A question for trail-runners

[Liquorice]

Does anybody have any tips for not running into those massive spiders & their webs whilst running on hiking trails?

I'm terrified of spiders. I'm okay walking because I take a stick to knock down the webs and can concentrate on seeing them before I run into them, but with running it is a whole different story. I imagine wearing a hat might help but you still get the spiders on you, right? Just not in your face.

What do other people do?

I haven't seen many of those huge ones yet this year, but they come around July / August I think and I'd like to be able to still run.

[PDLM]

There's no fix for this except to avoid the trails they are on (which means anything with a gap between the foliage of either side of less than bout 3m I guess). Even hiking at anything other than a funereal pace means you hit some of them before you see them and swat them with your stick. A wide-brimmed hat helps a little - maybe one of the "legionnaire" style ones with the flap on the back at least stops them falling down inside the back of your shirt!

[jgl]

Unless you can reliably arrange to run behind some other sucker, there isn't a whole lot you can do.

Those spiders can rebuild webs pretty quick- I recently cleared one section of path, and on the way through again an hour later, I've hit partially rebuilt webs.

If you run at night, having a really bright headlamp usually lets you spot webs before you hit them.

[Liquorice]

Thanks. I run on the trail behind my house. It is a trail that leads on to the Maclehose so quite narrow. Run with my dogs, no-one to convince to go infront of me. Bugger. Might have to give it up for the summer.