Posted on 11/17/2017 6:50:24 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Most of the time, Chris Coon is a mild-mannered, low-key pastor at Urban Village Church in Chicago.
But when the collar comes off and the running shorts—and especially a race bib—go on, the 49-year-old turns into a different person. An angry one.
The things that stoke his ire? Poor race organization. Course volunteers who don’t direct runners at turns. And cars, especially those that don’t yield the right of way or even acknowledge his presence in an intersection.
Not only does anger bubble up more frequently when he’s running, he says, he’s also more likely to act on it. “I’ve flipped the bird at many a driver over the years,” he says. “And if they flip me off then I’ll usually yell at them, ‘F you,’ or something like that.”
His reaction might shock any of his congregants within earshot—but it doesn’t surprise other runners or sports psychologists.
During training runs or competitions, or even during related activities like race registration or packet pick-up, many athletes and observers report a fast-rising fury out of proportion to any perceived slight. (For instance, a race shirt in the wrong size is one of the most common reasons participants yell at Kimberely Stedman, founder and race director of the F3 Half Marathon in Chicago.)
And—sometimes to their own surprise—they find themselves lashing out more than they would in any other situation. In effect, it’s a pedestrian version of the raised tempers that occur behind the wheel. Hence the term run rage.
There’s no real way to tell if it’s becoming more common. No agency keeps statistics on mid-run conflicts or race day complaints. But the term instantly resonates with both endurance athletes like Coon and sports psychologists like Gloria Petruzzelli, Psy.D., who works with athletes in private practice and at California State University. “It’s probably a lot more common than we think,” she says.
Why Runners Have Short Fuses
Even mental skills experts themselves aren’t immune from sudden ire. Take Denver-based Justin Ross, Psy.D. When he was training to qualify for the Boston Marathon, a woman walking her dog nearly tripped him on the retractable—but unretracted—leash on a trail near his home. “I kind of unloaded on her verbally because I was frustrated,” he says. “It interrupted an important training run. My physiology was so kicked up that it was hard to restrain myself.”
What’s happening? Here are four forces at play in many cases of run rage.
• Biology deserves a fair share of the blame for these incidents, say Petruzzelli and Ross. When you’re pushing hard in a race or lost in thought on a long run, your conscious brain tunes out and your basic reptilian instincts take over. “If you’re running outside or on the trails, you’re vulnerable to traffic, animals, and then other people,” Petruzzelli says. “Even when we don’t realize it, our brains are scanning for threats.”
The first sight of one, no matter how slight, and you’re instantly even deeper into flight-or-fight mode.
In this state, your stress hormones are surging, your heart rate is soaring, your muscles are tense. Especially when you’re already amped up for a race or fast workout, it’s a quick jump from competition to fear, and again from fear to anger, Ross says.
This explains why athletes tend to react in risky ways. “I have been known to slap the hoods of the cars of inattentive drivers,” says Claire Zulkey, 37, of Evanston, Illinois. “I’m not proud of this—you never know who might be super cuckoo behind the wheel. But I find it vaguely satisfying to ‘speak my mind.’ You know it’s jarring to hear something or someone hit your car when you’re in the driver’s seat.”
Wendy Curry, 39, of Chicago, found a driver who didn’t take kindly to that banging. “A few summers ago I smacked the back of a car that was pulling out of a surface lot in front of me and totally cut me off,” she says. “I run kind of fast, and I couldn’t stop in time. She yelled back at me. It got ugly. ‘B****, you BETTER not be hitting my car!’”
• A sense of entitlement is at work in many runners, Ross says. They feel an attachment to a physical space and the right to be there without interference. And, with your conscious brain quiet, you may regress to a childhood mindset, complete with the ensuing tantrum. “In our most primitive states, we’re like babies,” says Mitch Abrams, Psy.D., a New York-based sports psychologist and the author of Anger Management in Sport. “We’re very selfish. We take it personally when someone’s in our darn way.”
• Identity issues are also at work. When Abrams treats athletes for anger issues, he first asks one key question: On a scale of one to 100, how highly do they rank being an athlete as part of their identity? The closer to 100 they fall, the more strongly their athletic success is linked to their overall view of themselves, he says. As a result, they’re more likely to struggle when something goes awry.
“We spend a lot of time and energy and money to compete, and often with big ideas in mind,” Ross says. “People who are trying to run a Boston qualifier and there’s something wrong with the course, whether they’re misdirected or misguided, or somebody provides wrong information, that can just cause such great angst and anger.”
• The way news travels can now amplify the reach of any one small event. For example, race directors of a mismarked course can face an overwhelming assault once the news hits social media, Ross says. And in a nation highly divided politically and socially, minor insults can quickly turn explosive. “Any kind of feeling that promotes an us-versus-them could certainly lead to an escalation when it’s really unnecessary,” Abrams says.
But as Coon points out, run rage isn’t exactly a partisan issue. “For me it happens regardless of who’s in the administration,” he says.
How to Control Your Reaction
The downsides of this outrage range from physical harm (spoiler alert: the car is always going to win) to near-instant regret to poor performances. Minneapolis runner Tom Huberty, 65, vividly recalls a time 25 years ago when, atop a hill near mile 22 of Grandma’s Marathon, a car appeared on the closed course. Huberty yelled obscenities and threw a cup of ice at the driver, who was honking his horn to clear a path. “I am certain the cost was greater to me and robbed me of some energy the last four miles of the race,” he says. Still, the incident makes his blood boil years later.
How can you control your reaction to unexpected events?
• Use visualization, Abrams recommends. Before your race or run, picture everything unfolding perfectly, including the end when you cross the finish line triumphantly. Then, imagine something going wrong—a slower pack of runners clogging the course, a dog lunging at you. Picture yourself reacting calmly, quickly steering yourself back on track, and finishing strong. You’ll lay the neural groundwork for responding the same way in real life.
• Stay tuned to cues you’re reacting with rage. Some of these can be physical—sweatier palms, a scrunched-up face, a faster heart rate, Petruzzelli says. Of course, these are also common to running, especially in a competitive situation, Abrams points out. So stay dialed in to your thought processes, too. Notice when your focus shifts from your race goals or pace to crushing your fist against a slower runner or a wayward pooch. Those are signs you need to intentionally redirect your response, Abrams says.
• Talk yourself down by recognizing the threat you faced and then reassuring yourself, Petruzzelli suggests. Don’t gloss over it with purely positive self-talk. “Tell yourself, ‘Someone almost just ran you over or knocked you off the trail, but you’re OK. You’ll get through this; let’s move on,’” Petruzzelli says. Bring yourself to the present moment by practicing what she calls “radical acceptance”—recognizing that you can’t change what happened, but you can still make the best of the situation by altering your response.
• Channel your anger into a better run, Abrams says. After all, anger—a completely normal and at times useful emotion—is separate from the outbursts that follow. “Anger can absolutely help performance in sport; rage never does. Rage is that level that is uncontrollable, it’s disorganized, it’s not focused,” he says. “Sure, if you’re neck and neck with someone and the ribbon’s right there waiting for you and you hit the gas, then rage can help you. But for any kind of distance, it’s going to destroy your plan.”
• Practice this focused use of emotion—just as you wouldn’t toss on a new pair of shoes or experiment with your breakfast on race day, you can’t expect to turn frustration into fuel the first time you try it. So test the idea of running mad by conjuring a past slight before a hard workout. “Think about someone who said you couldn’t—or even your own doubts,” Abrams says. In other words, use your run to talk back to the inner—or outer—voice that says you can’t achieve your goals. “Say, ‘Oh yeah? Well, watch me.’”
If you can do this without flying off the handle, the strategy can pay dividends. “Moderate levels of anger can make you stronger, faster, increase your stamina, decrease your perception of pain,” Abrams says. “If you can summon the anger and use it, then that puts more in your tank than a lot of other people.”
In part because of his training in psychology, Ross says he was able to do that with the errant dogwalker he encountered, even after expending energy yelling at her. “I was really cranked up,” he says. “I was at the end of long tempo run and I was able to finish with negative splits at the end.”
• Forgive yourself. Ross’s example shows that, even with practice and awareness, you may still react with rage after a conflict. If that happens, let yourself off the hook. Evaluating and modifying your behavior is always part of the process of becoming a better athlete and a better person, Abrams says. Then do your best to forgive others, too. Vent to your running buddies if you need to, but also keep in mind the offending parties are humans and make mistakes, Petruzzelli says.
That’s a sentiment that helped marathoner and triathlete Peter Shankman, 44, of New York, change his approach. “I used to scream at people walking through a race,” he says. “Then one day, I realized I was being a complete tool—I realized it’s the endorphins of running that pushed me to scream, versus normal me who’d say excuse me and move myself.”
With conscious attention and deep breathing, he has moderated his response to avoid anger and rediscover the fun in racing. But, like most other runners, he’s still a work on progress. He holds one exception to his newfound compassion: “The a**hole who cut me off in the 2006 marathon then gave me the finger. I still hope he gets hit by a car one day.”
But the ones from Seattle and California drive me batty, and I'm a distance cyclist.
“We real cyclists laugh at absurd triathletes.”
I was just WAITING for you to show up, LOL!
Get off my road! ;)
Having raced for a team that had a professional group, I had kept things in check. Even the amateurs had to take the same media training as the pro riders. When I was out doing a training ride wearing a team kit, I knew I was a rolling billboard with sponsor names on the jersey. So if I acted like a jerk, it reflected bad on the team sponsors. If it was traced back to me, I’m off the team.
One of the results of this policy was that team members, including myself, were to avoid riding with certain groups (mostly recreational riders) who disregarded the rules of the road, flipped off motorists, and generally hogged up the road. It wasn’t about being a bike snob, it was about avoiding those who cause the sport to have a bad image.
I will join you...IF there are Hot Fudge Sundaes at the end of the road. ;)
I ran for 30 years. I hated it.
But I sure liked the resulting physical fitness.
I haven’t been running for 18 months, due to injury and illness.
I hate the lack of aerobic fitness far more than I hated running.
Ack triathletes. Can’t hold their line, a complete disaster in a group. Keep them out of your pace line, or they will cause a crash with their aero bars.
Disclosure: I am a time trial specialist, so I do have a time trial bike. I do not ride it in pace lines, well, maybe in a group training for a team time trial.
I recently read this book as well as some of Dr. Phil Maffetone's stuff online and it really changed my perception and how I train.
My non-running ass now does multiple five milers a week. This week alone I've put in 30 miles, and I feel fine. It's amazing to be able to run at an easy pace and steadily get faster with no real increase in exertion.
That makes sense.
Sorry for your current troubles!
I like to stay active - running in a straight line and back again, or even in a circle just doesn’t do it for me.
I have an indoor exercise bike (with all the fun programs on it) and we have an elliptical machine that’s easy on the knees, but I would SO much rather get my exercise mucking out the barn, walking with my dogs, gardening and snow shoeing or skiing in the winter months.
See my Post 29. Maybe if I were younger. Right now? I’m good. :)
Endorphins
“Mean drunks have a chemical excuse, too.”
I loved the endorphins. Mellowed me right out. Running made me happier, calmer, healthier, more alert, and never caused rage. I really miss it.
Maybe it’s the increase in testosterone that causes the rage. If a person is used to operating on virtually no testosterone, even a minor increase might tip him over the edge.
“Chop wood, Carry water.”
Good book, BTW.
Gotta put those calories back *on*.
I did a multi-day ride on vacation not *too* long ago. First day was 53 miles with 4400 net elevation gain...I was hungry that night.
“Not one, ever looks happy.”
I did. There are wrong ways to do it, and a right way to do it.
“It’s amazing to be able to run at an easy pace and steadily get faster with no real increase in exertion.”
Can’t tell you how many people I’ve tried to sell that to. People are really resistant to the notion.
YOUR idea of a, ‘vacation’ and MINE are VASTLY different, LOL!
Mine involve, sunshine, ocean, sand and Cabana Boys delivering Adult Beverages and coconut oil massages!
*SMIRK* :)
Good book, good way to live your life.
I own my own maul AND bucket! ;)
First world excess calories issues. Funny and pathetic really.
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