Most of the day I run at night. That's just how my schedule works. I work all day, I get home at about 6pm or later (yesterday it was 8pm), so we have little time until my kids bedtime. I rather spend that time with them than going to a run. So we have dinner at 7, and I go to run at 9 or 10.

I had a runner friend in college, back in Hungary, who said that running after 8pm is only for fun: your body shuts down, prepares for the night, and won't improve at all if you run after 8. I have tried to google this ever since I started running, but I was unable to find anything about this on the net. I think if this was a real issue, there certainly would be stuff about this on the net. The only issues they ever mention about night running are personal safety and possible disturbance of sleep in the night (I definitely don't have any problem with the latter).

I run on the well lit riverbank between Broad River (which becomes Congaree after Saluda River joins in) and the Columbia Canal. It's a beautiful park, with a paved trail and basically a parallel dirt trail, and mile markers, too. Late in the night, when most runners are already at home, the animals come out. Almost every night I see wild animals: a deer, a fox, a river otter, herons, geese, and in the summer, turtles and snakes (though I could live without these). You can even see warning signs about alligators, but I never saw any.

I'm an absolute fan of nature, and this park is one thing that I will miss a lot when we move from Columbia.