Thousands of men are spitting on women runners — it's happened to me

Metro

27-05-2025

One in ten women say they have been spat on while running. In this exclusive investigation, Metro exposes a shocking and underreported form of street harassment that is forcing women to change the way they exercise.
The spit hit my leg before I even realised what had happened.
It was a March evening in Shepherds Bush outside a Co-op just as I was slowing down after my Garmin watch beeped, signalling the end of my 5km run.
As the glob of thick, warm liquid seeped through my leggings, a man shouted obscenities at me, saliva still glistening on his lips.
'Did I really just get spat on?' I thought, frozen.
Nobody did anything. In shock and fear, I shakily walked home – to my relief, he didn't follow me.
Once through the safety of my front door, I called my mum and cried before stripping off, washing all my clothes and standing under a steaming hot shower for half an hour, still trying to process what had happened.
Less than two weeks later, it happened again. A different man, but on the same path. He stepped into my way, looked me dead in the eye and spat right at me. This time, thankfully, he missed.
Ironically, both incidents happened on a street lined with intermittent signage, campaigning for an end to sexual harassment against women. I no longer run down that busy main road in the evening, unjustly forced to change my behaviour.
After sharing what had happened in a small Facebook group for women in media, 80 women replied in less than 24 hours to say it had happened to them too.
That response prompted an investigation by Metro and Women's Running to uncover just how common this is.
Scotland Yard doesn't keep specific data on spitting incidents, but a Women's Running Instagram poll of 1,000 women found 10% had been spat on while running – most were certain it was intentional.
The sample is small considering six million women run in the UK, but scaled up, there could be as many as 360,000 female runners who have been spat at like this.
It sounds like an extraordinary number, but with more than one million violent crimes against women in a single year, it is entirely feasible.
One in five women told Sport England's This Girl Can campaign that they are concerned about harassment while exercising outdoors.
Jas, a 25-year-old from London, has been a victim of spitting twice. The first time was during the pandemic near her university in Lincoln.
A man gave her a look that made her uneasy. Then he spat at her, continuing to stare at her in an intimidating way.
'It was terrifying,' she told Metro. 'Not because of the stupid old man, but because it was during the pandemic when you didn't even want someone breathing near you, let alone spitting. I cried and cried, mainly out of fear of getting Covid, but also because I was livid.'
Being mixed race, Jas wondered if the attack was racially motivated, but she couldn't be sure. 'It really surprised me,' she remembers. 'It's not like I was going to stop and ask which part of my identity motivated him to spit at me.'
The next time was on a morning run through central London when two men, who looked worse for wear after pulling an all-nighter, walked towards her.
'I felt slightly apprehensive as I got closer to them,' she said. 'I began deciding how best to avoid them, but convinced myself that I was overthinking it and didn't cross the road. I should have, because one of them spat in my direction and the other shouted 'watch out sweetheart'.
'They both laughed and watched me run all the way up the street. This time there were no tears – I told them to piss off and ran away as fast as I could.'
Jas says she has become accustomed to this behaviour now, a sentiment felt by many of the women I spoke to – including a woman spat at by a 13-year-old boy. He did it 'for a reaction'.
None of them saw it coming.
The problem isn't unique to the UK. Marie, 52, lives in the Queens area of New York and goes running a couple of times a week.
She was first spat at six years ago when she saw a man heading in her direction as she ran across a bridge. 'I wasn't nervous or concerned about him, but as I passed him, he spat at the ground right next to my foot.
'It really shocked me because it was so passive aggressive, and I was disgusted because no one wants a stranger's spit on them.'
Two years later, it happened again.
'This guy was in his 40s or 50s and he was glaring at me as I ran towards him,' Marie says. 'Then he just spat directly in my path.'
He made a threatening, sexually suggestive comment under his breath as she ran past. 'He just seemed so aggressive, and it made me so angry,' she added.
When we contacted the National Police Chiefs' Council with our findings, a spokesperson highlighted The JogOn Initiative — a campaign to prevent harassment and abuse against female runners.
It involves plain-clothed officers running along popular routes looking out for predatory behaviour and harassment.
However, only a handful of police forces run the initiative, mainly around Yorkshire, but not Scotland Yard.
The NPCC spokesperson said: 'We would encourage anyone who feels unsafe in any public place in the UK to report it to police via StreetSafe so we can take action.'
Fiona Vera-Grey, a violence against women and girls activist working at the London Metropolitan University, says she is not surprised by our findings as she knows people who have been victims of spitting.
She believes perpetrators do it because it is 'demeaning, degrading and dehumanising'.
'Men probably do it because it's not going to be seen as a serious form of harm and likely won't be reported,' she said.
She believes that if we lived in a society where violence against women and girls wasn't so prevalent, being spat at might not affect us so deeply. However, because it is connected to all other intrusions on women's safety, it feels even more upsetting. More Trending
So, what can we do? Fiona wants women to unite to create consciousness, share their stories and become campaigners for women's safety.
One thing is for sure: Once again, the onus for ending violence against women is falling into the hands of women.
Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: 'Targeting women by spitting on them is a hostile, misogynistic act that is traumatising in its own right, but can also be part of a pattern that can lead to more violence.
'Women have the right to exist in public places safely, whether that's exercising or socialising… violence against women and girls is not inevitable.' Have you ever been spat at/on while running?
No, I've not experienced that
I'm not sure if it was intentional
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