Runners, joggers, walkers, when do you look?

If it’s a pretty woman, then no eye contact, i’m too busy watching the bounce & sway of their perfect breasts.

Perfect breasts being defined as “breasts being within eyesight” or “breasts that bounce and sway” or both?

Depends on the bounce & sway, there’s a definite science to it, gotta be spot on.

I never completely ignore the other person, because then you might collide with them.

I generally look them in the face if I can avert my eyes from where I am going, and do so when I am about 15 yards away. If it is an even moderately attractive woman (which I base more on pleasant demeanor than on just looks) I will smile when about 5 to 7 yards away.

I stare. From a long way off until I turn my head to watch them pass. Strangers love that.

About 20 feet I start making an occasional glance until we meet eyes. Then a nod and a southern hello or compliment is standard.

I can’t see anything for the sweat in my eyes

I love that…acting differently if the person is attractive than if they’re not, even though you’re just passing them on the street. Nice.

I make eye contact with the person, regardless of how attractive they are, from a few yards away and usually give a small, polite smile. Here in South Carolina, people are generally really polite. They’ll wave and say hello even if they’ve never seen you before. When we’re driving around our subdivision, people we don’t even know will wave as we pass them. It’s just how things are down here. I usually don’t say anything unless they say something first, though. It’s the Yankee in me, I guess. Plus I’m a little socially awkward.

I will see the person coming, look at them overtly until they are about 50’ away (about the distance that you can clearly make out their eyes) then find somewhere else to look, anywhere else but not stare blindly straight ahead, and glance toward them a few times as we get closer until we make eye contact which I have noticed is usually at about 10’, then smile, nod and sometimes say hi.

The reason I asked is that over the past couple of days I have been watching and noticed that most folks basically the same thing. The distance when final eye contact/acknowledgement is made varies. There are some who will start looking to you at about 30’, smile and stay smiling until about 10’ when we both will nod and then there are some who will see you but look away and wait until they are within 5’ – 6’ to look up at you. Invariably these people will have their faces up but their eyes staring at the ground.

One of the things I am unable to observe (without biasing the data) is whether the other person does the covert glancing. I wonder if the final eye contact is when the glances of both parties finally occur at the same time or whether it has to do with the personal space/comfort zone and they only look at that specific time, particularly with the ones who make contact at a greater distance of separation.

Good question. Probably about twenty feet. About the same distance that I start paying attention if I am walking in a shitty part of town at night and somebody is coming the other way.

Given the lack of anything on the road where I walk… a few cars, people, dogs, chickens, geese, guinea fowl…whenever the occasional jogger or walker crosses my path, we always smile and often say “Hi.” Usually we recognize each other as someone we have seen before.

Even most of the people who drive by wave cheerfully.

I watch the other persons body language. If they look way then I say nothing. If they look straight ahead or at me then I say hi. There’s a few female walkers and joggers that I see in my neighborhood that will never say high to me. Why I don’t know. Do they think that I’ll attack them if they say hi back to me? Oh well I just pretend that they also don’t exist. But there is this one guy (when he sees me coming) will actually stop and look in another direction until I pass. I always say hi to that guy. Oh I’m so mean to him. HA!

I don’t look! I feel like it messes up my groove, which is also why I try to avoid running on Sundays because it seems like everyone and their mother is either running or washing their cars. I like my privacy when I’m in public ;)