An interesting and unforeseen legal ramification Caruso; I did not think of this. Who is at fault should a runner collide with a biker on a bike path. I plan to ask the local city government about it.
As far as the runners running against traffic, I made no implication that it is illegal. What might not seem obvious, however, is that they had full view of the oncoming traffic while I didn't, thus it would have put me at risk to move onto the car lane in order to yield to the runners (this is a busy 4 lane street). Keep in mind that the runners had a sidewalk available for their use. They chose the bike path mearly for convenience not for necessity. Bicycles always yield to those on foot when sharing the same path/trail, I don't think this is the case and the reason for it has to do with safety, hence a dedicated path for bikers.
Aldo