appropriate thing to say to joggers in lane one???

I live in a fastly developing part of town which has private school with a really nice rubberized track. In the last 2 years I've seen a lot more activity and 90% of it is ignorant dumbasses that, no matter what you do, never get the point. I've finally resigned myself to just shifting over to lane 2 when I pass, but I still make sure I cut back in pretty close to let them know I'm actually working out there. If someone is jogging it does not bother me, but we have had a lot of women that have taken to walking on the track in lane 1, which is so annoying. All this is trumped, however, by the stupid $hit that lets their obviously tiny dog poop all over the track and does not pick it up! If I ever actually see this happen I will go off on them. As for the people that decide to bring their kids to the track to play in all the lanes, all it takes is you buzzing through the kids one good time for the parents to realize they need to reel them in.

I always use 'Coming through' and, on the next lap, follow up with 'Can I help you up?"

"Watch Lane 1"

"Coming through lane 1"

"Coming thru on your right"

If those fail to work, run around them. Your competitors are unlikely to give you a clear path, so consider it practice for maneuvering.

Joseph McVeigh wrote:

"Watch Lane 1"

"Coming through lane 1"

"Coming thru on your right"

If those fail to work, run around them. Your competitors are unlikely to give you a clear path, so consider it practice for maneuvering.

This is the best advice. Most walkers/joggers in lane 1 will have no idea what "TRACK!" means. But I think you meant, "Coming thru on your left."

My worst experience has been with some youth track club. They all spread out across all 8 lanes to listen to instructions from their coach. They are facing me, so they see me coming, but they rarely move out of lane 1, and sometimes wait until the last second to make any room for me to run through at all. Little fvckers. The coach used to be a professional runner. You'd think he'd tell the little bastards to stay out of lane 1.

This is a good question. Just had a problem last night. I run on a track that sometimes has as many as 100+ people running at the same time. Some people are fast (sub 5 mile repeats) and some are just housewife walkers. No one yells Track because it really would do no good. However, even though lots of these people ran in college, it seems that there isn't a standard understanding even among the faster people as to what's appropriate for direction and lane for warmup, passing during interval work, direction and lane for jog rest and direction and lane for cool down.

Last night I had to yell at a group of women and their male coach three times to WATCH OUT, as they approached us but didn't leave any room for us on the outside of the outer lane. All we really needed was half of the outside lane but they didn't want to yield.

What we need is a set of basic rules to be posted and followed. And for the two coaches to help make sure their athletes follow the rules. Anyone have a good set of rules for track ettiquette?

I haven't seen any collisions over the past five years but it would be a shame for one of the Olympic Trials hopefuls to get injured because he/she or another runner screwed up! (Or for that matter, if anyone - especially me - got hurt because of stupidity.)

I'm a fan of saying "oops... sorry..." while picking them up after running into them.

The problem with saying coming thru on your right is they always without exception step to the right.

I understand the dilemma, and face it often...

It is funny to hear you people complaining about the private school that puts up the track that you use.

I bet those parents and women walkers are the ones that paid for that track, yet you think you automatically have the right to lane one becasue you are a runner.

I hope they kick you off their track.

Most of you are slow anyway. Nothing worse than seeing old, crappy men like you running around a track thinking you are getting into shape.

ha.

Get the f*** out of my way, fat ass!

In college one of the male distance runners was complaining about one member of the girls team doing repeats in lane one (we were all doing repeat 800's) and on almost every time we would pass her during our 800. Our coach told her to stay in lane 1 for her runs and recovery and then explained to this guy that in almost every race he would have to pass at least one, if not more, runners and that since we are practicing in order to race we should get use to passing people in practice as well.

The guy shut-up his complaining and none of us ever complained again about this.

By all means make sure the track is clear if you run races of 400m or shorter but if you are middle distance or distance runner than just use it as practice in passing as well. You'll be better ready to race as a result. It is sorta like bad weather, its a minor inconvience that will only make you stronger for over coming it.

of course now I never have that problem. Not much competition for the track at 5:15 in the morning.

There's a HS track near me where printed on the track every 100 meters is "No walking or jogging in lanes 1, 2 or 3." People do it anyway. I ask before starting to move out of lane 1, and they usually do it without a problem. Sometimes I get into a shouting match. I've had people say, "slow down" when I'm running intervals and they think I'm getting in their way.

On other tracks where it's not marked, people usually move out if you ask them politely. If they don't, you go around. It helps to explain that one reason to do it is to lessen the wear on the track so it doesn't have to be replaced as often, which gets a favorable response from taxpayers.

Worked out last night at a track that was heavily used on the track, in the middle, and off to the sides, almost exclusively by people who were there to socialize and do something outdoorsy that was not a workout. Normally I am bugged by people getting in my way when I am really feeling *serious* about my times and seeing what I can do, but this time I was outnumbered by a factor of about ten to one. It was actually really nice to see so many people outside doing something active, even if they weren't taking themselves very seriously and doing hard repeats. Since the casual people were the majority, I worked around them. I did do some passing on the inside of lane 1, though, when it was just the easiest place to go. The only time I really made an issue out of it was when a couple were walking in lanes 1 and 2 on my final lap where I felt like cranking it and I would have had to vear into lane 3 to get around them. I squeezed between the two of them on the line but didn't touch either of them. I thought that was pretty nifty myself. The guy said something that I didn't catch, though. I'm pretty sure he thought it was rude, which is about right.

When I go to my usual track during common workout hours, there are sometimes up to 3 large training groups at a time. I do my warm up and watch what everyone is doing, and then I pick a lane to work in and just stay there. I don't care which one it is, as long as I get to keep it.

if it's only 1 person in the lane, i bite my tongue and go around them. i rationalize that it's good practice for a race. if it's 2 or 3+ oprah-watching hungry hippos walking side by side taking up 2-3 lanes i politely ask them to not take up the inside lanes. if they don't listen they get the get the f**k out of the way stupid ass mofer's and/or a shoulder bump on my way pass. actually, never had to go to the cursing and bumping. most people have moved after i politely spoke with them.

If all else fails, get a starting block. I've noticed that blocks seem to identify you as a hardass to the ordinary walkers and joggers, and people can't wait to get out of your lane, probably because they don't want to get run over by a 25 mph train.

Run around them, the extra .2 seconds won't kill you.

I don´t get it! This has to be an american problem! I´ve been doing track workouts in Sweden, England, Germany and South Africa and I have never seen anybody walking on a track.

No, I have had this outside of the USA. I think people simply don't realise the difference between the inside lanes and outside lanes, i.e. the inside lanes are for fast/serious work and the outside lanes are for warming up/jogging/walking. And I suppose, there is no reason for them to know that if they don't know much about track & field and have just come down to the track. You probably wouldn't automatically think the inside lane is for fast work, it's just ingrained in all of us. Anyway, with most people here, if you ask them politely to keep out of lane one and give a reason, they're usually OK with it. Having said that I usually just simply run close around them then go back into lane 1 if I'm in that lane. Sometimes they get the picture and sometimes they don't.

My biggest concern when running up on someone in lane one isn't if I have to go around them, but more importantly, when they become aware of my presence, will they automatically step out to lane two. I yell "track" as a precursor to an accident. If they step out, I hold my line. If they don't step out, I go around them.