When I ran the Great Midwest Relay a couple of years ago, I had to run one of my legs of the relay at night. This was in total darkness on a running trail through a forest. The only light was from the half moon and the stars over the Wisconsin sky.
Running with a Headlamp
As you can imagine, joggling at night was challenging. My strategy was to run with a headlamp attached to the brim of a baseball cap. I thought this would be an excellent solution but soon ran into a problem. The bean bags I chose were white and shiny. Seemed like a great idea.
Unfortunately, whenever the beanbags came into the light shining from my cap, they reflected it back into my eyes and nearly blinded me. It was like looking into a flashlight! Using reflective juggling bags was a terrible idea!
After about a quarter mile, I figured out a solution. I lowered my throws so the bean bags wouldn’t quite get in line with my eyes. That way I could still see the balls but didn’t get blinded. It made joggling a little more difficult since I hadn’t practiced this new throwing pattern but fortunately, I made it six miles without a drop.
Glow in the dark joggling balls
It turns out there is an even better solution to the one I tried. You can get Glow-in-the-Dark Juggling Balls
Night time joggling
Speaking of nighttime joggling, take a look at this video put together by Joe Salter. It gives you all the reasons why joggling at night with glow-in-the-dark balls is a great way to go.
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It’s funny how it looks pitch black where I filmed the video, but it wasn’t at all. So, don’t think you need to go to some pitch black area, I can see some jogglers thinking about how dangerous pitch black joggling could be. I rarely have found a spot in a residential area or city area that doesn’t have some kind of lighting. The glow balls light up easily just about anywhere with low light.
When I did the Tampa Bay marathon, they started at 6:00 am and it was really dark out. The lighting was awful as there were only a few street lamps. I was juggling in nearly complete darkness (without glow balls). It was quite a challenge. Didn’t have a drop though. All that practicing has paid off.
I’ve thought about joggling at night… I’ll have to try it! The Vanderbilt juggling club has some glow balls that we’ve used in Juggleville.
This is where I found my glow balls or “light up” balls. They are cheaper than most others on the web, 7.95 for red ones. It takes a watch battery (included), and the light up balls last for around 20 hours of use. They look so cool, and I get better responses from non-jugglers with these than any other prop.
http://www.jugglenow.com/juggling-balls.html
Thanks for the link Joe. I was wondering where you got yours.
No problem. Yeah, they’re pretty good. They’re small and can get slippery when they get sweaty (only really affects you when doing really high throws or something), but overall I really recommend them.