What is up with people honking their car horns at me when I’m running?
I’m not running in the middle of the road (I’m on the sidewalk), so I’m definitely not in the way. I’m running fully clothed, no holes in my shirts/shorts. I don’t know enough people around here that it’s just people giving me a friendly beep to say hello.
It’s getting to the point that it’s ridiculous. I’ve gotten cars of teenagers honking at me, families beeping at me, even the freaking landscape guys blowing their car horns at me. There’s no consistency to it… I’ll run for a week with no noise interference, then the next three times I go out, I’ve got people honking their horns.
Is there some kind of runner’s code that I don’t know about? Where when you see another runner, you give them a “beep-beep” of encouragement? I mean, my dad’s ritual when he’s driving and sees another runner on the road is just to throw his hands skyward and shout, “Ah – A runner! God bless ‘im!” and keep driving. No harm to the runner, no noise that gets them out of their zone, but nonetheless, a friendly comraderie that they don’t even know about was just exchanged. My ritual is to silently check them out and see how their form looks, how fast they run, and how they look like they’re doing… just kind of mentally size them up, I guess. Again, no noise involved.
So if there is some kind of “runner’s code” that I don’t know about, can someone please let me in on it? Otherwise I’m going to have to keep checking to make sure that the nonexistent fly on my running shorts is zipped while I run.