I came across a running manifesto by Lou D’Alessandris on some common (and very annoying) things that a few runners have been guilty of at least once or twice during road races. To prove the validity of the post that rings true to this day, I’ll out myself for those sins I have committed. Hopefully this will help those of you out there who may not be aware of not keeping fellow road racers in mind while on the course.

Annoying Habit #1 Lining Up Ahead of Your Pace.
Guilty. If this isn’t your pace, what’s likely to happen is you’ll hit a wall and people who are surrounding you who actually run that pace are going to crash into your slow junk. (This happened to me circa Surf City 2009.)

Annoying Habit #2 Walking Side by Side in Traffic
Guilty. Also a rookie mistake (Surf City 2009). Still, I admit not as bad as some run walkers I’ve seen (usually large training groups like TNT) who can go 4 or 5 wide (meaning four people to five people side by side) walking. Definitely slows down the rest of the runners near by on a congested course.

Annoying Habit #3 Stopping Abruptly
Um… guilty (Disneyland Half 2009). In my defense, I wanted to comment to someone about how I couldn’t believe that people were stopping to take pictures with Cinderella during a race. I ended up almost knocking someone over.

Annoying Habit #4 Moving Sideways Without Looking
Not guilty, much like the shortest distance between two points, I tend to run a straight line.

Annoying Habit #5 Crowding A Turn
Not guilty, equilibrium is not something I’m terrible conscious of when I’m trying to push through a race so I keep my distance from others when running around the bend.

Annoying Habit #6 Talking On A Cell Phone
Guilty. (Surf City Half 2010) one of my friends about 20-30 minutes behind me on the course kept calling my cell phone and my running partner’s cell phone to plead with us to wait for her at the finish line. I can imagine with a crowded course like Surf City those around us weren’t too pleased with hearing our conversation.

Annoying Habit #7 Being A Running Snob
Not guilty. I’ll save the elitist attitude for those who are actually paid and elite runners.

Now that I have confessed those 7 deadly (annoying habit) sins of road racing, I look to not commit them anymore. Hopefully those reading will opt to do the same.

You can download the full pdf of her article here.