Etiquette for running on a track

If you have decided to incorporate walking/running into your exercise plans, good for you!  I'm going to give you some rules and tips to help you do this without getting killed on the road by cars, or killed on the track by angry runners.  This won't be a "how to run."  Instead, it will be "how to run safely and be friendly."

Your local high school track is a great place to start running.  On your track you won't have to worry about cars.  If you have a problem, you will never be too far from where you started.  Bathrooms are usually close by, which you will find useful when you experience your first "code brown" as I like to call them.  The surface is easier on the knees than the road because it is forgiving.  It is flat, so you won't have to climb hills or worry about running on a slant to the left or right.  It is easy measure how far you go, because all high school tracks are the same size.  One lap is 400 meters which is pretty darn close to 1/4 mile.  So 4 laps will make a mile.

The down side is that they can get crowded on certain days.  Also, you may not be able to run on it while the soccer team, football team, or track team is practicing, depending on the attitude of the coaches.  You almost definitely will not be allowed to run on it during school hours.  And always turning to the left can hurt some peoples' knees.

If you are going to be spending some days at the track, there are a few rules you need to follow to play nice with others.

1.   The lanes are numbered from the inside lap of the track to the outside.  These lanes are like the lanes on a highway.  The left lanes are for faster runners, the outside lanes are for walkers.  In a perfect world, each lane out from the inner lane you would find a slower pace of runner/walker.  This is not because the faster people are more important and deserve the better lanes.  It is a safety issue.  If a you as a runner decide to slow down, you should be able to safely move to the lane to your right before doing so.  If you slow down in your lane, another runner close behind you may run into you.  And if you move to the left lane, there will be faster runners than you coming.  If people follow this rule, you will know that the lane to your right is a slower pace, so you should be able to safely move to that lane.

2.  You should usually run counterclockwise.

3.  If you are with a group who is walking, for the love of God please don't walk 4 abreast and block the entire track.  Try to take up just 1 or 2 lanes and leave the rest of the lanes for others to use.

4.  It's best not to wear headphones.  If you chose to listen to music, wear just one earbud so that you can hear other runners approaching.

5.  If a faster runner is approaching from the rear, he may say "track" or "left" or "on your left."  This is his signal that he wants to pass.  Move over one lane to your right and allow him by.

6.  Do your stretching on the infield.

7.  Take your kids, but don't allow them to run around the track unsupervised.  If they get knocked down by an unaware runner, the track surface will scrape them up.

8.  If you are the only runner on the track, disregard all the rules and do what you want!

Feel free to use common sense when applying these rules.  Obviously if there are 3 or 4 people on the track, and you want to run the straight aways and walk the turns, you won't need to switch lanes, since everyone should have their own lane.  Some of these rules will only apply when the track gets crowded.

We have several running clubs in our area that use local tracks for group training.  You can google your local clubs to find when they meet.  Running with them will be a great way to learn track workouts, and a fun place to meet new friends.

Running clubs more often use tracks for "speed workouts" rather than "distance workouts."  So when you are trolling their website and forums you might look for keywords such as speed work or interval training.  Don't be embarrassed about running with them, they will have all skill level and abilities in attendance.

In the next day or two I'll be putting up some safety info for running on the road.  Until then, why not take advantage of the weekend to go spend 30 minutes at your local track walking/running?