Own the night

The clocks would change. That means dark evenings. And some people depend on the evening for their exercise. And quite a lot of people have running as their main exercise. But not everyone is comfortable running in the dark, especially alone. And most of the people who aren't are women.

Welsh Athletics (WA) had decided to run a campaign in order to draw attention to this, and try to make an incremental change towards women being safe running alone, whenever wherever. And in order to do that, they organised a series of events called "own the night". And they encouraged individual club to organise events as well.

The Cybi Striders heeded WA’s call, and organised an event in Menai Bridge. I like the idea of promoting running safety, so when I found out about it (it was advertised on the track) I thought I’d go. Several track people would too. 

I asked Neil if he was interested. He was! He had been doing some running, and thought this would be a nice opportunity to do it in a bigger group. Even though the weather forecast wasn’t brilliant. 

He made sure to eat loads of carbs over lunch. And wondered what his outer layer should be. He was more scared of overheating than of getting wet. I went the other way. It would be a leisurely pace!

We found some more runners on the parking lot, and together went to the pub which was the meeting point. I recognised several people from the track. And Emma, the very fast Dutch lady. 

Group picture by the pub

After a while we set off. It was a leisurely pace! And one of the first things we did was do a little loop around Church Island. And it was dark, so it was difficult to appreciate how pretty it is, but I'm sure Neil got a little bit of an idea. He hadn't been!

On Church Island

We then ran along the main road to Llanfairpwll, and then back along the road higher up on the hill. That meant we were largely doing what had been my standard loop when I still lived in Menai Bridge (which uses trail where possible, though)! And upon leaving Llanfairpwll we were hit by a shower. I was a bit afraid that would make Neil regret his decision. But he didn’t! I was glad. 

After some 40 minutes we were back where we started. Most people left, but some 8 of us went for a swift half in the pub. That was nice! And then we dispersed again. 

This was the first time I ever ran with Neil! And we both liked it. So I’m sure that won’t have been the last time! 

Did this fundamentally change anything for how safe women feel when running alone in the dark? Not likely! But maybe we raised a tiny bit of awareness of the issue…