A few months ago, I started going on an evening run most days. I used to go to a gym, but then I stopped that for money reasons and went to Wii Fit, but then it ended up being unbearably hot inside, so outside running it was. For me, the ideal time is quite late at night because that means that I get to avoid all of the obstacles that runners face during the day.
One of my favorite places to run is down a road which runs through a small wooded area. At the time of day that I do it, it is completely black. Going here regularly has helped me to make an interesting observation about running in the dark. For whatever reason, it’s much less tiring. It’s very noticeable that when I come out of that area and back onto the path with street lights, I all of a sudden feel the weight of my exercise crashing down on me. Similarly, when I’m in the dark, my mind wanders, but I am never really conscious of aching.
I suppose that when I am in the dark, I can’t see any part of myself, which then makes me forget about the effect that the running is having on my body. But what’s interesting about that, is that it’s not what you would expect to happen – or certainly not what I would expect to happen. I wonder if that would work at all in regards to pain relief? It just goes to show how fickle our senses truly are.
