A lot of the other fast road runners in my area seem like jerks.

You are fitting the description of a jerk more and more with every post

Have you tried getting involved in the club by volunteering for a race?

In my area, most of the chummy runners are the ones the do all of the club races (just about every other weekend except for the summer time), are active club members ( ie they have an official position in the club, like treasurer) or they organize a weekly/open invite training run for the club

You are right, I might be misjudging the adult running crowd or expecting too much from people. I have not been this involved in a local running scene this much since high school. And it's a heck of a lot different in high school.

Not really, because I am often racing the ones they ask for volunteers. Have not gotten very involved with the local club at all, actually, besides a couple group run and racing. I'm not much of a "joiner".

HEre's a few more things to consider.

If the top runners all - or mostly all- belong to the same running club, well, they are going to hang together, and only someone on a stated goodwill mission would go outside their group to chum up to other runners.

There are ways to get more of a community atmosphere at events. Run a race series. There, you see the same people and familiarity breeds a little interaction.

Also, the idea of volunteering is a good one. At many local events, they do allow some volunteers to run the event, and they set up cones before and after, etc., so that is still an option.

You say you are not a joiner. Many clubs are cool with that. My running club lets people just show up when they want, and can run their own workouts even. In fact, i do this all the time, wear earbuds, and sometimes don't interact at all. Nobody cares. Find your way, just be self confident enough to seek out a level you are comfortable with.

And really, you should check out some other sports, and once you do, you'll see that runners are okay by comparison.

Not really. Not in my area (southern New England). I often finish in the top 5 - 10 in local races. I'll often offer hand shakes and say something like "Good run" not long after crossing the finish line and I find that most top tier runners here do the same. I might not necessarily have a long conversation at the time. After all I just finished racing and my body is in recovery from running hard. After I get back from my cool down, during the post race festivities, that's when I'll talk more often.

An old pastor of mine often would say "take nothing personally except for your walk with God." It's good advice, and it would include people who might not be a social as we are.