Running Etiquette: When Slow Training Runs Go Fast

Tonight I got home from work thinking I was going to have a nice run along the trail at a slow easy pace. At about the 1/2 mile marker I noticed there was an echo to each step of my running shoes and there was some sort of heavy breathing coming up behind me.

That echo and heavy breathing ended up being some runner dude crowding my space. I guess I could have just stepped to the side and let him pass, but we were on a 12 foot concrete trail through Dallas and there was plenty of room for him to make his own move. So, after about another 1/4 mile I decided to pick up the pace a bit to see what I was dealing with.

He matched my stride and pace as I dropped the second mile to just under 7:00 per mile and as we made it to the turn I realized I was either going to need to drop the pace to 6:30 per mile or go even faster to avoid the heavy breathing, wheezing, and hacking that was going on behind me. I gave it a quick thought and opted to pull up at the water station and let him blow by instead of risking a pulled hammy.

There is such a thing a running etiquette and I think if you're going to run up on someone you should pass the slower runner and smile because you are faster, run close to the person and give a look like "I see you running and I think I'm going to back off a bit to run behind you to let you pull me through this wind tunnel", or simply say "hey dude mind if I let you pace me up this hill while I draft off you through this wind tunnel?"

In the end, I had a good run. I made it home in time for dinner and I managed to save both hammys for another day. If I see that dude again there's gonna be an impromptu race to the street lamp. Smart money is on me.