Women runners being spat on by random men

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https://metro.co.uk/2025/05/27/thousands-men-spitting-women-runners-happened-20472756/

The worst I have had is men shouting stupid comments out of cars, no spitting yet thankfully but this is disgusting and scary. Why do they do it!?

I have no words 😮

I agree with this.
My running problems have mostly been dog-related, the worst thing from a man was a fat bloke saying to me 'have you had a nice little run' when I had stopped to drink water part way through a 12 miler. I decided to humour Mr marshmallow.
Generally speaking men seem to find it very hard to cope with being beaten by a woman on anything at all. In the gym, in the swimming pool, on my bike or even just walking I go out of my way to thrash each and every one of them 😈

Men like this need muzzling in public. If they act like animals, treat them like animals.

Yes, I get a few patronising "helpful" or "friendly" comments, but I've never experienced anything nasty when running alone. The cat-calling usually only happens when I'm in a group

Who is going to do it though?
The problem with men is they go bad easily and when they go bad everyone is scared of them and no one wants to tackle them, no one wants to get the shit kicked out of them.

God that's awful. Not one I've experienced - yet. Me and my daughter had a full Macdonald's milkshake thrown at us out of a car window once though, I see I'm not alone on that.
I've also had horrible comments and harassment.

The worst sexual harassment I used to have - as in shouting horrible things out of car windows -was walking to school in my uniform though.

Was about to right the same thing, same reason why they hate women who don’t want children, wear xyz, choose xyz lifestyle etc. it’s about control. That’s fundamentally why religion dominates in so many cultures.

No. It’s something the police have, but not pepper spray.

Sheesh, men just get worse and worse.

It's not a serious suggestion, I'm just angry. A serious suggestion would be that we need to build more prisons and start cracking down on misogyny rather than turning a blind eye.

is hairspray effective? Because I’d rather run with something that’s not illegal.

Clutching at straws (again) this is an article in the fine publication the Metro and the 10% has been established by their own survey. So, it not proper research and those who have experienced it (for too many) are more likely to respond than those who haven't.

We definitely do seem to have a worsening problem of certain demographics of men wanting women kept in their place though. Worryingly, it seems to be young men. When I was young it was middle aged men, and the young men (now middle aged), at least the educated ones, were champions of our cause.

I have not had this having lived in London nearly all my adult life. I do get “comments” from men but not active hostility. Headphones cut out a lot of people and their possible backchat.

This is also happened to me except it was a guy on a bike and I felt humiliated too, I get so angry thinking about it now but at the time I felt it was something I had done!

God, where to start. Shouted comments from moving cars, being deliberately splashed by drivers. Raw eggs, full drinks. Again from men in cars. I am an older woman and they absolutely hate me, I have been followed by a man in a car too, he kept driving past me and at first I thought it was a coincidence, but after about the fourth time I realised he was driving past me turning around and coming back again. I reported that to the police but nothing happened, it was terrifying. I live in sleepy Cambridgeshire, not in London or a large town or city

I keep it in my handbag if I’m out late. I would spray it in their eyes as it would massively distract them. Plus it’s not a weapon so I wouldn’t get into trouble. But I haven’t used it yet.

Deep heat spray, it’s just for your aching muscles!

I had an egg thrown at me from a car while cycling. It broke on the side of my head. Fortunately it didn’t cause me to swerve and have an accident.

Luckily I have never been spat at. In fact, I have not had any bad experiences other than once 20 years ago, a group of "youths" decided to throw rocks at me. Maybe I have just been lucky - must be absolutely horrendous!

I think a lot of the time is angry men who want to enforce their dominance because frankly they are insignificant specimens so they lash out at victims who don’t threaten them. So they’d likely do the same to a weak looking male, someone that looks non binary and of course women. Never a string looking man who might actually deck them.

Now this I have had. I am six foot tall but even so. I did call the guy a bad word, but gave him back the contempt he gave me. This was at a “nice” theatre in Islington.

Why don’t they pick on men?

I agree. It's any and all of these things.

That’s a great idea. I’m going to be honest and hope it doesn’t bite me. I carry a telescopic baton. Totally illegal. But I have felt SO unsafe so many times and as I refuse to let them win and stop running.

The lengths we have to go to so as not be physically assaulted by men while quietly exercising on our own.

This is so bad. I haven’t had this when running tg, some of the posts below are terrible.