Over the past couple of weeks for most of us the weather has gotten colder and the days fade to night quicker.  We have touched on how to run effectively, safely, and what tools you can use to help you run more effectively at night or low light situations, but another thing that is important is etiquette for runners. These things are out of courtesy for others, yourself, and also help to keep you safe. To read more on safety while night running you can click here and read the best tips to keep you going strong and safe throughout winter. The things I want to mention in this post will be more training or casual running manners and not race etiquette, we will save that discussion for another day. For now, here are some tips on Runner’s Etiquette for Night Time Running.

Don’t litter:

At this point in time we all know the importance of maintaining our earth and doing our part to ensure our roads and trails can be enjoyed for many generations to come. The solution to this is easy, carry a pack or waist pack. There are plenty of options but road or trail it does help to have something to carry your phone, food, water, AND trash in while out on your runs.

Run against traffic while on the road: 

While running around the neighborhood or to your trail system, run against traffic. By doing this you are able to be more aware of what is going on around you and given you are wearing a waist light or headlamp you are more visible quicker to people on the road. You want to be ready to jump out of the way if things were to get scary.

Be courteous on the trail at night: 

It is first priority to be safe and seen while running at night. To ensure you are also not being the inconsiderate person make sure that while running on the road or the trail you cover your light when passing someone going the opposite way. If you are using an UltrAspire 3D Waist Light  those can be adjusted downward or easily covered so you don’t blind oncoming runners.

Respect the street signs: 

This is pretty obvious because the outcome wouldn’t be ideal, but stop at the stop signs. Just because you have the right of way as a pedestrian does not mean you’ll win against a vehicle if they don’t see you. Always stop and look both ways every time just to be safe before crossing at a cross walk.

Stay in your own lane: 

Don’t be a road or trail hog. Stay on your side (the right side) and pass on the left If you are running in a group, give the other people some room to move around and pass or come the other way. When passing, it’s always nice to give a little notice to the person that you are passing.

These are 5 short tips on courtesy but lately I have been seeing so many threads where this has been a discussion and I think it’s important that as the sport grows, the veteran runners set a good example for those who may be new so that good runners etiquette stays alive and is passed on.