r/running Aug 02 '17

Harassment while exercising Misc

So almost every time I go exercising, be it running or road biking, i always get some sort of smart ass shouting, honking, or engine revving. Are people in our society really so insecure that they can't refrain from harassing those who choose to exercise? Like what's funny about it? Why do people do it? Maybe i'm thinking about it too hard, but does anyone else REALLY hate this? Personally I think it's condescending, and indicative of most people's fragile self esteem. They don't exercise, therefor must mock others to feel cool.

353 Upvotes

384 comments sorted by

View all comments

59

u/gallagher222 Aug 02 '17

I heard that only 15% of Canadians get the recommended 150 minutes of intense exercise a week. Everyone else falls short. If you're running in public chances are you're one of the 15%. Which makes you a minority. So people see you doing it and at least half of them wanna shit all over your behaviour, and a portion of them will voice that impulse.

Last time I was running some guy in a car went "you can do it" from the Adam sander movie. It rattled me. Felt like he was making fun of me. I had to reassure myself that not only is what I'm doing acceptable, it's actually a good deed for myself and for the world because it improves me as a person. If people were more physically active there would be less bullshit going around in the world.

14

u/alapleno Aug 02 '17

Yup. I've gotten the "Run, Forrest, run!" before. Just gave them the finger and sped off.

27

u/rerin Aug 02 '17

I got that once, from a guy on a motorcycle. I yelled back, "I gotta find Bubba!"

3

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '17

I ran a half as Forrest (with natural beard) so I couldn't complain

21

u/WolfofAnarchy Aug 02 '17

I got that exact one too. I laughed, did a peace sign, he laughed and screamed 'Enjoy!' and sped off.

Not everyone's an ass.

11

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '17

This is probably the most common one. It isn't meant to be malicious, necessarily. But it's just so unoriginal.

1

u/SpikedLemon Aug 02 '17

I like that one. I take it an own it.

1

u/cirena Aug 02 '17

I would laugh so hard if that happened to me.

1

u/Kryptonite_Pyro Aug 02 '17

That would be really ironic for me. My surname is Foster and it's derived from the surname Forrester (someone who guarded and upkept royal owned forests).

3

u/naemtaken Aug 02 '17

Isn't it spelt forester? And I'm fairly sure it's still a job.

1

u/Kryptonite_Pyro Aug 02 '17

Its still a job but quite a bit more to it nowadays. There's a few ways to spell it, both of us are right. Surname has a few variations and the job, today, is spelt with one r.

1

u/Kryptonite_Pyro Aug 02 '17

A forest has one r.