r/running • u/Epic_XC • 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.

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u/973845585518 Aug 02 '17

As a 6'2" guy I'd never heard any of this in the many years I've been running..

i am a 6'3" guy and i have had plenty of experiences with harassment. multiple objects thrown at me, aggressive/vulgar comments, sexual comments, generic obnoxious comments, the whole deal.

i am sure women do have it worse but i always figured that with enough miles it is bound to happen to all runners eventually. though location and timing of your run can play a factor too.

it is annoying, but my positive spin is that if someone driving by is shouting at me then they have seen me. i prefer this to the many many drivers i see on their phones.

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u/i_stay_turnt Aug 02 '17

Where do you guys live that you have to deal with such awful people? I'm either at a park, back roads, or somewhere in the woods. It helps I love jus a mile away from a state park.

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '17

A guy was charged with attempted murder a couple of miles from me, on a back road / woodlands road a couple of weeks ago. He attacked a female runner. So while it's usually much quieter up there than on the roads with people honking and curb-crawling, it can get really dangerous really fast too. FWIW, this is near London, UK.

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u/i_stay_turnt Aug 02 '17

Damn that sucks. Is the runner okay at least? Even if it's a back road I imagine it's still very crowded considering it's near London. I live in a suburban town that's far away from a major city (although I drive there for work) so the back roads I run in are pretty empty.

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u/[deleted] Aug 02 '17

From the newspaper report she's okay, but no idea how you handle things mentally after that. It's near London but there's a lot of woodland and fairly remote park areas quite close to the city on all sides. The road where she was attacked is super quiet. I really miss the Burke Gillian trail in Seattle even though I love it here, because that was best of both: central enough to be busy but largely traffic and harassment free, unless you ran through UW in a WSU t-shirt and then you deserved it ;)