Track Session Almost Ruined by Jogger Love-In

The track I run on also has this problem tons of people walking or little kids riding bikes in lane 1 or roller blading. I just stay in lane 1 and scream TRACK as I run up behind them. On an average summer weekday afternoon I'd say there is easily 30 people on the track walking or plodding and 3 or 4 sets of kids. Usually the parents of the kids are sitting on a wall under a shade tree on their phones. They just bring the kids to play on the track. It's painful.

Your missing my point. Ive run 8 years of track and field 4 hs and 4 college and everyone on the team knows who's running a workout and who's warming up. Those who are warming up Keep a look out for those who have started their workouts or they move to a different lane. I've been on a track with 40+ Teamates all doing their own thing and it works fine, but get three walkers with a kid out there and it becomes a problem. Especially with a cell phone or headphones. If you show up to a track and you see some in lane 6 sprinting, stay out of lane 6. Simple as thatAnd idk what kind of program you ran at where athletes from different sports came to your track practices? I've never heard of that. Maybe in junior high track...

Track is overrated especially if you are running a half marathon. find a quiet grass field and get a buddy to do laps with. who cares about exact distances.. just do 1 lap or 2 laps etc.. getting someone to run with helps more and the soft sure is better on the body

Butt Naked wrote:

Track is overrated especially if you are running a half marathon. find a quiet grass field and get a buddy to do laps with. who cares about exact distances.. just do 1 lap or 2 laps etc.. getting someone to run with helps more and the soft sure is better on the body

Who cares about exact distances or paces? Just jog / walk butt naked and it'll all be alright on race day!

Never said "paces" use time. run on feel.

Butt Naked wrote:

Track is overrated especially if you are running a half marathon. find a quiet grass field and get a buddy to do laps with. who cares about exact distances.. just do 1 lap or 2 laps etc.. getting someone to run with helps more and the soft sure is better on the body

I'm and 8-15 guy. I need the track.

The track is to me what the hoop is to a basketball player.

Let me get this straight. You wanted a large group of people to change their plans to accommodate a lone runner? Sounds like the height of arrogance to me.

Lover of motor carriages wrote:

Butt Naked wrote:

Track is overrated especially if you are running a half marathon. find a quiet grass field and get a buddy to do laps with. who cares about exact distances.. just do 1 lap or 2 laps etc.. getting someone to run with helps more and the soft sure is better on the body

I'm and 8-15 guy. I need the track.

The track is to me what the hoop is to a basketball player.

You don't need a hoop for basketball, just carry a piece of chalk around and draw it on the wall. It's all good brah

Bikes, Rollerblades and kids?!

My local track(s) are council owned, one doesn't charge entry to local residents, devoid of all humans apart from runners from local clubs.

I cannot imagine school kids ever wanting to go to a track for anything other than running. Bikes are banned from even entering the premises.

Most days I go down I share the track between myself and a group of about 10 others, all running.

Why would anyone go to a track to walk around it with their kids?? Got to a park it looks a lot nicer for a start.

If you read my earlier posts it's not with hobby joggers it's with AWARNESS. 40 track and friend athletes can coexist on one track without an issue but throw in three walkers, a child and a jogger and it because an issue.

it's HOT out here wrote:

I've started running with one of those handheld bullhorns, about the size of a can of body spray. The first time around if I'm passing I yell "track" and if they don't move I use the bullhorn on the second pass. I figured it would just satisfy my anger until I was told to leave but it's actually been pretty effective.

Haha, that's funny.

I should try that some time with an airhorn and then tell them that high jumping should be done on the field.

I was kicked off the track at ELAC in the 1970s in Los Angeles by a very rude school cop.

My crime was running a 3 mile time trial on the first lane of the track, which he interrupted with 1 lap to go and made me stop abruptly.

Apparently my running freaked out the cheerleaders who were practicing on the infield, and a woman jogger listening to music through her head phones slandering around between lane 1 and 2, who I'd yelled TRACK! at. The idiot cop said they weren't related, were all scared at me for running in lane one, and that I had to leave the track immediately.

I pointed to the sign that said joggers use outside lanes. He bristled and told me to LEAVE NOW, or he was going to beat me up apparently. He was also rude to my partner who told him I hadn't done anything, and I told him to leave her alone. He was a total Ahole so we left.

thanks for your apology. And I'm also sorry if I blew by you too fast and startled you while you wandered into my lane.

Then why did you click on this thread and feel the need to comment on something you know nothing about?

Wish I had access to a track that I could complain about. As is, I have to climb a ten foot fence whenever I want to do a track workout as all the high schools in my area (Northern VA) lock up their tracks when not in use by teams. Never had this problem when I lived in upstate NY, Indiana or Arizona. In my hometown I could do workouts during the school day or at 3AM and no one ever cared.

There's a small cinder oval in the northwest part of Central Park, maybe 300 meters. Useful for speedwork now and then. I once was doing that when a group with a coach came and started jogging in the inside. I shouted "Track" to get them out of the way. Their coach, an Olympian from down-under, said "Take it easy Mate". If someone like that is so lackadaisical, what can we expect from others?

I think the OP ran into an usual situation and might have handled it better, but even were she to have asked the people to keep lane 1 clear what are the chances that someone wouldn't wander right in front of him? Would you take that risk? Of course she was pissed but it seems like something with no great solution other than simply going around the group when needed and staying in lane 1 when not, adding some meters to each lap. In a pre-race workout do you really care about precision, as opposed to feel? I can see her getting madder and madder as more and more people showed up.

There are times when the track is going to be too crowded, so I avoid it. Generally, though, as I'm warning up (always to the outside, sometimes clockwise) I'll go up to people and ask that they keep lane 1 open, and most do and I thank them when I'm done. It even can work at Bronxville's track, in which lane 4 is effectively lane 1 -- it's a bit over 400 meters -- and folks will keep lane 4 clear and I tell them why I'm there ("because the track is short").

Soprano wrote:

Wish I had access to a track that I could complain about. As is, I have to climb a ten foot fence whenever I want to do a track workout as all the high schools in my area (Northern VA) lock up their tracks when not in use by teams. Never had this problem when I lived in upstate NY, Indiana or Arizona. In my hometown I could do workouts during the school day or at 3AM and no one ever cared.

GMU has a nice track. You can drive to fairfax and park on the side of the road or the neighborhood behind the athletic area. I was there for 2 years and don't recall the track ever being inaccessible unless a meet was going on. They don't have any policies about walkers, but people rarely walk there.

You mad, bro?

You can b!tch all you want on the internet or fix the problem yourself. I'm sure you can find something more specific to the half marathon too; even with stuff like right turns that you may encounter in the race.