Friday, January 6, 2012

RRS lighted running hat

I started a new book tonight called Born Under A Lucky Moon by Dana Precious. I picked it up at the library because it was labeled a "hot pick", but so far I'm not that into it. The characters feel too over-exaggerated and unrelatable to me. It's like the author made a checklist of stereotypical characters that should be included in a dysfunctional family and checked them off one-by-one as she worked them into the book. Kind of like how you can tell that the people in a group photo have been carefully selected to show diversity. The sign of a good book is one that I can't put down, but here I am typing up a blog post because I needed a break from reading.

I want to do a quick review of my new lighted running hat from Road Runner Sports. I wore it out for my run last night, the first time this winter that it's been completely dark when I left the house.


The hat has four LED lights built into the brim and is battery-powered. It doesn't feel any different than a regular hat, although there is a barely noticeable bulge where the batteries are located. There are three different settings for the lights, but most of the time I just leave all four lights on.


I bought the hat thinking it would be a good alternative to strapping on a bulky headlamp, but unfortunately it's not really that bright. It helps fill in the gaps between street lights, but I'll need an actual headlamp if I ever do any nighttime trail running. Even with the lighted hat, I was still startled last night by a man standing in the shadows at a bus stop, and there were a couple times when I slowed down slightly because I couldn't see the sidewalk clearly and was worried about tripping.

I think the biggest benefit of this hat is that it increases my visibility to drivers. I usually wear a hat when running anyway so it's an easy way to be a bit safer at night.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for stopping by my blog. It is too bad that the hat isn't too bright. It would be a very nice alternative to a head lamp!

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