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I have a question regarding the etiquette of coping with teenagers who make useful comments as one runs past them on an evening training run. The type of comments that one usually gets are things like; "Hut! Hut! Hut!" "Oi mister, nice tights", "Can't you go any faster than that fat boy?".
Should one:
A. Smile and grin and wave vaguely at the cackling halfwits
B. Come back with a witty riposte calling into question their evolutionary history.
C. Clip the little b***ers around the earhole as one runs past.
I chose option C for the first time on Sunday night and it gave me an immense amount of satisfaction.
Pip pip
Podro
Should one:
A. Smile and grin and wave vaguely at the cackling halfwits
B. Come back with a witty riposte calling into question their evolutionary history.
C. Clip the little b***ers around the earhole as one runs past.
I chose option C for the first time on Sunday night and it gave me an immense amount of satisfaction.
Pip pip
Podro
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Comments
Not since 1991. West Yorkshire kids seem to be slightly less menacing and a bit slower on the uptake. It took at least 30 seconds for what I had done to sink in and the shouts of 'knobhead' to follow me up the road. When I came back 5 minutes later they all legged it as fast as they could.
Pip pip
Podro
I'm lucky enough to be able to choose my time of day and direction.
Happily I've not met much of it, and what I've met I've just ignored.
Another I enjoyed was a couple of twelve year olds were keeping up with me on their bikes, however every time they tired of the game I called back to them "Getting tired, are you". They would then catch me up. It took them quite a time to realise how far they had gone away from where they wanted to be.
I get this 'problem' on my runs in Leeds.
My solution is to tell them to 'shut up'.
That usually works. My kids would not dare to call out to complete strangers in the street and I don't expect other peoples kids to do it to me.
The worse incident was when a strange posssibly mentally handicapped chap ran behind a group of us for half a mile or so.
Stu.
Or `I wish I had your life sitting in a bus shelter in Athersley / Kendray / New Lodge (delete as appropriate)'.
One of the kids I teach made out as if to trip me the other night. I put out my arm to balance myself (honestly m'lud) and caught him a blow in the chest, winding him for a while.
If the strange chap had a red backpack on it was probably me - I run in Leeds/Guiseley area.
I take the same view as you about my kids and have come around to the idea that I'm not going to take any cr*p from other people's kids. If they have a problem with it then tough. Maybe I'm just getting less easygoing in my old age.
barnsleyrunner;
Would it be true to assume that these kids never get a good clip round the earhole at school (and home probably) and so think that they can get away with anything? Should we bring back the birch (or hanging)!
Perhaps we should set up a database of witty put-downs because I only ever seem to think of them 5 minutes later. We could print them out as a wrist band to consult instead of a pace timing band.....
Pip pip
Podro
Isn't there a 10k in Guiseley on Sunday?
I plan to run that one all being well.
Any idea what the course is like?
Ta.
Stu.
Currently it's a group of kids who join in for about 50 yards or so singing "118 118 118" to the rocky tune. I tuck in behind and kick their heels together the say "F off you little C's" in an agresive manner, but I always a bully when in a group.
Never run it but I train around there on part of the course. I won't be doing it this year because of FLM. I beleive that it takes you through Spring woods - horribly muddy at the moment and along the paths/tracks around Esholt sewage works (hold your nose!), the canal tow path and the road through Esholt past the golf driving range. The towpath/road part is relatively flat but through the woods there are a few smallish hills and a lot of mud.
Have fun - lets hope there is not much more rain before Sunday..
Podro
"up late on a school night aren't you?"
or on Fri/Sat the one about homework.
Always worth having a few stock answers so it appears you are sharp witted!
Or I have my music up sooo loud that I can't hear them.
I find the worst culprits are men!! Especially ones in there white vans! Do I need to say any more...?
Living in South London I would never hit a pesky kid for a childish wise crack, as they are more than likely have a 25 year or so, older brother or mate who deals drugs and has a gun. Running a regular 10k route pass a local school, i'm more then likely to bump into them again next week when this gun weilding maniac is around!
I cycle every day in London and I did use to bang on car roofs and hurl abuse back when some idiot had just cut me up or nearly killed me. But i've learnt over the years that the best policy is to ignore the @**ker*! as long as they don't actually touch me.
Just relax and enjoy your run!
They're just slack-jawed gormless little chavs with nothing better to do. Most teenagers are totally harmless, they're all mouth and no trousers. They won't touch you, they haven't got the brains to figure out what to do.
Ignore.
like the term "slack-jawed gormless little chavs"
if they run after you I have just stopped running sometimes and stood still and say nothing. This totally confuses their liitle heads as the game is that your supposed to run at all costs for their amusement.
I find the hasle is worse when you are running in tights... men in tights and all that!
Woman always complain about men in vans shouting at them... run pass a group of giggly school girls in tights and it's all whistles and shouts all the way down the road! so it works both ways.
all part of the fun of the urban runner.
I might have an old cat suit you could borrow if you want?
Don't think I'm ugly (i.e. don't have a face like a bucket of smashed crabs), just a bit pink.
Daydreamed about kicking the child off its bike for the rest of the run. Made it pass quicker.
When i'm on my own I don't seem to attract much heckling. I tend to ignore it, although I did once have a drunk emerging from a local hostelry (lunch time session)grab me and ask for a dance - his mates rescued me and apologised most profusely though most of it was slurred!