We just took a very long walk last night, since it was a hot summer night (yes, we are already getting those blistering hot days here in Ohio, you just never know what you’re gonna get!), and it ended up being a lot later than we wanted when we were finishing up the last leg of our walk, around 9:30.

The sun had begun to really go down in the sky and it was approaching total darkness by the time we reached our driveway. The problem was, we got lost and had to find our way back (we’re still relatively new to our neighborhood and were unfamiliar with the side roads, and ended up a long ways from our house), so we ended up travelling in the dark, which is a big no no for safety, as I’m sure you’re well aware.

We also were wearing dark clothes, so it was hard for cars to see us when we ended up on a semi busy roads where the speed limit was 45 - which means people go 55 to 60 mph, you know. Had I known we were going to be out late, I would have at least worn lighter clothes. In fact, many joggers shorts and pants include luminescent stripes or numberings of some sort so that joggers caught out later at night have relective properties so that cars travelling down the road can see them and properly swerve to stay well out of the way of hitting them.

Another part of safety when walking around neighborhoods, especially on busy roads where people tend to drive faster, is to stay well over to your left so that you are out of harms way if a car veers out of control or something happens where they suddenly swerve. We’ve all heard the horror stories, even of people just going out to get their mail, or crossing a busy street, who get hit and killed instantly by drivers who either aren’t paying attention or are simply careless and reckless, or perhaps they really genuinely did not see the person.

Safety is always first when jogging or walking around the neighborhood - it’s probably better that you stick to quiet side streets where the speed limit is 20, but I realize sometimes it’s impossible to avoid the busy roads, especially if you get lost!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 11:31 am and is filed under Fitness Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.