Also, if you catch up to them at a stoplight after they've whizzed by in their car, "Next time take your dick out of your mouth so I can understand you, shithead" works well.
Also, if you catch up to them at a stoplight after they've whizzed by in their car, "Next time take your dick out of your mouth so I can understand you, shithead" works well.
Also, if you catch up to them at a stoplight after they've whizzed by in their car, "Next time take your dick out of your mouth so I can understand you, shithead" works well.
Ah, that's a good one.
I've always found this interesting: While running through predominantly African-American neighborhoods in Tampa and P'Cola the 'sistas' will hoot and shout as I run by. Makes you think that they never have seen a half-naked white man before or something.
I was running on a military base (Naval Training Center, Great Lakes) about two years ago when I encountered some 18-year-old hospital corpsman student, who made some wise-@$$ remark about my shorts. I got about a block away, turned around and ran back to where he was, and then proceeded to chew his @$$ out. Basically, I asked him if he had any issues with my running shorts, if he could run an 18-minute 5K (I was 39/40 years old at the time), and informed him that he better be darn careful who he pisses off - he did not know whether I was a petty officer, an officer or what. I locked his heels up for a good three minutes, then continued my run. Talk about fun!
if it is a car full of girls, just moon them. Its win win, cuz if they really are bitches they will be offended, but if they were just kidding, they will get real excited. Works well in a group...nothing is funnier than a whole pack of bare assed kids mooning some car.
A_Goofy_Runner wrote:
After being called a fag I chased down a car with a stick once (it was a high traffic road and he was stuck at a light), and started winding up as if I was going to bash in his windows. He quickly apologized, I shrugged, dropped the stick and ran off. Probably the greatest moment of my life... sigh
When a car cuts you off, rolls through a stop and nearly creams you, or has a dirt ball who can't keep his mouth shut...kick or break the side mirror off (whichever one is closest to you) and ask the turd in the car, "Now who has the last laugh,?" as you are running away with his side mirror.
yes
One time I was running with my cross country team through the downtown area of our town. Some guy drives by and yells "put on some clothes, fags!" We continue running and catch up to him as he is stopping at a stop sign. One of my teammates runs out into the intersection and bareasses the hood of the car. The guy was stunned.
A good mooning usually does the trick.
Sometimes I wonder if retaliation simply makes it worse?
They are just looking for a response, look at the knife incident above.
It's kind of scary.
We went out and bought some pepper spray for her right away yesterday. But she is scared to run around here now, worried next time she/we sees them something bad WILL happen to her (or me).
It just sucks that people need to be afraid to run...
BUMP
Watch out dude, you could get nailed for defrauding.
Too bad you did not witness something like that college football player who got stuck in a drive-thru window.
Man that's sick.
this is not a funny subject, everyone
i have almost been run down and have had things thrown out car windows at me
you NEVER KNOW how whacked the life form in the vehicle is
anytime you take action against a driver of a vehicle you take your life in your hands
if you MUST do something, get the license plate number and make of the vehicle and report them to the police
either that or carry mace, a taser or something
seriously, you NEVER KNOW...it might be YOU who gets arrested
it's a funny world out there
For the life of me I have never experienced any of this while running in many parts of Canada.
Maybe we are all just too nice and polite.
I pity the fat, obnoxious people you southern runners have to deal with.
No retaliation is the best. Ignore it. Grow up.
funny how all these stories end in "we ran away."
Yeah, that's what runners do....run
My father's father's ancestry is Nova Scotian and I have visited Canada a few times. You may well be right.
Of course it's bloody cold up there, eh?
:)
seabass wrote:
funny how all these stories end in "we ran away."
I usually do not retaliate, but sometimes it is too easy, such as in this situation. When I said run away, I didn't mean flee the scene, we just finished our run.
What do you want? Would it have been better to start beating the guy? No, I do not think so...
I do think that a smile and a friendly wave is the best retaliation though. Try it sometime. Act like they are saying hello, regardless of what they say to you. See what they do...
When I was at Oregon State, a buddy and I were running a few loops around Avery Park. We passed this guy kissing his girlfriend on a bench and as we passed he said something like 'friggin' runners'. My friend and I looked at each other and couldn't believe this guy said that. What did we do to deserve that? So....we came around on the next lap of the loop and said 'Fuck her...we did' and just kept our pace. Felt great!
So let me get this right: you're out running and somebody--a driver, a kid at a busstop, a fast-food employee--harrasses you, acts like an asshole. And your response--the response suggested by 95% of the posters here--is to become an asshole in return? You spit, you curse, you throw stones, just because somebody presses your buttons? You let some dickhead turn you into a dickhead? You let them determine that NOW is the time to unleash your inner asshole?
Jeez. I'd rather not let some asshole have quite that much control over the day I'm having, frankly. If the problem here is aggression--i.e., directed at you, the Innocent Runner--then you're, ah, sorta playing right into the person's hands. If they turn out not to be a cowardly curse-hurler but instead a genuinely nasty dude, they're liable to pull out a gun and escalate in the face of your escalation. Some rednecks don't appreciate being spit at, or having rocks thrown at their windshields. If you do this and they shoot you dead--well, you REALLY have shown them then, won't you? You'll only have yourself to blame, in any case.
When I'm out running and confronted with an asshole move--somebody roaring up behind me in a 4x4, or veering across the road and trying to hit me, or yelling at me--I refuse to make their insanity MY insanity. That's the first way in which I take control. I view them as a challenge to be swiftly negotiated on MY terms.
One of my terms is that I'm willing to process information conducive to my own survival. If someone veers at me, I get out of the way. I watch them as they disappear into the distance, to make sure it's a one time thing. I try to ascertain malevolence--an important thing, since occasionally a "veer" is a foolish driver who doesn't even see you and would most likely apologize if they realized just what they'd done. Do I REALLY want to curse and throw stones at THAT person? Hmm. Maybe I'm someone whose inner asshole is closer to the surface, and happier to be activated, than it should be.
When people yell, I usually refuse to give them the one thing they desperately crave: attention. If you want to get back at them, the best possible way of frustrating them is to simply act as though you didn't hear them. They have no reality for you. You've got better things to do. Instead of yelling "Why don't you grow up?", go about your business and allow them to. Unless you're someone who really enjoys yelling "Fuck you!" (and maybe you are; in that case, you're actually grateful for the assholes of the world, since they free you to be your nasty self), it probably makes more sense to yell "Thank you!" back with oleagenous gratitude, like a Bible salesman on a particularly good day. They'll think you misunderstood them, and perhaps try again--in which case, you're controlling the dialogue.
Of course, you MAY be the sort of person who would rather let another runner dictate the terms of your races--pressing your buttons, getting the expected rise. I'm not. I'll be damned if I give them the pleasure of that--AND I'll be damned if I let some asshole transform me into something I'm not. I'm a runner, not a WWF hulk, or a testosterone-crazed, ego-filled vigilante. If you are, by all means kick ass. Just don't be surprised if you meet a bigger, nastier asshole one day, and die by the sword.