Playing it safe at 6am
It’s 6:15am. I shouldn’t be awake at 6am, I’m a student, dammit. I shouldn’t be up until at least lunchtime Neighbours (If there is still such a thing as a lunchtime Neighbours. There was in the olden days when I was on the dole in Liverpool. I need to stop saying ‘in the olden days’ though as I said it twice yesterday at my first day back at university and I’m 42, not 92).
The reason I’m up at this unstudently hour is because I want to go for a run before going to university (I’m getting fed up of spelling university in full but Shaun tells me off if I call it uni although even my mum calls it uni and she’s hardly down with da kidz) for the first playwriting seminar of the year. I also want to go for a run early so I can try out my new Run Safe running light.
The Run Safe running light is a little light that attaches to your running shoe laces. It just clips on, so there’s no faffing about threading laces through holes.
The light comes on automatically when it senses motion, so you don’t have to worry about turning it on or off.
(Sorry about the blur but it turns itself off quickly and so it wasn’t easy to get a photo of my foot not moving.)
It’s a sensitive little soul though and will come on at the slightest movement, i.e. if it’s on a table and you walk past it. The box says it will flash for 520 miles but it’s going to be flashing in transit so I wouldn’t order it from America if I were you.
I was a bit worried about looking a bit of a dick with a red light flashing on my foot and I expressed my dick concerns to Twitter who reassured me that it’s ok to look like a dick if it’s in the interest of health and safety.
By the time I left the house, the sun had come up but I took my red flashing light for a run anyway. There’s not much to say about the Run Safe light really – you can see what the benefits are. It’s light (10g), easy to fit to your shoe, and turns itself on and off automatically. The only downside is that I could hear it clacking against my shoe when a quiet bit of music came on, so if you don’t listen to music when you run, that might be annoying (or I might not have fixed it firmly enough to my lace. Also, I have super-sensitive hearing).
A three mile run was on the schedule for today and I’d plotted out a roads-with-pavements-only route and dodged children walking to school (they start early, don’t they? I was pleased to see them walking though and not being driven. Loads of kids round here get driven to school. In my day I had to walk all the way from Essex to London to go to school (yeah, ok, so it was only about a quarter a of mile but that’s not the point)) and dog walkers.
I got back to the house at 2.87 miles and decided to carry on and do the final .13 miles and anyway, Liiines by Ghostpoet had just come on my iPod and I wanted to listen to that.
When I got back I was a teensy bit pleased to see that – although I had walked a bit – I’d done my three miles in 11.01 minute miles which is my old slow-average. Now I need to get back to my old not-so-slow-average which doesn’t mean that’s a fast-average but just a not-so-slow-as-really-slow-average.
Very impressed with all this 6am activity! I agree with Shaun about banning the use of the word ‘Uni’!
Will the light work attached else where?
I would imagine so, it comes on at the slightest thing.
“faffing about”, “sensitive little soul”.
brilliant.
I should look to see if there is something like that available StateSide. not much daylight during the long winters.
thanks!
1. I concur with Rachel re being impressed with your early rising – I know this is not your preferred state.
2. My niece has a pair of shoes that does a similar thing. They are also pink and sparkly – I’m not sure if they are available in grown up sizes.
Ah, I do like being up early, I just don’t like getting up early. I also don’t like leaving the house early. But I love it when I’m wide awake naturally and I get up and I’ve got loads of time to do stuff.
You are so disciplined getting up at 6am to run – most unlike a student. I had forgotten you were an Essex girl – where did you go to school? PS quite like your trainers…
I went to school in Wanstead and was born/lived in Redbridge. Do you know round there?
When I first went to university, my main trick was falling asleep watching The Big Breakfast, and finally waking up in time for evening neighbours. I was essentially nocturnal. Neither my university, nor my tamagotchi, could appreciate this.
Well played for running at 6am! If you’re a student, double kudos. When I was at uni I usually didn’t get out of bed until 10am. I still struggle now!
Don’t you get distracted by those lights on your feet though. I would probably run into a lamp post or something.
I remember myself as a student (not that long ago, 3-4 years) waking up at 5:30 am even on holidays, only to avoid the sun that makes it so difficult to breath at around 7 am. i had the adidas kanadia back then, good running shoes, any terrain , any weather, I even used them on ice, very slow jogging but on ice, and didn’t fall. check out my site, it’s new but it has a bunch of info already, for now a lot of technical information but it will grow. anyway keep up the running, morning is the best in my opinion