Look at that it’s like buses, not a single post and then two come at once. This is a little moan something that I specialise in but I feel it should be said. Now I have only been running for a year or two and while I didn’t know what I was doing to start off with I sure as hell learnt. I also kept the passion up and called myself a runner. apparently the difference between jogging and running is runners are serious.
So with success of the olympics and the wonderful weather it was bound to happen that a bunch of people would reach for a pair of shorts and t-shirt along with their trainers that should have found their way to a bin and reached for the front door ready to run in temperatures reaching 20 plus degrees and go for a run. ‘You not going to take some water?’ ‘Nah, no need. Just doing a few laps of the park’
Nope no water, these joggers, these glory runners don’t need water, they can do a whole two laps of their block before they collapse into a heap. Now don’t get me wrong if the Olympics has encouraged people to get out and do running then good. We are in a real boom of running at the moment and the more that wish to get on board the better. What I don’t like are the glory runners. The ones that take up the pavement when the sun shines. Or the ones that think they will give it a try and come out of the woodwork with their kit that isn’t even fit for the charity shop. You know when you are a runner when you get up at 5am to fit your run in, or it’s snowing or bucketing down with rain and you are still going out to embrace that 10 mile run.
Now I know that I use to be one of these runners. I entered my first race to prove to myself I could run 10K, and made sure I entered a race so there was no option to give up, the outcome was I became addicted.
Now the other week I was out running and every runner apart from one or two were not obeying the ‘Runners Code’ and before you ask, then yes there is one (those who asked I take it aren’t runners?) An unspoken code between runners. I can’t go into too much details but you will know if you’re a runner when you know the rules. I can however digest a few of the rules to make the pavements a happier place.
1. Acknowledge other runners. Be with a nod, a thumbs up, a hello
2. Look before you cross the road. Don’t dart in front of cars. It makes the rest of us look bad.
3. Learn the ways of a two/three and even a four way pass
4. Don’t make other runners run out into the road, with their back to the traffic when passing you
They are just a few samples. Cyclists and walkers also have an unwritten code and lets face it most of it is common sense. But you can always tell the runners from joggers as joggers won’t say hello.
A simple acknowledgement does not hurt your training. While I don’t want to appear to be a snob I know we will not see many f these runners again come september. It’s like the unexperienced runners at races getting to the start rather than knowing their PACE and lining up further back.
Oh well time for a run, as it has just started raining so hopefully the joggers are all hiding under bus shelters waiting for the sun shine to dry that T-Shirt they has purchased back in 1994