November is “Running Safety” month, so Extra Mile decided to put together a “Get Lit” Fun Run at their shop in Valparaiso to help promote running safety. Ann Wingrove, Sales Representative of Nathan Safety products informed the group that, “A pedestrian is struck by a car every 9 minutes” a staggering statistic when you think about it.
If you run daily like many diehard runners do that can be a frightening thing to think about it. She also pointed out that, “With the LED lighting products you do not have to have a light shine on them to work. Many people don’t think about the fact that if you wear a product with reflective material it will only work if the light actually shines on it to get it to reflect back.” She also stated that it was important that you make sure you had something on different areas of your body, not just your back or head. Your body is more easily recognizable if you have multiple points of light. She had products that can be used as arm/wristbands, gloves, 360 degree vests, strobe lights and the most popular lights right now are the heel spurs. She even had waterbottles that glow.
Extra Mile was extending an extra 20% off their products in order to promote running safety.
Owner, Todd Henderlong states that, “ If you live in our area you are going to be running in the dark with the time changes and so we decided to have the “Get Lit” run to promote the Nathan products because they have a wide variety of products to offer.”
Everyone put their racing bibs on as well as their lighting gear and headed out for a 3 mile run along the streets of Valpo.
Also their supporting the run was Robin Walworth of Firehouse Subs in Portage. Her husband is a runner and everyone knows one of the best things about running is the food that comes after! Firehouse had a variety of delicious sandwiches for the runners to snack on. Don’t forget when you go to their shop you can chose from a variety of 150 drinks on their Freestyle Coke fountain. Also, contributing to the post run food was Pizza Hut from Hobart; providing a variety of pizza for everyone to sample. Of course, everyone needed a good drink and so the post race food and beverages were stationed at the Ironwood Brewery. While everyone was eating and drinking Extra Mile also gave out door prizes by calling out the bib numbers!
So remember when you are going out for a run, make sure you go out with proper attire to run once it gets dark. We don’t want any of our runners to become one of those statistics.
Click here to see more photos from the run!