Which path do you think is the safest

[bzar]

i became a vidiot when i realized i couldn't go running at 4 AM. that was 15 years ago.

before kids, i used to run after work. on weekends, i'd run in our neighborhood in the morning for a 2.5 mile run, usually around 7 AM.

once my son was born, i knew running at 4 AM in the neighborhood was too risky, and we lived in a pretty safe neighborhood with lots of families (townhomes and expensive single-family homes). this was in the mid-90s.

i had heard of too many stories of people getting attacked/robbed in the early morning hours. i just did not want to chance it.

in order to get the same intensity of running, i took up step aerobics at home. DH brought home a step co. step. the rest is history, as they say. that's the trigger that made me into a vidiot.

even now, i do not go running in the dark in the early morning the way you are proposing. last year, i got bitten by a dog in broad daylight, just about a block from my home!

[mspina]

I would get a headlamp and run in the neighborhood that you personally felt the safest.

I run in the dark a LOT, and a good headlamp makes it totally easy and doable. If it's just the lack of streetlights in your preferred neighborhood, that is EASILY solvable.