The other morning while out running, I received a few rude
remarks from a group of boys. I shrugged
them off and ran on but later it got me thinking about how comments like that
could affect people to the extent they may avoid running. Lets face it being sensitive about our body
image is fairly common and for some people so much of an issue, it puts them
off exercising in public. I am a member
of a Women only Facebook group where training advice is shared as well as the forum acting as a support network. I asked a question in the Group to find
out how many had experienced anything similar.
I got a huge response. Incidents
are occurring regularly and what is more it’s happening globally. This situation means many women won’t run on
their own at all now because of fear of verbal or physical abuse while others
admit to always carrying weapons as well as their water bottles.
Researching this further on specific runner forums it is not
only women that experience this, men do too and very often it is the men who
are on the receiving end of physical abuse.
Since being beeped at, wolf-whistled and jeered at when we run outside
is frequent, then we need to be prepared to handle it. Shouting back or sticking two fingers up only
fuels the situation and I found the consensus among runners is to ignore the
comments, don’t react or show that it has affected you and try to avoid
confrontation. If you are nervous then
run with a friend, join a running group or find running routes where there are
likely to be lots of other runners around.
I usually run on my own and in reasonably quiet areas but I
have found that if you smile at people as you run towards them it is usually
returned and may help disarm them if they are feeling less than warm towards
you. Granted that tactic would probably
not have stopped the group that decided to comment on my Chris Hoy-like thighs
the other day, but you can’t win them all.
@lindatodd74
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