My first night-running accident

Sometimes, I don't have a choice but to run at night.  Sometimes that "night" running is super early in the morning before the sun rises, and sometimes (like tonight) it's after sunset.  There are some great things about running in the dark (quiet, not so hot, you feel like you're in your own world, etc.), but then there are some things that suck.

Tonight, I needed to do some interval training.  Since I'm done teaching at the community college for the semester, I wasn't about to drive 25 minutes to campus and run on that track.  Instead, I thought I'd run on one of the local high schools' tracks.  My first choice was occupied tonight by graduation ceremonies.  Luckily, the track that's actually closer to us was open and available.  So, I headed over there.

It's a nice track, and I'm sure it's wonderful to spend time on, but I just had the worst luck tonight.  First, I couldn't find a way through the fence onto the track without walking completely around the stadium to the main entrance.  Then I found the back entrance - it was slightly hidden, and I didn't walk on that side of the track.  Damn.  Second, the lights that I thought were lighting up the track were, in fact, actually lighting up the tennis courts on the north end of the track.  That meant that after the sun went down, the only area lit up and really visible was from 25m to 75m (0m = starting line).  Beyond that, there were a few random obstacles in the lanes (i.e. hurdles, benches, a desk?!), there was hardly anyone else out there (scary!), and I left my head lamp in the car because I thought it was all lit up.  Too lazy to walk back to the car.  Irony, eh?

I did my 1-mile warm-up lap, then did two 400 sprint/400 jog combinations.  At that point, I decided to walk a bit to catch my breath, drink some water, and move my water bottle somewhere a bit closer to my stopping mark.  So, I started walking across the infield area where it was paved with track.  It was flat, it was black like the track, and it looked fine.  All of a sudden, my right leg plunges into this unseen hole filled with water.  I was soaked up to my knee and it twisted my leg.  Turns out I had stepped right into the point at which the pole vaulters would stick their pole before going up to go over the bar.  However, with it being so dark and flooded, it looked just like the surrounding area and so I mistakenly took it for more flat track area.  Well $hit.  I hate interval training as it is, and now with this, I just said F* it, I'm going home.

At least it's not a terrible horrible injury, and I'll probably be able to run in the morning with the girls no problem.  However, it just irritates the crap out of me.  Next time:  head lamp, water bottle elsewhere, and hopefully no more obstacles to dodge!