John+M’s+2016+OpEd+Article



If you go driving around Ventura anytime around 3:00p.m., you're bound to see distance runners going around the city from any of the four schools that have cross country/track teams. As a distance runner myself, I have been on countless runs where all sorts of people's behavior seems to disappear. I don't know if we look like animals or something else sub-human, but the amount of disrespect and weird behavior shown to us is crazy. It doesn’t matter what speed we're going as long as we've got those super cute short shorts on; and I'm really confused as to what's going on in people's minds.

The list of weird activity that's happened to me personally includes:
 * the usual "Run Forrest, Run" (countless times)
 * screaming at us from their vehicle
 * flipping us off after they’ve driven 20 feet in front of us
 * a walking person challenging me to a race while spitting at me
 * a mom sending her kids to run with me
 * honking for a strait 10 seconds
 * street racers purposely trying to come as close as possible to me
 * those men who whistle and say "hey sexy"
 * people handing us a dead bird to carry back to the bird store
 * having elementary school students tell us how much we look like a few bad words that I didn't even know in 6th grade
 * and much much more that I just cannot recall at the moment

What the heck? I think I've been flipped off only twice in the year I've been driving, yet all this has happened in the approximately 2 years I've been running for! People need to realize that we are humans too, just doing what we love. I understand there's weird people everywhere, but I'm 99% percent sure most of our oppressors are pretty much normal people. Now remember, I can really only speak for the boy's points of view here, although I've heard that the girls can have some odd things happen to them as well.

What's especially striking to me is that typically Americans love sports! We have several billion-dollar industries within our own nation that their sole purpose is to get professional sports into our televisions (or now our computers). All the way down to the elementary school level, the "cool" sports are revered and people love to watch these events; it’s ironic because all of these other sports typically involve running. But when they see some sometimes scantily clad distance runners flying through town, participating in one of the hardest and most taxing activities known to man as the runners push their bodies to the limit, our sports fans (or simply just anybody) commence to treat us horribly and make us feel incredibly disrespected during our practice. This kind of treatment is so well known and has been around for so long that the coaches have to teach the freshmen on what to do in any of these situations (smile and wave).

Now I mean in no way to put any other sport down to make distance running look better, most runners love going to watch other sports compete. All we ask for is a little more understanding and respect as we use the roads as our practice fields.