Victim Profile

Live in Northern KY. Run in KY, Cincinnati, & Southeastern Indiana. I'm 50 years old. Most comments seem to come from high school kids in Indiana when I'm running after work. Usually the "run Forrest run" type thing or people honking their horns right next to me (little toots are people I know, the long blasts are the annoying ones). I run on the sidewalks in Indiana. No sidewalks in N KY. Don't think I've ever had a comment in Cinci, usually running there in the a.m., often with a group and typically see LOTS of other runners out as well.

Actually, fewer comments the past year or two--maybe just because I'm injured more and running less. As long as people don't throw things at me or swerve at me, I am past really caring what they do.

25 and female. I usually go out on popular trails, lots of runners/bikers, no cars, no harassment. I used to live in a city of about 180,000 and I got honks and catcalls all the time, mostly from highschool boys. A few years ago, I was on a backroad and some rednecks tried to run me down and threw glass bottles at me- I think I set an 800 PR running to the next main road.

The only time I was ever hassled I was still in high school, and a passing car sprayed me with a fire extinguisher full of water. I recognized the car from the high school parking lot. I didn't know the guys, but the car was unmistakeable.

Next week at school I removed all 4 valve cores from the valve stems of their tires, resulting in 4 flat tires and probably an hour before they figured out why they wouldn't hold air when they pumped them up. :-)

No problems since then. I agree that us old farts get hassled a lot less.

When I was 12 I once punched a Jr All American Football player in full pads in the face when he was calling some of my teamates on my AYSO Soccer team f**s during a nightime soccer practice.

29, live in a town of 35000, run on trails and lonely dirt roads, not exactly a strong running community

I can't think of any time I've been harrased. Maybe a "run, Forrest, run" comment or two, but I think it was because they saw a runner and wanted to say something funny. Last night I was out in the rain and one guy says "Man, you must be crazy". That's about it though. When I run in town I get comments, but never harassment. I did get the finger once, but that was in a small town and the guy was well known for being abrasive to everyone he sees. He's currently in jail.

I'm 25, and have lived all over New York and now in Northern California. When I lived on Long Island in NY (ages 15-18) and generally ran on the roads i heard some variation of "run Forrest run", or "nice shorts f**" on an almost daily basis. Actual confrontation though were rare. I only have one I can really remember - A car pulled out of a hidden driveway and hit me as I was running on the sidewalk, the driver (an older man maybe 50-60) proceeded to curse and yell at me for denting his hood, in response I spit on him and he chased me on foot and then in his car for about 800 meters until the nearest trail. I went to college upstate (ages 18-22) where the "run Forrest run" comments were a rarity and people were generally friendly. Actual confrontations were more frequent though, and I can recall several instances of bottles, snowballs, etc... being thrown. I even had a teamate who was purposely "tapped" by a driver for blocking the driveway that driver wanted to turn into (my teamate proceeded to force open the drivers door and punch the driver in the face causing his nose to bleed). In California now (ages 22-25) the harrassment and catcall type stuff has basically stopped, but I still get angry honks from drivers when running on roads with small shoulders.

Lived in Roanoke, Virginia, in my mid-20s. Never had any violent confrontations but I do remember two odd instances. One was a Geo Tracker full of cute women who honked at me and said "nice butt".

The other time was soon after I moved there, there was this dirtbag looking guy walking on the other side of the road. He was screaming obscenities at me. I soon realized he was always screaming obscenities to the other side of the road, regardless whether anyone was there.

Recently while living in South Carolina, age 30, I ran towards an apparently inebriated old black man. At the last moment he dodged in front of me and bust out laughing. He said he just wanted to see what I'd do.

I'm 49, male and recently moved to a small town - around 15,000 in population. No problems at all here. Lots of support and waves.

I moved from a large city in the NW, where I was chased, yelled at, honked at and harassed by people. Even the runners there seemed to be unfriendly with hardly any acknowledgements as you would pass them.

I'm 44 and female. I live in the Detroit area, and do most of my runs in the suburbs in the early morning or evening; occasionally I run in the city at lunchtime. I usually run by myself or with other women.

I've never had anything thrown at me. Mostly I get beeps and hoots from cars full of young (teens or 20s) males. That's mostly in the 'burbs; in the city, I get curious glances from people waiting at busstops etc., but I've never experienced any harassment.

Worst incident (but still pretty mild): running on a residential street in the evening after dark, a teenage guy leans out of his car window and yells at me to "stay on the f**ing sidewalk."

(Not to screw up your survey methodology or anything, but I do know of plenty of guys in their 40s who've had obscenities yelled and stuff thrown at them, so I'm skeptical of your hypothesis . . . but I guess we'll see how many weigh in.)

Ran under a bridge when I was 19 or 20, and some kids from on top of the bridge threw some garbage at me. Also harassed numerous times while running in high school. One of my teamates had a gun pointed at his head, so he took it away from the punk. Ran a few miles with the shotgun, then threw it in the ditch. I also was propositioned numerous times when I was 19-22, by both males and females. The males were the most persistant. Once I had to run through a woods at night to get away. Had a hard time shaking this guy, and didn't want him to know where I lived. I am 46 now, and since then I have only been bothered once by a drunk lady who wanted to give me a ride.

in my town in nh, I get no comments/harassment. however, if I'm running a few towns over, in the more rural areas, I get occassional jeers and yells from hicks in pickup trucks, or white trash middle schoolers, but nothing major, and nothing too mean-spirited. but in phila, where I go to school, the harassment is constant. the local population, from ages 5 to at least 50, continually tells us to put shirts on, calls us f**s, comments on our short shorts, chases after us, honks at us, etc. the other day we were on a warm-up jog as a group of about 30 and a guy asked us if we were "in the gay gang." when running alone in phila, I get the same comments, but with somewhat less frequency.

46 year old female

city of half a million

run on the boulevard mainly because it regularly travelled so I feel safe from the murderous/rapist type of freaks

I get bullsh*t from little d*cks in the cars their parents bought for them.

It makes me want to hurt them.

Peace :)

I'm a 53 year old female who runs on dirt roads and trails in a rural area in Michigan, usually late afternoon or later. I never see another runner. Everone waves because either they know me or they have seen me running before. The worse problem I have had is having a driver of a car being polite when they come up behind me and they don't honk. They just drive slow until I notice they are behind me. I wish they would honk to let me know they are coming.

I'm 26, female, and get the usual catcalls and honks. I live in South Florida.

Once, when I was in high school, I was running over a bridge where some guys were jumping off into the water. As I passed I heard one refuse to jump off, saying "Nope, f*** this". The other pointed at me and said "Naw man, f*** THAT". !!!

I was running one day and heard a car honk, so I flipped the reflexive finger. Unfortunately, it was my dad.

23

Male

Southern CA (border of Orange and LA Counties), run in both in mornings and afternoons.

I take a lot of crap from idiots on the road. most of the time it's HS and middle school kids (i run past 3 middle schools and 2 high schools on a daily basis), but i teach at one of the middle schools.

in Whittier last week in the "friendly hills" area (no joke, that's the name of the area, borders La Habra) i had a coke thrown on me by some HS punks and they were speeding in a car really fast. pissed me off. landed on my foot and hurt real bad.

i get a lot of crap from mexican parents though it seems. mainly dads trying to impress their wives or kids. weird.

although i do run near a few colleges and JC's and enjoy the occasional cat-call once in a while. i have to be careful though not to flip anyone off anymore, as most likely it will be a student of mine! (i usually see 1-2 during a run).

I live near the bustling center of [non]academia that is Northeastern University. I'm 21, male, skinny, and usually shirtless if it's at all warm...yeah I get random things, either by high school kids or the Northeastern "jocks". By jock I mean most kids I see at that school, they tend to wear Abercrombie, sweatpants, and backwards Sox caps. Jock in quotes cause they're usually fat.

This is, of course, a generalization, and realizing the social dangers of such things, I'd like to say I'm sure there are some nice people who go to that school.

But yeah like Road Warrior initially said in that other post, it only happens when it's a few guys, not just one. Alpha male dominance thing. If I go back and challenge them to a race that weekend they literally don't respond. In other parts of the city with business people or anyone older than college I don't hear anything.

36, male, live in Atlanta suburbs. Rarely problems now, just the occasional horn when the car is right on top of me.

My only close call was when I was 16 and living in Richmond, some guys came at me in a pickup truck going about 60. Two of them threw bottles at me from the truck bed as they went by. The bottles probably came at me with a speed over 100mph (60 from the truck speed, 40+ from the throw). Fortunately, they both barely missed and I kept running. I still think about what might have happened if I'd gotten hit 20 years later.

Hmmmm, I call BS on some of these stories...

Only time i was taunted was when I was about 16 or so, back in the eighties.

Where: Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

Population: 700,000

Time: Afternoon, if I recall correctly.

Taunt: "Go home Chinaman!" (this in liberal SF of all places)