To get the rage at running man?

[mauvedoor]

Ever since lockdown, so perhaps 5 or so months now, there has been a man who has started running really early in the morning.
Our housing estate is a square shape with smaller cul de sacs inside the square. The total of the outside of the square is around a quarter of a mile.
We live on an outer side of the square.
Around 4 or 5 mornings a week the man will run laps of the square over and over again from 5am until 6am. Some days he starts at 4.45am instead of 5am. No exaggeration, he must run past our house at least 20 times in an hour.
We sleep with our windows open a crack and every time he runs he wakes us up with his feet slapping the tarmac every few minutes as he runs past for an entire hour.
I'm not even sure how his feet make such a loud slapping noise, but I'm sure his form can't be that great as he makes that much noise.
A couple of neighbours have mentioned being woken up by him too, especially when it's hot and windows are open overnight.
Not entirely sure what I can do, I can't call over to him as he wears headphones, and I'm certainly not chasing him down the street at 5am.
Even if he just varied his route a little bit I think it would improve matters.
I'm probably being a right snowflake and I'm sure people will tell me to shut the window, but they're eco friendly houses and absolutely roasting! Tried a fan and didn't really get on with it.
I'm raging at the thought of being woken up at 5am tomorrow by his slapping feet again.

Is it loud enough to record the sound, in case he doesn't believe he's actually that noisy? You need to speak to him.

It’s probably not that loud outside. When kids run past my house it makes a racket, kind of echoing. I think it kind of reverberates through the concrete or something, but I’m sure it’s not as loud outside. I’d go with the chalk message. Or maybe phone non essential police number and they can have someone rock up and have a word. It is kinda antisocial behaviour.

If he’s doing laps for ages, put some clothes on and go tell him. Yes It’s a pain to get dressed, etc but short term pain for long term gain.

Silently raging at him and starting a light-hearted thread, as you have OP? Yes. I would do the same.
Speaking to him to ask him to stop using a public path, as some are suggesting? I hope people are joking!
I'm assuming your thread is light-hearted!

Go outside one morning dressed in running gear and flag him down. Say you're looking for some jogging advice and can you chat as you run with him. With a bit of luck he'll be too polite to say get lost. Run really slowly and ramble loads. Get in the way of his timed laps. If that's not enough to put him off doing that route again I don't know what will!

I feel your pain. My neighbour runs at all sorts of random times, sometimes as early as 6am. We live in the middle of nowhere, so don’t get many people running past at 6am but to make it worse, he always finishes his run with a sprint. He has sloppy feet too. It’s clearly quite an exertion for him, so he pants hard and sometimes lets out little moans while he is sprinting. Effectively, it sounds as though we have someone running for their lives from a monster in the woods whimpering In fear each time he runs past.

I'll swap your runner for my biker rev-rev-zoom well over the speed limit twats.

I am afraid you will have to join him in a 5am run.

Hunt him down on Strava and then comment on every single run.

chalk note on the pavement

"stop flapping your feet on the path when you run passed 20 times, its waking several households up"

I would call out the window rudely and shout and ask him to be quiet we are trying to sleep. You can hear through headphones.

Borrow a kid’s scooter and race him on the scooter! He’ll soon bugger off somewhere else.

I'm surprised you haven't zoned it out after 5 months and now sleep through it. I lived in a flat backing on to a city primary school for a while - after two weeks, the bells and noise of children charging around the playground no longer woke me.

Tell him to fuck off

Is it just me that now has a mental picture of Sideshow Bob?

Maybe leave your garden rake lying out.

@mauvedoor - you and other disgruntled neighbours need to be get up a posse and be ready. Take Forrest Gump as your inspiration.

Wait in your driveways - mad dress an essential - headband, tutus and if at all possible some extra hairy person - in a mankini and just join in.

Extra points for someone running and playing 'Running against the wind' at full volume - you should only have to do this once

I don't think your DH's chalk idea is a terrible one, just make the message polite. If you have artistic ability, a cartoon could entertain the whole estate and get your message over nicely.

Lack of sleep is horrible and I'm sure I would be seething too. Because lack of sleep makes you feel desperate and hurts your ability to reason calmly. After all it's hardly intentional on the runner's part, he probably doesn't even know he's doing it let alone that it's waking people up and seething does you no good at all except, probably, making it harder to sleep because you're worked up over it. So is raging reasonable? No. But it is understandable.

One thing that might help regardless of noisy running man's actions is a white noise machine. If you play one all night the slapping of the feet when they come past at 5 am might be less distracting amidst the white noise.

Release the hounds?

Get a really chase-y dog and let him out at 5:01am...

I think you need to spend the weekend watching Roadrunner cartoons for ideas.

Glue puddle to get stuck in? Paint a big hole on the pavement? Chalk an alternative path that is for flappy feet only and sends him into a gorge elsewhere?

I'm going to suggest something really unpopular (I'm a runner)

Please talk to him.

I bet there is a good reason he's doing the laps.

Social anxiety?
Close to home for the baby monitor? Elderly relative?

I HATE other people's noise but honestly I bet he has no idea the distress he's causing.

I also imagine there is a very good reason why he's doing laps.

Damn, I was going to suggest the whole neighbourhood follows him Forrest Gump style, but someone has already suggested that!

Fling a gold medal at him, tell him he's won and can stop now.

@BabbleBee

Hunt him down on Strava and then comment on every single run.

@MeredithGreysScalpel

You’re all insane. He’s entitled to use the fucking public pavement at whatever time he likes. Close your window if it’s that much of an issue.

^^ this

I suspect it's so loud because there is no other noise at that time and no traffic to deflect the sound. Our estate is built in squares and the sound bounces off the parallel walls.
Is there a local Facebook page you could post on about it? If all your neighbours comment and it gets shared locally, someone will tell him.
Otherwise the pavement chalk isn't a bad idea but you might need glow in the dark chalk if you don't do it soon.

Probably a bit early in the day for you OP but a while ago I read of someone who had started running for health. Just a nice gentle run every day around the local area. After a couple of days a family started clapping them on and this attracted more people to join in. So in the following days there was a small crowd waiting to cheer the runner.
All of the unwanted attention meant that the runner stopped outdoor running and took up gym work instead