I wish I could tell you I had a revelation this week after running “naked,” but I didn’t. I ended up only running alone once. That said, I did learn about how annoying (and dangerous) distracted runners can be for everyone else on the trails.
Ivan Todosijczuk is a competitive inline skater who is training for a marathon– on wheels. While interviewing him for a story that will soon appear in the Journal’s Family and Fitness section, he told me about a terrible whipeout he had recently because of an inattentive runner.
He was skating along River Valley Road when he came upon a runner wearing big headphones. He rang his bell, but just as he was about to pass she turned right in front of him. Either he was going to run over her, veer into traffic or slide into a bench. He took the slide and got pretty banged up. I saw his scrapes.
When you ring your bell, people don’t know what to do,” Todosijczuk said. “Usually runners are the worst because they have their music cranked up really loud. I can hear it coming from their earbuds 10 feet away. No matter how hard you ring your bell, they don’t pay attention.”
Edmonton’s Inline Skating Team practising Thursday night along River Valley Road.
So maybe I didn’t learn anything profound about myself this week, but I did learn to be a more conscientious runner. Music, podcasts and watches are all great tools for runners, but we have a responsibility to be more aware of our surroundings and share the path– for our safety and others.
