Surprisingly Well-Informed Motorist Screams at Runner to Get Off Road, Shorten Stride Length, Trade Jacket for Vest
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An angry motorist screamed at a runner yesterday on a local road, telling the man to “get off the road,” before adding, “and while you’re at it, shorten your stride—you’re over-striding, big time!”
As he roared past the runner, identified as Dave Buznik, 30, the motorist shouted from his open window, “Also, a midweight jacket? Seriously? It’s, like, 40 degrees and dry! You only need a long-sleeved base layer! Maybe a vest, tops!”
In a move that further rattled the runner, the motorist slowed, did a U-turn, and came back for more.
“You’ve got some major overpronation going on there,” he shouted as he rolled by. “Those lightweight trainers you’re wearing aren’t doing you any favors… jackass!”
The motorist then extended his middle finger as he drove off.
The drive-by criticism, experts said, suggests the motorist is either himself a runner or is intimately acquainted with one—or used to be.
“A driver whose comments are that astute, focusing on things like gait and choice of gear, clearly has some experience with the sport,” said Dr. Buddy Rydell, an expert on anger management. “Which makes it odd that he would preface his critique with such a hostile cliche as ‘get off the road.’ Why the anger?”
“It’s a real puzzle.”
Another possible clue came later in the day, when a cyclist reported a similar encounter with a man fitting the earlier motorist’s description.
“This guy slows down as he passes me,” said the cyclist, who asked not to be identified. “Then he shouts through his open passenger side window, ‘Get the hell over!’”
Such moments, the cyclist said, are hardly unusual—but what came next surprised her.
“(The motorist) just sort of stays there, matching my speed and watching me ride,” she said. “Finally, he honks his horn and shouts, ‘Grip your bars more loosely! Flatten your back! Downshift before you begin a climb!’”
As the man roared off, she said, he screamed at her to smooth out her “(expletive) pedal stroke.”
Rydell, the anger management expert, speculated that the mystery motorist could be an embittered former duathlete or triathlete—someone who used to compete but is no longer able to do so, perhaps because of injury or some other issue.
“Such a person would be both well-versed in running and cycling and angry or resentful,” he said. “We may never know for sure.”
For her part, the cyclist said her encounter with the motorist was unnerving, though she had to admit that most of his advice was solid. Buznik, the runner, agreed.
“Thing is,” Buznik said, “I actually was overdressed. And I do tend to overstride. So, dude wasn’t wrong.”
“I don’t enjoy coming across angry drivers,” he said. “But this one was actually sort of helpful.”
