Are we in the wrong? (Page 2)

If you run on the roads, you will have to jump in the ditch a few times a year.  People either don't see you or don't concede you any right to be on their road.  I don't wait for things to get close.  If somebody looks like they are bearing down, I get in the grass, in the ditch, against the fence, or whatever distance I can manage.  I also don't give it much thought afteward.  That is the price of being both safe and sane.  The good news is that most people move over and give a runner (or bicyclist) plenty of room.

TW

I don't understand where the First Amendment plays into this at all, please explain.

To answer the OP, I don't think that you were in the wrong, provided you weren't violating any traffic/pedestrian laws. The guys does sound like a bit of a nut job. However, as a general practice, I try to avoid streets without a sidewalk or obvious pedestrian path when running. It's just safer that way, and there's no question if I'm in the right or wrong when I'm on a sidewalk.

Stay safe and happy running!

As my pappy used to say, "you may be right, but don't be DEAD right"

I always run against traffic, too.  Now, if I have the option to be on a sidewalk, I always take it and then it doesn't matter which way I'm facing.

It sounds like what you were doing was just fine.

I'm not precisely certain what the rules are in your jurisdiction regarding runners and sidewalks, but I can't imagine that where there's a sidewalk, runners are permitted to run on the road. We're not considered vehicles like we are when we're on our bikes. You may want to look that up. Agree or not with running on sidewalks, if it's the law, you're beholden to it and can't just ignore it without eventually suffering the consequences. We need to do our part to educate ourselves and coexist with motorists, even idiots like the guy that you encountered who wasn't doing his part to cooperate from the sounds of it.

Sure, concrete is rougher than asphalt, but a car will do a lot more damage to your knees than concrete will. I think that you're kidding yourself to think that you're going to have to be dodging walkers, strollers and leashed dogs enough to make it distracting or to decrease the quality of your workouts. When I was running seriously (60+ miles a week), I put the vast majority of my miles (easily in excess of 85%) in on concrete sidewalks without losing quality in my training due to pedestrians, dogs, etc... or ever dealing with injury related to the pounding on concrete (I occasionally would roll my ankle, but that was out of stupidity rather than from running on concrete).

Edited to clarify that I was running 60+ miles, not minutes, as that's probably essential to demonstrating that you're not necessarily going to destroy yourself by running on concrete rather than on the road.

Yeah, so much easier and safer to dodge bikes, cars, trucks, buses on the road.

Concrete vs asphalt topic is debated with most saying that running on asphalt, since it is softer, and easier on the joints / less injuries.  If I was running barefoot, I would totally agree.  But since I run with cushioned, support trainers, like 99.9% of the people here do, i feel the signifigance of how hard the running surface is greatly reduced. 

I read an article supporting running on asphalt where the author said to hit an asphalt road with a hammer and then a concrete sidewalk with the same hammer.  See how much harder the sidewalk is?  Its obvious that running on the sidewalk will be much harder as the experiment points out.  Well, I think the experiment is flawed.  To stimulate one actually running, the hammer should have a shoe on it.  Do you notice much of a difference now? 

that being said, I run on a variety of surfaces; sidewalks, asphalt multi-use paths, trails, and treadmills.