In a running race the runners(athletes) always run in anticlockwise direction. Is there any reason?

Question

In a running race the runners(athletes) always run in anticlockwise direction. Is there any reason?

Answer 1

there are several reasons. One, is to spot some good competitors ( i.e. who is going to be the challenge) Second, to spot on some cute girls.

Answer 2

So they don't get distracted when their buddy says, "hey, hot girl, 3 o'clock".

Answer 3

Assumably there's something from most people having stronger push off from their right foot so it's easier to turn to their left. In longer track races, I believe they'll actually tend to periodically reverse direction, however.

In stock car racing, my understanding is the direction is based on driver position in the car so that outer wall impact is away from the driver. U.S. cars (with drivers on the left) go counter-clockwise and cars with right-side drivers go clockwise.

In the U.S., horse races are counter-clockwise, but they're often clockwise elsewhere, etc.

Anyway, most likely due to right-foot bias, and a standard needed to be set for comparable timing / competition so they're all the same.