Take on the night with Petzl

Running in the colder winter months can become a chore even for the most serious athletes, but with the right gear there’s no reason why we can’t all embrace the darkness

I spoke with GB ultra trail athlete and Petzl ambassador, Meryl Cooper recently about all things running including running at night and what it takes to tackle the ultra distance events.

With a background in teaching, she started her own coaching company MerylCooperCoaching.com in 2019 as a means to better manage her time training as an ultra-runner. The former footballer explained to me how the transition to running and then coaching has helped her excel in the world of ultras.

“Coaching helped me to go from living life at a million miles per hour, being very stressed out and trying to work a 12-hour day,” she explains, “to establishing a much healthier balance between my sport, work and other important areas of my life.

“My physical health has drastically improved and I am better equipped with the internal resources required to bounce easily back from challenges and setbacks.”

On becoming an ultra-distance runner it was surprising that Meryl had shunned the more usual and expected progression to longer distances of stepping up from the marathon.

“The first time I actually covered the marathon distance was in a 50km night race in the desert of Oman,” she says.

From these beginnings, it was always the longer distances that captured the imagination of Meryl, a member of Deeside Runners, close to Balmoral in Scotland.

Now established as an ultra runner Meryl explained to me that the transition to the longer events means thinking more about hours running each week and accumulated height climbed height rather than purely miles covered.

When running at night Meryl offered some invaluable advice around selecting a headlamp to light the path ahead and progress safely.

Brightness

The brightness of a headlamp is measured in lumens, the amount of visible light that the human eye can detect. How bright you want it to be will depend on your activity. Is it just to be seen, or perhaps you need to light up a technical trail or hope to complete an all-night adventure?

Generally the quicker you are moving or the more technical the trail the more lumens you will need, for trail running a minimum of 300 lumens is essential. Don’t forget brightness is offset by power consumption, so a headlamp at full power will give a shorter burn time. Headlamps typically…