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In the winter, it can be hard to find a time to run in the few daylight hours that are available. You may also find yourself in a race that takes place in darkness. Either way, running in darkness brings its own challenges, both practical and psychological.
== Practical issues - Lighting ==
One option for running in the dark is to stick to well lit paths. If you do this near cars, be sure you have plenty of reflective gear; runners nearly always do worse than cars when the two collide. I would also recommend a flashing yellow/red LED light attached to the back of your shorts. Something like this Nathan is cheap and works well - [http://www.rei.com/product/785894. http://www.rei.com/product/785894].]
If you are running away from street lights, then carrying your own light source becomes important. (You can run by the light of the moon sometimes, but I do not rely on it.) The most common approaches are headlights or hand held flashlights. The advantage of a hand held flashlight is the light source is lower than your eyes, so bumps in the path cast shadows you can see; this makes it far easier to see the shape of the path. The downside of hand held lights is that having something in your hand is a pain.
A nice solution to this is the Petzl Tactikka XP Adapt ([http://www.rei.com/product/737855%29. http://www.rei.com/product/737855]).] This light clips to the waist of your shorts, providing a waist level light that is hands free. The other thing I like about this Petzl light is that it has a diffuser to create a nice even light that works really well. This is my preferred light for most night running. For early mornings it is doubly nice, as when the sun comes up, it is very unobtrusive. It is not recommended for use with lithium batteries, but I have done so without a problem. It does work with rechargeable batteries, but when the power runs out, it runs out fast! I have found that the light works well with compression shorts - I'm not sure how you would get on with something baggy.
For trail running in the dark, where I also want to see much further than the Tactikka, I have the Petzl MYO RXP, which is their first regulated headlight ([http://www.petzl.com/us/outdoor/myo-series/myo-rxp%29. http://www.petzl.com/us/outdoor/myo-series/myo-rxp]).] A regulated light stays at the same brightness until the battery in nearly flat, then drops very quickly. The RXP is much, much brighter than the Tactikka and without the diffuser in place, it will illuminate the trail for a good distance. This makes navigation much easier and reduces the sense of confinement you can get when running for a long time at night.
The combination of the Tactikka and the RXP works well for me. I wish there were a brighter version of the Tactikka, as the RXP tends to overwhelm its output.