Mr Anderson
Yeah, I remember meeting some guy who was a friend of my friend. Or actually he was the little brother of my friend's ex-girlfriend. He was at least in his mid-thirties. Five minutes after meeting him, he was talking about how he "jacked some guy in the face" at a party to just test himself. I thought about that and determined that I hadn't picked a fight to test myself since first grade. And I think at that time, someone else picked the fight with me for no real reason. And I've never really had the urge to since about that time. Anyhow, I found it intriguing that a guy in his mid-thirties would go around picking fights and jacking people in the face to prove himself and impress his girlfriend. This guy must have had the mentality of a first grader.
That being said, if anyone can actually formulate a response to the original post and coherently reply, I doubt that they share that retarded mental development to where they would jack someone for running five meters behind them. Frankly, I doubt anyone would have the balls to do that either. Prison seems like a more than sufficient deterrent. So I'm calling a bs on those who claimed they would punch the dude.
Anyone who was "creeped" out about having someone in their unusually large personal zone with a 10 meter+ diameter had several options.
1 - slow down/stop and let OP pass;
2 - take a different route;
3 - say something to the OP;
4 - etc., etc.
Instead, they chose to run faster. In essence, they laid down the challenge which, in itself, was an invitation. "We're going to run faster and drop your punk ass," they said smugly. The OP accepted the challenge/invitation and answered it. No doubt, the runners tried to pick up the pace even more. Again, they laid down the challenge which was yet another invitation. "Run with us if you can." The OP accepted and they became angry.
So, in fact, the run did become a race. The race was over when the leaders couldn't continue. Welcome to the big city, punks, chumps and suckers!