4/20/11
6 miles tempo
51:40
8:36 avg pace
2 miles easy, 3 miles at 7:54 (actual: 8:07, 7:54, 7:58), 1 mile easy.
I thought it’d be fun to do a post about some of my running pet peeves. Please feel free to share yours as well. We can vent together 🙂
CARS
I’m sure this is at the top of everyone’s list. I purposely do not run on roads for fear of getting run over. Especially with so many people talking on their phones or texting while driving. Thankfully, I have a great paved trail near my house that I run on almost all the time. The only scary part is that I have to cross 2 mini streets near train stations. It’s fun in the morning when people are rushing to work and flying over these streets so they don’t miss their train. Seriously, yield to pedestrians means nothing to these people.
SMOKERS
Smoking is a big pet peeve of mine in general. I can’t stand the smell of cigarette smoke. On this paved trail I also run by 2 businesses where there employees are allowed to smoke pretty much right on the trail. Which means I run by and get a whiff of smoke in my face. Good times. I swear these people spend more time smoking than working. So gross.
GRUMPY RUNNERS
Usually when I pass another runner, I’ll give some form of hello…be it a nod, smile, or “hi”. The people who don’t reciprocate piss me off! Not sure why this bothers me so much but it does. There’s this one girl that I’ve been seeing for years and she refuses to say hi. I’m talking like 5 years of completely ignoring me. We run at the same time on the same days. Jeez, we should be on a first name basis by now. I give up!
STALKERS
Well maybe not stalkers but more nosy people. The ones that look out their window or stop and watch you run by. You know, the nosy people in your neighborhood. In my case, it’s the older people that gawk. People run all the time; it’s not an uncommon occurrence! I feel extremely self conscious when people watch me run (with exception of races, of course). This isn’t a huge pet peeve, just more of an annoyance.
What are some of your running pet peeves?
Your list is like a list of “urban running pet peeves”
Here’s my hick list:
1. Tractors on the road. They can’t move over and they are so smelly and loud to run by.
2. Road kill. You think driving by a skunk is bad? Try running by one.
3. Freshly fertilized fields. Mmmm…nothing like the smell of cow poop in the morning.
4. Deer. Nothing scares the crap out of me like having a bunch of deer come out of nowhere and run in front of me.
Cars around here are usually pretty good about running/bikers on the road and there aren’t any paved trails, so everyone has to run on the road. Hardly anyone dies 🙂
I laughed out loud at work reading your “hick list”. OK, you win…hands down!
Haha!! I love this!! My list is pretty similar. But the thing about drivers that annoys me the MOST is how so many of them feel like they don’t have to look right if they’re making a right hand turn. They pull up into the turn, look left, and then almost run me over as I approach from the right. People even do this on a road by my house that has a bike lane! It just seems like common sense to look first!
I also have a huge problem with smokers in areas that are used for exercising. There’s a short park/trail by my house that I always run on too, but there aren’t any sort of non-smoking rules. So even though everyone on that path is walking or biking for exercise, you will still run into people smoking out there. I understand it’s a public place and I can’t tell them to leave, but it just seems like a common courtesy NOT to!
Yes! Ahh, the people that think a right hand turn is “yielding”. So annoying. I agree about the smokers, there is nothing we can say to them but we are out there doing something good for our health and we have to breathe second-hand smoke!
Pet Peevese!
1. Agreed with the cars, I live in NYC so there is no getting away from them. Arg!
2. Smoking! Yuck and Yuck
3. Garbage. On garbage day in the city everyone puts theirs on the street for pick up. It smells so bad sometimes I think I will be sick.
4. People who don’t get out of the way! There are people who take up the whole sidewalk and heaven forbid they move over a little so I can get by.
5. Commentators, these are the construction guys or just the guys who sit on the street that have to make remarks as you pass by. Yes sometimes it can be funny but most of the time just plain annoying. They do it purely to get a rise out of you.
I am sure I have more but I will just keep it to 5. 🙂
I laughed about the garbage. Gross but funny! You’ve got it bad with cars in NYC…be careful!
i agree with all of your list! how about smokers at races?? seriously- you’re standing on the side cheering on thousands of people who are there to exercise and you’re blowing smoke in their faces…
I also can’t stand when I see girls that are exercising/running with their hair down…I don’t know why but it drives me nuts- I always have an extra ponytail holder I’d be glad to lend you! i also feel like maybe people should treat races like they do the track- walk on the right, pass on the left- there’s nothing like finding your groove and having someone stop dead right in front of you to walk….hows that for venting 🙂
Gwen, I completely agree about girls running with their hair down. That’s a good one! How can that be comfortable? Especially in the summer?!
I am so with you on the car thing! Even more than the cars, it’s honking that’s my biggest pet peeve. Even if you know a runner, don’t honk! You scare them half to death and get their heart racing in the middle of the run. Oh, at the last half marathon I ran we ran through an intersection at one point and as soon as I started crossing a bunch of the cars waiting started hocking. I had no idea whether they were honking to be encouraging or honking because they had been hoping for a little longer gap so they could get across.
Nice huh?
You basically perfectly described my pet peeves. That girl would really piss me off, what is her problem? I can’t stand girls with their hair down either!
One other one is dogs, especially not on leashes. Yes, your dog is adorable to YOU, and you have complete trust that YOUR dog will not attack you, but to me you are both strangers and I have no idea what the animal is capable of, so please keep it the hell away from me.
Very true. Even though I love dogs and I’m not afraid of them, all dogs should be on leashes.
ABSOLUTELY smoking. but even more so, people to won’t get out of the way or seem to GO out of THEIR way to get in MY way! I swear!
Maybe it’s because I live in new york and there are WAY too many people here but MORE PEOPLE! And/or stay to the right so I can pass of the left. Treat it like the road.
I also like to run around the reservoir on Central Park and there is a rule/law that you must go counter clockwise and stay to the right. Not strollers. No pets. No one listens.UGH!
Thanks for this post!!
GRUMPY RUNNERS!! I wholeheartedly agree. I actually just wrote about this issue myself. A simple nod or wave will do!
Smokers at races are quite ignorant too. I mean it’s pretty clear that smoking isn’t something we want around are lungs.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned walkers (esp with strollers or dogs) walking abreast on trails, and not hearing you come up behind them, so you cannot get past them.