Track Etiquette: What is it with people?

We do not have this problem there are about 3 to 4 tracks in a town with about 70,000 most who seem to lazy to go to the track. I only once had someone using lane one during a workout, lucky for them I was finishing up. I know love long walks on the beach and scotch it helps with the hard days.

Jefe in the CO, I feel so sorry for your wife. I understand getting a little mad, but jeez, you went way overboard. I hope you don't over react like this all of the time.

You're so cool. I bet your mother must be proud. Can I get your autograph?

Worst ever:

I was dropping 10x800 at about 10k pace, and somewhere between #3 and #4 a pack of four fat high school girls SAT DOWN in lanes 1/2, right at the start of the bend.

I just ran right through it all, which only provoked a stand-off. Which I won, by stepping on one.

I can relate to the OP's story. It's difficult because a lot of times communities and high schools build a sports complex with the primary use/attraction being the stuff in the middle infield of the track - i.e. the football field and the soccer field....

so the track is almost never used much or cared for. The track is just present because it's customary to build a 400m track around a football field.

If you go to use a track at a high school this time of year, expect there to be all kinds of shit in the way - HS football benches, rubber runway mats to protect the track surface from football players cleats, etc.

Don't feel bad though. Watch Hansons Distance Project's Desi Davila doing a track workout in FL on Flotrack and you can see a tractor/truck blocking lane 1 so Desi has to move to the outside.

It happens all the time, but you do what you have to do to be great.

And lately when i yell "TRACK!" when a walker is chatting and blocking lane1, they freeze like a deer in headlights not knowing what the heck im asking them to do. whatever though, it's just a workout - just do what you have to do to get the training stimulus in.

In principle I do agree with you on this, but at the end of the day, the point is that the lack of proper track etiquette shows the lack of respect for the PURPOSE OF HAVING A RUNNING TRACK and a lack of respect for the sport of running itself.

It also reveals just how selfish people can be, esp non-runners who are aware of how a track is to be utitlised. For others, it is either plain ignorance, or a lack of common sense, and this needs to be confronted.

Posters here can blast the OP for being anal, but the point is that accidents can happen if people are crowding up the track while runners are doing fast/hard training sessions. More than just inaccurate timings are at stake here.

I was floored on 2 separate occasions by different people who made sudden turns while halfway on the curve to head towards the oval while I was sprinting in lane 1 and well into the turn. They were standing in lane 4 chit-chatting when suddenly they decided to run across the lanes into the oval, just as I was running into their path. Bam! and I was flung a few metres into the oval with a few bad cuts and almost choked.

I was fortunate. There have been cases where people who were exercising vigorously were suddenly halted and suffered heart failure or lung collapse.

This is no trivial matter. The public ought to be educated on the purpose and proper usage of an all-weather track, no matter where it is located, and no matter who owns it. There ought to be caretakers who are ever-present to enforce proper track etiquette as far as possible.

As far as I am concerned, a track is a sacred space exclusive for serious running, just as the sport of running itself is sacred. Allowing a circus to regularly arise in that sacred space is just like allowing pool users to use shampoo and soap to bathe in a public swimming pool: IT'S AN ABSOLUTE NO-NO.

At my first track meet (outdoors), I got hit on the head by a pole vault standard, and I didn't see it coming. A teammate was practicing/warming-up before the meet, got the jump a bit sideways, and collided with the standard knocking it over. I needed a few stitches. It could have been worse, as the standard had pegs which stick out to hold the crossbar, that didn't miss me by much.

Thomas Pain wrote:

I once got hit by a pole vaulter's pole during a 5000m in college. I saw it coming, so I was able to duck somewhat, and the blow was more across my clothes than anything. But that was certainly unexpected. Indoor tracks are dangerous places to be during meets. Especially if throws are going on.

foomiler wrote:

As far as I am concerned, a track is a sacred space exclusive for serious running, just as the sport of running itself is sacred. Allowing a circus to regularly arise in that sacred space is just like allowing pool users to use shampoo and soap to bathe in a public swimming pool: IT'S AN ABSOLUTE NO-NO.

I wish we could have that, but there are a lot of walkers who like to use a HS track for walking. I don't see anything wrong with that, except that they do sometimes use lane 1 and that can be a major pain.

My high school coach used to insist we do all of our warmups and easy running in lanes 2-8. Ideally, Lane 1 should be used for interval reps only, but it's hard to expect everyone's going to follow that.

And as I said before, a lot of times communities and high schools build a sports complex with the primary use/attraction being the stuff in the middle infield of the track - i.e. the football field and the soccer field....so the track is almost never used much or cared for. At these type of loser high schools with no good running programs, the track is just present because it's customary to build a 400m track around a football field.

Advice:

In your area, try to find a high school where they respect their track. Avoid high schools where football is big because this time of year there may very well (esp on Friday afternoons/evenings) be all kinds of shit in the way - heavy metal long HS football benches, rubber runway mats to protect the track surface from football players cleats, metal trash cans left in Lane 1 with empty sticky plastic Gatorade bottles overflowing in them, etc.

a heavy metal football bench left in Lane1 for the entire fall is a major pain in the ass

Why the hate towards a guy trying to do a track session? Surely on a runners forum we should be supporting efforts to get faster without ridiculing the type of session, the surface, etc.

It's a track for running on and it doesn't take a particularly observant person to work out lane 1 is for running fast. And lane 1 is preferred for whole bunch of reasons that are too obvious to point out on this forum.

Maybe the reason track athletes are looked down on is because too many of us accept inconsiderate behaviour like football benches in a lane, sporting clubs jogging on mass over all the lanes, balls flying across tracks.

I say the arsehat with the door opened in lane 1 is lucky the guy didn't leap onto the vehicle or door to get over it.

Benson St. Wales wrote:

You are cursed! Ha ha, how frustrating! Yesterday at my local track it was some weird version of "opposite" day, as literally 3 different people (not walking together) were walking in the opposite direction on the track. One was this older lady walking right on the line b/w 1 & 2. Another was this dude with his shirt off who was just going back and forth in the "sun section" of the track, trying to get a tan!

Let me add to that. On an indoor 4-lane track open to the public, there seemed to be a well-established pattern to the day with everyone going in the same direction. Then 2 people switched directions in the middle of the track and ran the other direction. So not only am I avoiding packs of older adults, but I am swerving every half-lap to not get plowed. Fine if you want to save your knees, but come on.

At this point, during the school year, I pretty much reserve track workouts for Sundays or EARLY on weekday mornings to avoid any issues. I don't mind having people in various lanes (I am usually only doing 400s or less, and don't mind the variety of mixing it up in other lanes), but my only annoyance is when people aren't consistent and start changing lanes right in front of me as I approach. Usually in my warmup I will jog around the track and take note of what lane everyone is in and just pick one (usually 3 or 4) that is empty.

I also don't really understand the venom being thrown at the OP...it's a running message board and he is venting. Nothing wrong with that, I think everyone can relate to his scenarios and those of others. It's no different than being annoyed when driving on the expressway and having a slow-poke plodding along in the fast/passing lane, creating a moving road-block. True it will not destroy your day getting to work 5 minutes later than usual, but it doesn't make it any less annoying. We're just sharing anecdotes here.

Side note: If I ever catch the person who apparently regularly lets their dog crap on my local track (literally in every single lane), I will be giving them an earful!

I'm used to the fact that we're at the bottom of the respect ranking. For comparative purposes, let's consider the swimming pool at the local Y or fitness center.

I'm a slow-ass swimmer, but I occasionally will swim to supplement my running - I give total right of way to the faster swimmers in the lane because they are obviously faster and sure don't need a slower ass swimmer impeding their workout. If said swimmer shows up at the track to supplement his swimming, I expect the same courtesy.

VO2 Max wrote:

It's a book for wannabe toolbags who don't have much of a clue, about either running or irony. But then from the first post on this thread we all could tell that you're ridiculously self-serious.

Haha I like that term, "self-serious". Is that similar to self-centered?

We have a nice rubberized track in town, but there's no chance of getting in a decent workout anytime after work hours. I go there in the morning around 5:30-6 so I have it to myself. I even bring my dogs and let them run around on the infield (I pick up the poop). By 7 the teachers start showing up, and some of them walk the track.

On weekends I'm usually traveling somewhere, so I stop at small town dirt tracks and get in a workout. The facilities aren't great, but the scenery is much better. I only do one track workout a week (at most), so it's not that hard to drive half an hour and find a decent track.

I can't see this same thing happening in a swimming pool. Can you imagine someone swimming in a lane and then someone getting in the same lane?

I'd say to avoid the whole situation, try to find a local running club that does track workouts on a particular day. Your less likely to have to deal with the problem of non-runners using the track.

Seriously, why do people walk on a track? Walking is boring enough, why repeat the same small loop over and over again? At least choose somewhere with nice scenery. It seems pretty ridiculous that people DRIVE to a track to WALK on it for exercise and DRIVE home! lol

NitrousMike wrote:

Seriously, why do people walk on a track? Walking is boring enough, why repeat the same small loop over and over again? At least choose somewhere with nice scenery. It seems pretty ridiculous that people DRIVE to a track to WALK on it for exercise and DRIVE home! lol

This is a legit question. Maybe they want to know the exact distance (just like me). But c'mon - they're not doing "interval walking" workouts. So why don't they just learn how use Google Earth, measure a route near their home, and walk from home? I think this is sign of end times that people want to be like gerbils walking on a wheel.

seoul track wrote:

The track in my neighborhood has literally 1,000 people on it every night. It's obnoxious. Half the people are walking backwards and random soccer balls constantly fly across the track and hit people. It's chaos.

LITERALLY 1000? You mean, there are actually 1000 people there?