Road racing’s newest pet peeve: Hoverboards in races

These 5K racers encountered road running’s newest annoyance at a recent competition.

All runners have a pet peeve or two but chances are, most don’t involve new-age technology at a road running competition. Riding a Monorover, also known as a hands-free segway or hoverboard, may be the newest item to add to the list of running annoyances.

At a recent 5K road race, one competitor rode the device through a pack of runners, weaving his way in and out of traffic while sporting a drawstring bag, knee-length shorts and earmuff headphones.

Fortunately the devices max out at 10 km/h so unless the toy is upgraded for speed, we won’t be seeing them at the front of the pack any time soon. The device is popularly known as a hoverboard despite it having no hovering capability.

At least the perpetrator is wearing a digital watch — chances are it’s not a GPS watch.