The Risks You May Face From Others While Running
This article originally appeared on Kim’s Up and Running Blog.
I was going to title this entry “Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak”, or something referring to the cloaking device in Star Trek, but decided that might make me sound dorky. Can’t have that!
Today’s entry is regarding some of the risks you may face from others while running. Let’s face it, there are a lot of inconsiderate people out there. Not everybody gets running and runners. It’s hard to believe, but some people think that we are the strange ones! I know, right?! What is weird about spending hours and hours running around our wonderful town, wearing bright, obnoxious colours, with Batman-style belts strapped around our waists and blinky lights on our arms or foreheads? Sucking down strange, viscous, “yummy” gels, drinking warm, watery energy drinks? Making sure that chafe prone areas are lubed up so that we don’t get the dreaded “chub rub” or bloody nipple syndrome? Totally normal.
Oops, kind of went off topic there. Apologies. We were going to talk about things to watch out for from non-runners. On sidewalks and paths, you have to watch out for other pedestrians. I never trust people walking dogs. Especially if there is an extendable leash involved. Without fail, a dog walker will say “Don’t worry, Spot is friendly.” Having had a couple of “friendly” dogs try to take “friendly” chomps out of me has led me to the conclusion that it is safest to always skirt dog walkers – I now always run on the grass to get around them. As a dog walker myself, I short leash my dogs, and get off the sidewalk entirely for runners. Another sidewalk risk is the dreaded “herd of teenagers”. Apparently lessons on common courtesy are not as prevalent today. From what I was raised with, you can walk side by side, but if somebody is approaching you from the other direction, you stay to the right, and fall behind each other, thus sharing the sidewalk equally for each direction. This is definitely not common practice anymore. When I do encounter kids (and adults) who do follow this, I make a point of saying “thank you”. Sadly, it doesn’t happen nearly often enough. When I was living in London, I often ran in the middle of the day, and would run by high schoolers on their lunch break. One particular day, I was tired of having to get off of the sidewalk because the kids couldn’t seem to find it in themselves to give up a little bit of space for somebody going in the opposite direction. So, I stayed to the right and headed at them, thinking “Surely, they’ll move”. It was like the lamest game of chicken ever, a skinny, short 30 year old woman and some 14 year old boys. Guess who won? Wrong! The 30 year old woman, thank you!
Moving up the threat ladder, you have to keep your wits about you with regards to people in cars. A too common risk is the “look left, turn right” driver. This is someone who approaches an intersection, intending to turn right, who only looks to his/her left to check for oncoming traffic. This person rarely looks to their right – why would they? For measly pedestrians? Bah! Good advice: never run in front of a car at an intersection until you’ve made eye contact with the driver and you know that they know you are there. Personally, I expect that the driver hasn’t seen me, and I always just run behind the car. If you want to really mess with the driver, hit the car with your hand on your way around. No, wait, don’t do that…wouldn’t want you to run the risk of making the driver angry!
Ok, off the sidewalks now, heading out on to country roads. Of course, we run facing traffic. I will run on the road if there is no traffic coming, but as soon as a car is approaching, I get off the road and onto the shoulder. I’ve run with others who point out that there is room for the car to get around, but I don’t take the chance. There are too many drivers who don’t get over. Some actually aim at you. I don’t know if this is due to malice, or just a scenario where you steer at something you are looking at. I would like to think that it is not out of any bad intent, but have, unfortunately, had a few occurrences which lead me to question this. On at least two occasions, I have had vehicles drive off of the road and onto the shoulder aiming at me, forcing me to jump into a ditch to avoid getting hit. Scary. I always wish that I were wearing my heart rate monitor, because I would be very curious to see the graph after these runs. I don’t know what these drivers get out of this. Does it make them feel good about themselves? What if I didn’t jump out of the way? Just how far were they planning to take this stunt? Why do they have this anger towards runners? Or maybe it’s just at me?
At any rate, I take preventative measures. If I’m out running in the dark, I wear bright, reflective clothing, and a headlamp. No ninja running for me! I also only run on lit roads now. Matt won’t allow me to run country roads in the dark anymore. During the day, like I said, I run on the shoulder if there is any approaching traffic. I wear my RoadID, and carry my cell phone on my long runs.
Kim Wood is the owner of Up and Running, Chatham’s newest running store. Up and Running is located at 138 King Street West, Suite 102, in Chatham, Ontario. You can contact Up and Running by calling 519-351-8788, or visit www.getupandrun.com for more information.