Just to add my 2-penn'orth to the "hard vs soft" surface debate, if you have the choice between a runway and a taxiway, where the former has centreline lighting while the latter is unlit, then go for the taxiway. I've lost the photos of a 135 I ran-on in the Middle East; a chamfered 2 cm-tall runway light completely sheared one skid mount. We also found that the friction coefficients were very different - on the (very smooth) runway the aircraft carried on for over a hundred meters after a 25-kt touchdown, while on the taxiway it would stop 3-4 times more quickly.