Hills and etiquette

Today started off a nice day after a brisk shower, so, like worms and snails, I and most of the joggers in Bicester were all tempted out once the rain stopped. I've never yet figured out the etiquette of how or whether to greet follow runners. I seem to have come up with a theory:

Women running with men - if I greet them with a cheerful "good morning", there will always be a cheerful response from the woman and a blank from the man. I don't know why, but this is always true. Try it!

Men running on their own - the man will always either greet you in an exaggerated fashion, a loud "good morning" emphasising that they are not at all out of breath. Or they will look so far down their nose at me as they go past at a comparative sprint, that it's not worth their effort to even talk to me.

Women on their own - a tricky one. In short, I always do the wrong thing. If I greet them, I will always be ignored, the women are there to run, not to chat or attract attention. My greetings then just look like a sweaty lecherous attempt to chat them up. If I ignore women runners, they will always say hello to me, and I feel bad for my unapproachability ...

Women in groups - they always ignore me too, safety in numbers I guess when they have company already!

Enough etiquette observations, my run this morning was fine - a ten minute warm-up followed by ten reps of the hill, hard running up and easy jogging down. Mission once again accomplished, though I was particularly sweaty when I finished so obviously worked hard.