze" a run into an already tight schedule. Most of the time I would end up running at five or six in the evening and would still have to give my little one a bath and make dinner. For women who work, raise their children AND run, I have no idea how you do it. I tip my big ten gallon hat to all of you ladies.

As the summer months rolled in the day runs became harder and harder to maintain. I even ran midday many times which I never recommend for anyone who lives in a tropical climate. My wife gave me many stern talks about those runs. But I didn't know what else to do and I HAD to get my run in. Last week I said That's it! I'm running in the dark! I talked to my wife about it and the only stipulation was that I had to get pepper spray. I also had a head light that was given to me by my mother-in-law. So I have the gear and now we're a go!