The pumpkins were carved. The fog machine and the graveyard were up and
running. The candy bowl was out and ready for trick-or-treaters. It was time to
go out and run with the ghouls.
I strapped on the headlamp and backlight and headed out. Running in the dark presents it’s own set of challenges. Although a headlamp provides light it also changes the surroundings and adds an eerie sense to the landscape. How appropriate then that my first run in the dark since last spring would occur on Halloween.
Because it was dark all my senses were heightened a bit. This heightened awareness only served to fill the void of darkness with all sorts of creepy and spooky scenarios.
By day, Tetherow, the area where I would run, has sweeping vistas to the south and to the west. At night, however, it became a narrowly lit corridor where shadows crept by and hosted a wide variety of possible terrors. Running alone during the day provides a sense of freedom. At night however, there was a sense of vulnerability and an increasingly unnerving feeling of being exposed and all alone. The throaty howl of a coyote in the distance or the furious scuttling of a rodent in the nearby bushes beyond the dim light became more pronounced and my mind began to visualize all sorts of morbid and creepy possibilities.
The bouncing light as I ran highlighted the crystal-like vapors exhaling from my mouth and added a mysterious gloom that felt clammy and death-like against my face. The headlights of a passing car threw creepy running shadows like a pack of zombies chasing me across an alien landscape.
I reached the halfway point in my run and turned to head home. I always tend to run the second part of my run a bit faster, particularly if it’s an out and back type of run. Tonight, with all the thoughts of ghouls and goblins in my head perhaps I ran even quicker. I knew the shadows writhing around me weren’t really scary things, but a slight breeze moaned across the landscape and I decided it was best to not wait around and find out.
I continued on my run and as I drew closer to town the imaginary shadows and frightful scenarios that I had imagined for my Halloween run began to dissipate. As I sprinted into my neighborhood I passed by spooky decorated homes and weaved through goblins and ghouls out trick-or-treating with their adult keepers.
I slowed to a walk and came up the cul-de-sac to my house. The lights were on, the graveyard, lit, and the fog machine was working overtime. What surprised me though was the fact that our front porch light was off. I walked up the path to my front door and paused at the stairs to stretch out my hips. I turned off my headlamp and slowly walked up the darkened stairs thinking about my nighttime run, knowing I would undertake so many more of these darkened runs in the coming months. I was lost in my thoughts when a figure rose in front of me and shrieked out a loud, “Boo!”, that gave me a momentary fright. It was my
daughter all dressed up and lying in wait to scare the trick-or-treaters. After I regained my composure I laughed out loud and congratulated my daughter on her scare. For all of the scary things I could have imagined on that Halloween run, the one that truly frightened me came at my own front door.
I strapped on the headlamp and backlight and headed out. Running in the dark presents it’s own set of challenges. Although a headlamp provides light it also changes the surroundings and adds an eerie sense to the landscape. How appropriate then that my first run in the dark since last spring would occur on Halloween.
Because it was dark all my senses were heightened a bit. This heightened awareness only served to fill the void of darkness with all sorts of creepy and spooky scenarios.
By day, Tetherow, the area where I would run, has sweeping vistas to the south and to the west. At night, however, it became a narrowly lit corridor where shadows crept by and hosted a wide variety of possible terrors. Running alone during the day provides a sense of freedom. At night however, there was a sense of vulnerability and an increasingly unnerving feeling of being exposed and all alone. The throaty howl of a coyote in the distance or the furious scuttling of a rodent in the nearby bushes beyond the dim light became more pronounced and my mind began to visualize all sorts of morbid and creepy possibilities.
The bouncing light as I ran highlighted the crystal-like vapors exhaling from my mouth and added a mysterious gloom that felt clammy and death-like against my face. The headlights of a passing car threw creepy running shadows like a pack of zombies chasing me across an alien landscape.
I reached the halfway point in my run and turned to head home. I always tend to run the second part of my run a bit faster, particularly if it’s an out and back type of run. Tonight, with all the thoughts of ghouls and goblins in my head perhaps I ran even quicker. I knew the shadows writhing around me weren’t really scary things, but a slight breeze moaned across the landscape and I decided it was best to not wait around and find out.
I continued on my run and as I drew closer to town the imaginary shadows and frightful scenarios that I had imagined for my Halloween run began to dissipate. As I sprinted into my neighborhood I passed by spooky decorated homes and weaved through goblins and ghouls out trick-or-treating with their adult keepers.
I slowed to a walk and came up the cul-de-sac to my house. The lights were on, the graveyard, lit, and the fog machine was working overtime. What surprised me though was the fact that our front porch light was off. I walked up the path to my front door and paused at the stairs to stretch out my hips. I turned off my headlamp and slowly walked up the darkened stairs thinking about my nighttime run, knowing I would undertake so many more of these darkened runs in the coming months. I was lost in my thoughts when a figure rose in front of me and shrieked out a loud, “Boo!”, that gave me a momentary fright. It was my
daughter all dressed up and lying in wait to scare the trick-or-treaters. After I regained my composure I laughed out loud and congratulated my daughter on her scare. For all of the scary things I could have imagined on that Halloween run, the one that truly frightened me came at my own front door.
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