Do you Do This? (Read 1037 times)

Because our streets are cambered and you are supposed to run against traffic, I'm constantly running with my left leg lower than my right leg. So on occasion I run with traffic to sort of even it out. my DH says this is dangerous however I think of it as necessary. Does anyone else do this? Curious, have you been hit and killed or do you think its good for your running?

I was hit by a car once - but only because I cut the crosswalk like an idiot. Thankfully I was not killed, but I'm sure that even if I was, I would come back here to give fair warning.

Wow, I'm a bit amazed at how many walking/running dead we have in this place. For me it kind of depends on the street. There are certain streets in my town that I would ALWAYS run against traffic because they are just too dangerous to do otherwise. then on other streets I will run with traffic and not worry too much. I've never been hit and killed by a car though, so I cant attest to how that feels.

I switch over on sharp curves when being on the "correct" side is more dangerous and I switch over on quiet roads to try to even things out. When I religiously stayed against traffic I had HUGE I/T band issues, and with a more even approach it has never happened again (knocking furiously on wood).

I run down the middle of the road where the camber isn't so great as much as I can, but I mostly have clear sight lines down the road.

Do you have eyes in the back of your head? The danger isn't so much from cars coming in front of you as those approaching from behind.

Most of my outdoor running for the last 20 years has been on a trail (B&A Trail), which has no camber, or on a beach for several years when wintering in Florida. So, it hasn't been an issue for me for a very long time. Before the B&A Trail was completed in 1990, I did a lot of running on local streets and highways. Where there was a paved shoulder of reasonable width, which was often the case, I would alternate sides of the street or, on out and back runs, run on the same side of the street each way which switched the "downhill" leg. On streets without a paved shoulder, I always ran facing traffic and moved to the unpaved shoulder when cars approached. Since I am a moderate overpronator anyway, I run in motion control shoes, which help to moderate the affect of a street camber.

I try to switch sides of the road every 400m, but sometimes in the middle of the race on larger roads the volunteers or the rescue squad workers yell at me when I do that, especially when I'm going over to the side far away from the cones...

I was blessed with a left leg slightly longer than the right (this is actually true). I'm never running in England.