Running at night: your visibility measures?

[mechBgon]

Curious what the prevailing strategies are. I see some runners with head-mounted lights, the bobbing motion really grabs my attention when they're coming towards me. So do reflective shoe trim or ankle bands from either direction, provided my headlight is turned on so there's anything to reflect.

 

[Bateluer]

I'm curious what people are using as well. I just purchased a small hat mounted LED device, clips to the bill of the hat with some metal clips. I'm still testing it out, but when I did a trail training run with a local group, I noticed that my hat light was drowned out in their much brighter belt mounted lights. Furthermore, it seemed to reduce my depth perception, making the ground seem much flatter than it actually was. A dangerous thing when you're running on trails. I think it'd be fine for level group and solo running easily enough though. Keeps the hands free.

I'm not sure I'd really like a belt mounted light though, on longer runs I'm usually wearing belt pouches for gels, salt caps, etc.

 

[mechBgon]

I'm familiar with that "flattening" effect from using a helmet-mounted light when mountain biking. With a light that's below your eyes, stuff that sticks up will cast visible shadows, making it easy to pick out rocks and stuff. When the light's above your eyes, the shadows are hidden (the only exception being stuff that's suspended above the ground).

For me as a cyclist, if I'm on a popular running route, I have to keep my eyes peeled. We can't hear eachother coming, and we're generally going opposite directions on the same side of the road. And many runners wear dark colors. So I'm always glad of any reflective gear or actual lights they might have.

 

[Megatomic]

Well, I run on trails 99% of the time, even at night. But when I run at night I wear a 75 lumen head lamp. My trail shoes have reflective striping on them which is highly visible when they're not covered in mud. And some of my clothing has reflective letters/stripes on them. But I do not wear the vests and whatnot.

ps - I wear the same stuff if I'm doing the infrequent night road run.