Learn To Love Running: Safety
September 24th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Earlier this year I taught a running clinic at my workplace. I titled the clinic ‘Learn To Love Running’. I am passionate about running. I decided to post some of the materials I put together for the clinic here on my blog. This was from one of the sessions.
There are two areas in this discussion of Safety that I want to cover, one of them is especially relevant here in Texas and that is heat safety. The other equally important one is physical safety.
During warmer months runners of all experience levels need to be careful to avoid heat related illnesses. Warm weather places significant additional stress on the body during physical exertion that can rapidly lead to potentially life threatening illness. It is important that runners pay attention to this.
First, exertion during warm temperatures can easily lead to dehydration. If you are going to be active, you need to drink plenty of fluids. The easiest way to determine your level of hydration is to pay attention to the color of your urine when you void. If you are properly hydrated, your urine will be clear to slightly yellow. If it’s dark yellow, you probably need to take on fluids. However, you can’t wait till you begin to exercise before you start taking on fluids. It is important to drink throughout the day. It will take some time before the fluids you drink to be absorbed by your body.
Also, if the heat is too extreme, you may need to cut back on your mileage until cooler months. Personally, I get more miles in during the fall, winter and spring than I do during the summer. I also try and get out for my runs early in the morning, before it starts getting too hot. Here in Texas I usually take a water bottle with me on nearly every run.
The next area I want to discuss is physical safety. It’s extremely important that you pay attention to your surroundings. I get most of my running miles out on the road and not on the track or trails. Because I am sharing the roads with cars, this adds a significant element of danger. If you are going to be running on roads, I strongly suggest you do not run with your iPod or other music player. It’s all too easy to miss hearing an oncoming car or other hazard when you have headphones stuck in your ears.
I was once on a run on some country roads when I heard the sounds of footsteps, actually they were hoofbeats and lots of them. I stopped just in time to have a herd of white tailed deer fly across the road just a few feet in front of me. Apparently they got spooked in a farmer’s field and decided to hoof it to safer environs. Had I not heard them because I was listening to music and stopped I would likely have been trampled by several of these panicked critters.
Speaking of critters, I have probably had more run ins with dangerous dogs, than with dangerous humans. Dogs territorial by nature. You as a runner are perceived as an interloper even if you are just running on the street in front of their home. If a dog is aggressive, the best advice is to slow to a walk, keep your eye on the dog and shout at it, all the while making slow progress away from the dog. If you must, scan the surrounding ground for a stick, a stone or other object you can use should the dog attack. In most instances, since a human is larger than a dog, if you walk slowly away, the dog will hesitate attacking. However, if you run, you will set off the dog’s chase instinct and you are probably going to get bit. I have also found that a squirt in the face from your water bottle will often times discourage an aggressive dog without actually hurting the dog.
It is also important that you pay attention to your surroundings so you don’t become a victim of a crime. Running alone at night in a sketchy area of town is just not a good idea, especially for women but also for men. If you are going to run in remote areas like trails, it’s much safer if you run with a buddy. Also, do you take your cell phone with you? How about some form of ID or an emergency contact number? Does someone know where you are running and when you’ll likely return?
In all likelihood, a healthy lifestyle that includes running will add years to your life and certainly more enjoyment if you do it safely.
