Not many women want to get a head torch for Christmas but I was thrilled. This is just one more way that Adventure Racing has changed my life. Not only was I thrilled to get a head torch I had actually requested one. No diamonds for me... instead, a proper, powerful head torch with a separate battery pack that I could clip onto the waistband of my trousers. I was moving up in the world, not one of the tiny excuses for a torch I had had before. This thing was hundreds of lumens strong. Yippee!
Once you have used a head torch you cannot understand why anyone would want to use a handheld torch. A head torch is brilliant because wherever you look you can see.
For miles!
Team mates call on you to light the way as you run about in the dark, or to act as a standard lamp while they consult the map. The personal advantage was that if I can see where I was going I might not fall over quite so often in the dark, when out training. But, I discovered that there are drawbacks with this wonderful head torch of mine.
First of all there are the aspersions some team mates cast on the head torch being a bit bright...."Look," Andy said to me when we were out on our overnight training session, "I don't even need to turn my torch on, yours is so bright."
Well, I thought that was the idea?
Then of course there is the drawback of how ridiculous I look. I get myself all kitted up and do my hair all nicely before going out for a run and then I plonk the head torch on my head. Immediately the weight clamps my hair to my head and squashes my eyebrows down so I look like a furious, idiotic Cyclops who is having a bad hair day. And finally, there are the social gaffes that I have made whilst wearing my head torch. These gaffes have lead me to come up with rules of etiquette for wearing a head torch.
Rule number 1:
Wearing a head torch is releasing but you will look ridiculous. Therefore, only wear it in the dark, it is not a fashion accessory and this avoids people laughing and pointing at you.
Rule number 2:
It is not socially acceptable to blind people with the laser-like beam of a torch. Do not look your training partners/team mates/ friends full in the face whilst wearing an illuminated head torch. The resultant ear-splitting screech of pain and backwards jerk is terrifying to behold. It may just cause you permanent hearing loss and them serious injury. So, as a precaution, lift the right hand up and over the torch beam as you turn to exchange pleasantries with them.
Rule number 3:
It comes to all of us runners/riders/adventure racers at some point, the urgent need to wee whilst out exercising. Sometimes this happens in the dead of night when we are running about illuminating our route with a head torch. What we need to remember is that unlike the Romans, who viewed the emptying of bladder and bowels as a communal event, we in the modern world do not. There is no point going and finding a nice hiding place behind a bush if we are then going to shed a spotlight on the entire occasion with our head torches. So the method is find a place, inspect for any nettles or nasties, squat and switch out the light.
Yes...switch it off!
Re-emerge from bushes with dignity intact, relight your torch and go on your merry way.
These three simple rules will make the wearing of a head torch a transformative and positive experience and not a scarring one. Go on, light it up I know you want to.
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