Track Etiquette

Stay in your damn lane. It seems so obvious and intuitive to me that this is the right thing to do to me that it kills me when people don't do it. I was doing mile repeats the other day and two women were walking with iced Starbucks in lanes 2 and 3. The track rules posted by the school clearly state that slower runners should be in the outer lanes, but it wasn't that crowded and I figured perhaps they wanted an accurate measure of their distances, so I was just happy they weren't in lane 1. I came around on my second lap and they were in lanes 3 and 4, which I thought was strange but it didn't impact me. Then on my third lap I went into the first turn and realized that they had moved into 1 and 2. WTF? If it was just one person I wouldn't have minded going around her, but it really throws your stride off to suddenly have to look over your shoulder and then move out 2 lanes. They left the track for a bit while I was resting, but then came back on my second repeat and the same thing happened. This time I caught them on the straight. I yelled "track" as I was approaching and they assumed I wasn't talking to them, then I yelled it again. They jumped out of the way and looked pretty pissed off about it.

Afterwards I apologized for scaring them and tried to explain that they needed to pick a lane and stay in it, but mostly I just got blank stares.

Other things that bug me at the track:

People who bring their kids and don't teach their kids what to do. Little kids do stupid things at the track. It's not their fault, they just don't realize the danger they're in. Kids like to race you, which means they run in front of you in your lane. You have to be very careful when going around them because when they hear you getting close sometimes they make a 90 degree turn and cut across the track. Kids also like to run straight at you, head on, which wouldn't be horrible except that it's distracting and I'm terrified that one will trip before veering off and I have to fall to aviod trampling them. The worst is when there is an older and a younger sibling, and the older sibling is doing something stupid but knows what to do to avoid getting run over, and the younger copies what the older is doing, except for the part about avoiding getting run over.

People who walk or go slow in the inside lanes when there are faster runners out. I don't mind this so much as long as it's a concious decision. If someone wants to run a tempo run and is slower than me, I get that, and I don't mind it, I can choose another lane or go around them if it's crowded. It bugs me though when people run in pairs and take up two lanes to do this , especially when I'm trying to do a tempo run. But most people are happy to move outward if you talk to them.

People who take a lane that's obviously in use. There are 8 lanes. There are three people on the track. You're clearly not faster than me. Why are you trying to Bogart my lane?

Okay, enough complaining. Back from vacation, did my last full intensity workout today: 3 x [100m, 200m, 400m], resting as long after each interval as you took to complete it. Tomorrow I will do just a crossfit warmup, Thursday an easy 1.5 mile run at an 8:30 pace (to dial-in my starting pace), Friday a rest day, and Saturday a 3/4 mile run at 8:30, just to keep the legs loose. Sunday is the race! I'm starting to get excited.