I've just noticed something really strange......
In answering Scruff55 's reply to one of my posts, I have realised that I run ALL my circulatory routes anti-clockwise! 🔄
I'm forever turning left! ⮐
What's that all about? 🤷🏼♀️
And what does that say about me? Perhaps I shouldn't ask! 🤪
Anybody else notice this? 🤔
Maybe you were a track superstar in a previous life, or a racing driver 🤷♂️
Said track athletes run the other way round often, otherwise the different loading in the legs causes issues... this may not be necessary for us, depends how many right hand bends are in the run really. Running a regular course the “wrong” way round is a weird feeling, and for that reason I’m yet to do my most local parkrun... must mail them to get them to reverse their route 🤣
Ah! I ran track (short distances only) at high school, so maybe that's where it comes from?!
Could be... I used to run 3000m... while I trained both ways round, when I go anti-clockwise it feels like race day still, maybe I need to look at this myself, clockwise laps on recovery/long run days, anti-clockwise for speed and tempo sessions! Thanks for raising this, it’s got me thinking about the psychology of different run types some more.
Now that you mention it I am always turning right! I am right handed so don’t know whether that has anything to do with it? 👉
I'm right-handed, but I clearly like left-hand turns! UnfitNoMore made a good point in the post above - it could be linked to track running at high school which is anti-clockwise. I didn't think about that and am surprised if it made such an impression on me so many years later!
When I read this it made me think. 🤔It depends.... for the outward part of my run its clockwise but then it depends on how long. If I'm running more than 5k it goes clockwise/anticlock / clockwise. What does that say about me?? I can't settle on anything🥴. Maybe we're just over analysing. However you do it you're doing it well👍👍
I think I might rebel and start going the other way and see what happens then!
Actually now that I think of it I run anti clockwise too! We'll need to be careful or we might end up with one leg shorter than the other like haggis.
😂
Haha! I hadn't thought about that, but I suppose I mainly run clockwise, apart from my last run which was a mixture, because I did a familiar route backwards.
Are you left handed maybe. 😊
Nope, right-handed! UnfitNoMore suggested it might be to do with track running at school which is always anti-clockwise......🤔
Ah of course. I never did any running at school and hated PE altogether! They made us wear ridiculous tiny wrap round skirts which were embarassing. Big turn off for me and many other girls. How the world has changed! That said, I did some track running with a colleague before lockdown and that was anti-clockwise.
Zoiks!!! Me too! Never thought of this before 😂 although I only have the one route by the bank, I always run it anti-clockwise!
Isn't it weird? I hadn't even thought about it until Scruff55 talked about running some of her routes in the opposite direction as a change.
We always run clockwise, until Willow goes to sit in the car and then I run any old how, what fun we would pass each other going in opposite directions and smile and say hello you and us
That would be lovely!
My direction is entirely related to the layout of the local park and where I live and whether I want to start with a shortish steep hill or finish with a longer gradual rise ! Mix and match depending on how I feel - otherwise I’m just like a hamster in a wheel !!
🤣 but at least now you've noticed you have the option af new runs by just reversing your original ones. Happy running 🤗
I think I'll be a rebel and experiment going right on my next run and do a route in reverse!
Enjoy, you'll see all sorts of new thinks and your km markers will be in all the wrong places 🤣
Its funny how we notice these things. So you had me thinking. I've built up a few running routes now so some are right turn some are left turn and some are straight out and back.
I don't think i can answer your question 🤣
I think it makes you a balanced runner Buddy!
How interesting, I think i’m ambidextrous, 🤣🤣🤣 I always dismount my bike on the right but get on from the left, ... I also seek variety and used to regularly look for different routes on my commute drive to work, so running I turn a different way every time even if all paths eventually lead to the sea, recently there just haven’t been any other turns to take from my house so will need to start venturing further afield ... I have noted great tips and ideas from recent posts, just need to do what you’ve done D-d and make a plan 🤣🤗
I think there's an ambidextrous side to me too. I am right-handed, but play cards with my left, iron with both, and now you mention it, get on and off my bike from either side of it.
I'm going to turn right on my next run and see what happens. This thread has given me a whole other set of things to think about whist running! 🤔🤪😊
I’m right handed and play cards left handed but never iron. You should try it! Saves me hours but I’m not sure what I do with it!!
Dang! I never realised it until now but I do the same unless I conciously - for training purposes - switch around, except I run clockwise.
Aren't humans strange and intriguing 
Strange and intriguing and weird and wonderful! 😃
@Delly-dot, It’s genetic and I think basically believed to be a life-saving feature,
Realize that as background, humanity did most of its evolution in smaller villages not big cities (no agriculture).
When people wander off and don’t know where the village is, at least one study has been done and shows that half the people walk clockwise, and the others walk anti-clockwise.
Effectively people people circumnavigate the village. Which is much safer than walking in a straight line off into oblivion.
I suspect it also means that if you have two lost people or a search party, that people may end up walking in opposite directions, and run into each other under circuitous route.
This would also explain the rare phenomenon, and I think I’m sure I’ve seen this in movies and heard about it in real life, in which people are lost and when they discovered, gosh isn’t it amazing/weird that they are only a quarter-mile from civilization. Well, clearly they circumnavigated the village, never got too far, and plopped Down to encamp. !
And I think I’ve seen in a movie people out lost walking, somehow separated from each other, but do eventually encounter each other— but if they were circumnavigating the same circle that would make a ton of sense.
And I think I’ve also seen the spinal tap thing I don’t know if anyone remembers the backstage scene, basically Out in the wild a group is lost and they walk and walk and all of a sudden they notice, hey wait a minute, werent we at this exact spot one hour ago? I can only assume it’s written into movies or plays because it might happen or has happened in real life. Once again fits in with the “evolved to walk in a circle” feature of humanity. !
I’m a little hazy on ages, but I think This applies to both babies crawling either left or right, and to adults walking.
Very cool, right!
Very cool! Fascinating information and it all makes perfect sense! I’m clearly more in-tune with my intuitive side than I realised 😀. Thank you for sharing. 😊
Yes you are! Am so glad you’re celebrating that!
I used to think that all parkruns were clockwise, but now I know that is not the case
Our nearest two Parkruns, though I’m yet to run either, are both anti-clockwise. 😆
I mentioned this and my husband went through all the parkruns we have done (34) and they are a complete mixture of clockwise, anticlockwise, there and back, lollipop shapes and figure of eight.
Medina in the Isle of Wight was a double figure of eight with a zig-zag section, they were trying a new route and I felt as though I was a Lemming in the computer game. It was fun as a one-off but would probably be a bit boring every week, especially for the faster runners.
I haven't done it, but there is one that looks like the parkrun tree on the map, I can't remember which one.
My Monday route is mostly anti clockwise although it does involve a certain amount of zigzagging along parallel roads at one point.
But my Wednesday walk is mostly clockwise!
Saturday is currently (not) parkrun, which is a there and back.
You may have been a Greyhound in a former life !! Don't know what that makes me I zig zag all over the place!😕
There are few zigzagging runners here too! 😆
How strange. Now you mention it my circular runs are usually anti-clockwise, although I decided to run one clockwise the other evening just to mix things up a bit, and it was surprising how different it looked the other way round. I'm still a left turn girl at heart though!
I'm going to run my next thirty minute route in reverse and see what happens. It will be interesting seeing the scenery from a different direction!
@Delly-dot we have a small sample size here but still, you’ll never guess what. In this thread we have five who run clockwise, five to run anti-clockwise, and two or three who mix it up / do zigzag.
Theoretically I’d postulate a 50-50 split for evolutionary reasons.... and that’s what we’ve got! How cool!
Brilliant. I love your replies and your analysis of the data! Cool indeed 😀.
This is so funny as I only run anti clockwise. If I try the other way the run goes all wrong and I feel out of sorts. Mainly it is a straight run, turnaround and back along the same path. Perhaps I am a creature of habit 🤷🏼♀️
I think I’m a creature of habit too, but I am going to try turning right occasionally now and see what happens!
I have 3 regular routes all of which I run anticlockwise (which I had never ever considered until now, great post!), but it is definitely due to the hills, their gradient and location in the run... not against going ‘the other way’ it’s just MUCH harder 🤣🤣
I’m running tourist routes this week so I shall experiment turning right. It is unfamiliar territory and there’s bound to be some hills too 😅😆.
I’m mostly anti-clockwise, especially if I’m running from home, where turning left takes me to the countryside😊, while turning right takes me towards town 😑
My left turn takes me onto the woodland and commons near my home, so that’s possibly it. I turn left by preference!
I always go anti-clockwise too! There is a dead-end that's part of my 5k route and I can only turn round that way! Strange.
Observations of an Oldie
weird running question i might have asked before
Really weird 5K tread mill alright can’t run for the bus 🚌 
Why do I always get it wrong?
I love running. I actually LOVE it 😍 ❤️
