Lauren Heryford isn”t being chased – she just likes running at night.
“I don”t like running into people I know – they see you and are like, “Wow, you”re really struggling up that hill,”” Heryford said. “It”s just quieter. You have the city to yourself in a way.”
David Betts | Argonaut
Lauren Heryford runs outside of the Bruce Pitman Center. She started running at night after she came to UI.
The University of Idaho psychology major said she grew up in a family of runners. Her father ran marathons and her sister was a distance runner. She ran track and field from 7th through 10th grade, but unlike her father and sister, Heryford said she”s not a big fan of cardio.
“I hate it,” she said. “I actually hate it. Why am I running? Why am I doing this?”
The answer, she said, is that she has to. When she transferred to UI from a community college in Olympia three years ago, Heryford became a resident firefighter. She said it”s important that she stays in shape.
Yet, Heryford said she didn”t start running at night until she came to Moscow.
“At the end of the day, your brain is tired but you have a lot of energy,” she said. “I started going for walks at night just to watch the stars and de-stress from the day, and eventually I just changed walking into running.”
Heryford said sometimes she runs by herself, and sometimes she runs with friends. Even when she”s alone, though, Heryford said she”s never been too worried about her safety.
She said she always makes sure not to wear all-dark clothing, and said she”s always conscious of her surroundings. She doesn”t run with lights because she said it makes it more difficult for her to see what”s around her.
“I guess I”ve always kind of been confident in the fact that if something ever did happen I could get away,” Heryford said.
Heryford said she always likes running with a destination in mind, but she likes to explore too. With so few people out at night, she said that”s the perfect time to do it.
Once, she said she and a friend came across a bike path with a chalk arrow painted on it. They decided they wanted to know where it went.
“It”s like in video games, when you get the energy boost,” Heryford said. “We”d run through (the arrows) as fast as we could to the next one.”
She sees people occasionally, but there are so many different paths in Moscow, it”s not unusual to go a whole run without seeing anyone, Heryford said. And that, she said, is just the way she likes it.
Hannah Shirley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @itshannah7