Visibility: City Running on a Dark & Rainy Morning
As autumn starts to bring rain and darkness for the early birds and evening owls, visibility becomes an important part of every runner’s planning. What’s SFM Ambassador Scott Benbow’s tactic?
In the late 1990s, I lived on a small tropical island in Micronesia that was soaked by over 18 feet of rain every year. Typically, I ran to and from work each day, and, if I was fortunate on a run, I was drenched by one of the forty daily showers that made the very hot island a temporarily cooler place to live. In the tropical heat, I never had to protect myself from the rain because it was easier to run in the rain than when it was dry, sunny, and oppressively hot.
Since moving from tropical Micronesia to subtropical San Francisco, from what I consider to be the harshest to the best climates for running, I no longer favor running in the rain. The dry days are ideal days for running in San Francisco year-round.
However, the rainy days pose some problems I never had to confront when I was living overseas. Moreover, after several years of drought in California, I’ve had to learn again how to run in cold, driving rain. Visibility was one of the newly re-discovered issues.
What to Wear?
Something I’ve always loved about running is how easy it is to don my running clothes, lace up my shoes and get out the door. Running in the rain in San Francisco is more problematic. Not only do you have to protect yourself from the elements with water-repellant gear, you also have to be a lot more careful on the roads and sidewalks in the city.
It’s much more difficult for drivers to see runners, pedestrians, and cyclists when it’s raining. And, if you run before sunrise like I do, the combination of precipitation and darkness can be deadly on busy streets.
I’ve had a couple of near collisions with drivers in past years. Last winter, on a very rainy morning, I almost collided with another runner, so I started to explore safety equipment that would make me more noticeable to drivers, cyclists, and runners around me.
For years, I’ve used headlamps, worn reflective clothing to increase visibility, and exercised caution when running in the dark, but I kicked it up a notch this year.
In the dark, the Proviz Reflect360 Active Vest looks like this. In the daytime, it’s grey and sleek; it’s a versatile vest for people who run and work in urban areas. Photo by Maxfield Benbow.
This winter, I found a vest at Proviz that is perfect for running in the city, before sunrise, in the rain. It is so comfortable that it’s easy to forget I’m wearing it. In direct artificial light (like an automobile’s headlights), the vest’s reflective surface is so bright it almost seems flash. It’s also water repellant and, best of all for the city, it is sleek and grey in ambient light.
The Result
While I’ve tried to run as often as possible during the dry days, my runs in the dark and the rain have seemed a lot safer than in previous years thanks to the increased visibility.
Two things The San Francisco Marathon can almost guarantee is that it will be dark at the start and it won’t be raining; it almost never rains in San Francisco in July. I hope to see you at the starting line, dark and early for the race!
About Scott Benbow
Scott Benbow is a San Francisco Marathon Ambassador, attorney, nonprofit specialist, and passionate SFM runner. He lives in San Francisco and runs the hills of our incredibly beautiful city with us every year.