Runners on country lanes

[PhilDawson8270]

In the last 100m of this walk to my car. There have been7 changes it surfaces. Patchy repairs. Now damp bricks. Grids to my right. Constant kerbs and side roads.

In comparison the road is clear. Smooth. And has a grippier surface.

I don't run on the road, my running is all down the local canal. But to suggest somebody is doing something unnecessarily dangerous or wrong. When you don't understand why. Is a bit ignorant.

 

[Drago]

I have little choice but to run on roads, simply because our village is half a mile long and the path stops dead at either end. At half a mile I've not even got through the wobbly gasping for breath impending coronary stage.

 

[gavgav]

Anyone else see people running on the pavement wearing lights (sometimes several)? What is the need to wear a light if you're going to run on the pavement? Are they worried about cars deliberately mounting the pavement?

There is a good chance that some of their run may co-incide with a shared use path. Having almost been caught out in an unlit area, whilst riding my bike on the cycling section, by a runner also on the cycling section and wearing all black with no lights, you really can't see them!!

 

[mjr]

I dont see how someone can run faster on a road than they can on a similar surface running along next to it.

Really? They don't use the same surface materials, you know. With cycle tracks, I know of only one where they've used a surface that rolls as easily as a nearby carriageway. In general, I estimate that you lose something like 16% to the greater rolling resistance - and they seem even less careful about surface quality for pavements where you can't cycle. Surely that slows running too?

I would run on the road only if the pavement was too hazardous (slippery, loose tiles, obstacles etc, not disputing these circumstances).

Give it a go. You'll be surprised how common hazards are.

A cyclist would eschew a cycle path usually to avoid conflict with pedestrians.

Really? There's naff-all pedestrians on most roadside cycle tracks because there are more direct and less polluted ways to get from A to B, but people still ride on the road because often designs are shoot, most often at junctions.

Riding at higher speeds is safer to do on the road.

I agree. Even if they built cycle tracks to the guidance of an average speed of 20mph, there would still be faster riders using the carriageway - and councils have built a lot of 10mph shoot, which means even more use the carriageway.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Back in the mists of time when I was a runner, I'd often run in the roads (quiet roads in suburban London) if starting my run at stupid o'clock in the morning, when there were hardly any vehicles, as the road surface is waaay better to run on. But as soon as people got up, I'd return to the pavements.

 

[Drago]

16%? I thought it was more like 17.215%, give or take.

 

[Red17]

I don't run on the road, my running is all down the local canal. .

I've heard of people walking on water, but running

 

[Ajax Bay]

Jogging on the road seems unnecessary given the use of a decent pavement. I dont see how someone can run faster on a road than they can on a similar surface running along next to it. Im not a runner myself so I would like a runner's viewpoint on this, maybe I am missing something.

This is a (my) 'runner's viewpoint' (see post #58) - which bit don't you like?:
Pavements are less safe than running on the road itself, because of all the former's undulations, of surface, of entrances, of paving stones, of leaves/slippiness (as several others have said). (This answers your question: "what possible benefit is there?".) This is even more difficult (ie a deterrent to running on pavements, even lit pavements) in the dark. A sensible runner will therefore use whichever surface is best and safest for him/her, just as a cyclist would, and this is normally the road, away from the gutter (!). The road surface is predictable: the pavement is not.

 

[mjr]

16%? I thought it was more like 17.215%, give or take.

Yeah, sorry that mine was a crude estimate based on cadence and gearing achieved for similar-feeling comfort on rides along each surface in similar conditions fairly soon after each other late at night, a few years ago now.

 

[Katherine]

It was the red light on his chest that was the problem because everyone's brain is going to think that a red light is moving away from them not towards them.

Reflectives are the best thing for others to judge speed and distance.

I find flashing lights on cyclists coming towards me really hard to judge, especially the ones dazzle.