Early Morning Routines
Chris Jennings / Herald Democrat

Pretty much every morning the routine goes like this. I wake the kids up, pour a cup of coffee, wake the kids up, let the dog out, wake the kids up for the last time and turn on the TV.

I cook breakfast for the oldest. The youngest eats at school. About 30 minutes passes and everybody is dressed, fed and ready to go. The alarm on my phone goes off letting them know it’s time to brush their teeth and go outside to wait for the bus.

Just before that, the dog will see me getting ready to go run and follow me around the house, tail wagging at increasing intensity, until I leave. If I go outside without her she will sit at the glass door and whine. This breaks my heart so I usually cave in. Problem is I only run with her on the trail.

To be able to do this and have the van back in time for my lovely wife to get to work, I have to leave before dark. On Wednesday it had been four days since the dog had been able to run with me because of rain and running on the road a couple of days last week, so she was particularly ready to go.

When I got to the trail a little after 7 a.m. it was still pretty dark outside. I could see okay in the open areas but when we got to the trees it was just too dark. Somehow I managed to not trip over a root during the first lap. I like to think it was my finely tuned Jedi mind skills, but I’m pretty sure it was just luck.

I was caught not thinking ahead this time and could have gotten hurt. Next time I’ll take my fancy schmancy LED flashlight. If you’re an early-morning runner or a night-time runner, seeing where you’re going is almost as important as being seen. A flashlight can brighten the road or trail ahead to keep you aware of broken glass, potholes and those pesky roots that I swear can move.

Some of the other things I will do when it’s dark out is run against traffic. It’s easier to avoid the traffic if you can see what it’s doing.

I keep the headphones off until it’s light out and even then I will often run with one hanging loose so I have an open ear to hear what’s going on around me.

Whenever I’m crossing the street, whether it’s light or dark out, I always try to make eye contact with the driver.

I leave the dark colors for daylight hours. I don’t have any of the LED belts or vests that flash bright lights, but I think I will get one soon given the time of year it is.

A couple of notes on reflective surfaces. A driver will often associate a runner or walker wearing a reflective vest as a sign because the speed is so much slower than they are moving.
This can be especially true at an intersection where a runner may be standing still or appear to not be moving because of angles. Having one of the LED armbands that light up will give you something that moves — bringing more attention to you.

While on the trail I always try to wear a hat or something with a bill on it. The bill will sometimes catch a branch before it it’s my face. It’s not a fail-safe but it helps. I also wear glasses that have interchangeable lenses in them and will swap out to the clear lenses when it’s dark out to keep bugs and tree limbs out of my eyes.

This Saturday is the Fall Classic 5K and Mini K trail run at Waterloo Park in Denison. Sherman plays in Wichita Falls Friday night so it will be a late night for me, but the run doesn’t start until 10 a.m. so I can still get a little sleep.

My schedule calls for an 11-mile run Saturday and five kilometers is only 3.10685596 miles so I’m thinking I’ll keep running after the finish line and catch my wife, who will be walking it to finish with her. With warm-up that should put me close to 11 miles.

The weather looks to be perfect Saturday morning — a little cool out but once you get moving you’ll warm right up. If you haven’t registered yet and are thinking about running or walking, stop by Adrenaline at 414 W. Main in Denison to register today between 4-7 p.m.

If you’ve already registered you can pick your packets up at the same time. You can sign up Saturday morning but you save $5 by registering Friday.

I’m not really pushing myself during the run, or at least that’s the plan. To see if I did or not you can check my exercise blog at chrisjennings.bimblogs.com for stats from the run Saturday afternoon to see if the competitive urge took over and how badly I hurt myself.