Jogger rage
The sight of a runner appearing to push a pedestrian into the path of a bus has shocked the nation. What is it about jogging that gets people so wound up?
WHEN keen marathon runner and author Chas Newkey-Burden saw the CCTV footage that has emerged this week of a jogger appearing to shove a female pedestrian into the path of a bus on London’s Putney Bridge he was horrified – but admits he wasn’t surprised. During his years of pounding pavements he says he has “lost count” of the number of times he has seen examples of “jogger rage”.
“For years I’ve wondered if an angry runner will eventually do someone some serious damage,” he says. The woman involved in the Putney incident only avoided serious injury thanks to the quick reactions of the driver of the oncoming bus who swerved before stopping to assist her.
“Barking at pedestrians, shaking their fists at drivers or angrily elbowing slower trotters out of the way at a ‘fun run’ are disturbingly commonplace,” says Newkey-Burden, whose book Running: Cheaper Than Therapy will be published by Bloomsbury in November. He has often seen joggers scream at pedestrians to “get out of the way”, thump car bonnets and even in one memorable case “swear furiously at a passing duck”.
At a fun run near Putney Bridge earlier this year he recalls: “A red-faced man, who was running with his terrified toddler strapped into a pram, deliberately slammed the pram into me as we turned a corner before snarling and speeding off.”
Professor Craig Jackson, a psychologist from Birmingham University, claims that moments of madness such as these are the “pedestrian equivalent of road rage”. In clinical terminology they are known as low impulsecontrol behaviour.
“Jogger rage becomes more commonplace every year,” says Newkey-Burden, a fact he puts down to the increasing popularity of a sport you can practise anywhere. It appears to be because of the proximity of runners to other people that problems arise: when you run it tunes out your conscious brain and makes you more territorial. “When I started running you could buy a digital running watch but you couldn’t share as you were running. Now people want to post their new personal best. You are likely to be less courteous to others if you are bragging to friends and more likely to put yourself in unnecessarily competitive modes.”
In the US the phenomenon of sportswear-clad runners taking out their ire on the world around them has been recognised for years. In February, Runner’s World magazine devoted a long article to the subject of “run rage” in which middle-class runners admitted – to their own surprise – to finding themselves lashing out more than they would in any other situation in what was described as “a fast-rising fury out of proportion to any perceived slight”.
EXAMPLES included a vicar swearing at drivers who cut him up and Justin Ross, a psychology professor from Denver, who shouted at a woman when he became entangled in her dog’s lead. “I unloaded on her verbally because I was frustrated,” he admitted. “It interrupted an important training run. My physiology was so kicked up that it was hard to restrain myself.”
This kind of behaviour appears to be on the increase in the UK. Sergeant Mat Knowles, the investigating officer for the Putney Bridge incident, says that since the video was released he has taken calls from victims of jogger rage attacks dating back as far as 2010. The majority had not reported the offence previously and he predicts the current case, in connection with which a 41-year-old man was arrested yesterday, will continue to “bring other incidents to light”.
So how can running which is generally seen as a means to soothe upset and help sort out stress sometimes cause such extreme emotional reactions?
“Running while angry has a great reputation for producing an incredible workout,” says jogging blogger Caraway, who has been running for 25 years. “‘Running is cheaper than therapy’ is a common saying for a reason. And physiologically, running and anger have a lot of in common. Both involve elevated heart rate and blood pressure, adrenaline and the stress hormone cortisol.
“When we runners are angry, going for a run seems like a really good way to get out some of that aggressive, potentially destructive energy,” she adds. “I’m flying along and working up an inner conflagration of self-righteous rage. I barely notice where I am or where I’m heading.”
According to Dr Steven Stosny, who developed a course on road rage, runners mistakenly believe that exercise relieves anger. In fact the increase in adrenaline and stress hormones does the opposite. “It will get extra energy out but you will still have these negative feelings,” he says. “If an event happens you may end up throwing something at a driver.”
Falling blood sugar levels “drastically shorten temper,” adds Newkey-Burden. “Testosterone rises too, which might explain why, in my experience at least, angry runners are always male.”