There are so many misconceptions regarding Running in BX and OSE that it’s difficult to determine where to begin explaining a correct RAW understanding. I have flip-flopped a dozen times on this issue myself, and this is my current, and hopefully final understanding.
Here’s my hot take: You can not run during an encounter or combat, or even exploration, hard stop.
Encounter movement rates govern all participants for the duration of the encounter, including combat. This is what it means to have an encounter movement rate in the first place. The notion that one can move 3x faster than their encounter rate during an encounter requires willful illiteracy.
BX explains running as a foundation for movement for evasion and pursuit, which is understood as a group/side act. There is no other running scenario in the game’s rules. Even before/after an encounter, PCs can move up to 3x their *exploration* rates, which is not 3x their encounter rate. Outdoors, moving at 3x their encounter rate in yards would be running faster than Usain Bolt, so no, you can not run in wilderness either.
To the letter of the rules, running is a means of avoiding an encounter.
There’s an apparent contradiction, though. If an encounter begins the moment the PCs come across monsters or NPCs, and everyone is instantly governed by their encounter movement rates… how can they run to evade?
My best answer is:
Running ends the encounter after it begins. This is what it means to avoid the encounter. No one is running within the encounter. They run from the encounter, and this is why it is called evasion.
Personally, I see more opportunities to end an encounter than just at the outset, but let’s explore what avoiding an encounter entails.
OSE
Gavin’s author notes state that he had to pick a lane on the issue, but I think it’s clear enough on B24 that evasion can’t be attempted once combat begins—it says so flat out.
This means that if you’re playing a RAW OSE game, the PCs actually have the option to run at any point after the encounter has begun as long as it has not turned violent. This actually encompasses more than just the outset of an encounter.
1. Any wandering monster encounter where the reaction roll is 3 to 12 is not violent… yet. Note that “hostile” does not mean attacking! Only a 2 indicates immediate attack. Otherwise, any encounter reaction 3–12 means the monsters—even if they win the encounter initiative roll—should not attack. That means the PCs can evade at 3x. Monsters only pursue if the reaction is 2–5.
2. Any planned encounter where the monsters or NPCs are already known not to be violent, the PCs may evade at 3x at will.
3. When the PCs have surprise, and use the surprise round to run away.
Conversely, this means any encounter with monsters (wandering or planned) who attack on sight (by nature or by reason) goes directly to combat, no chance to evade. This includes any wandering monster encounters with undead, scorpions, salamanders, as well as kobolds, goblins etc if you have a dwarf or gnome in your party.
It also means that a step is missing from the action sequence: “If combat is imminent, declarations must be made before initiative is rolled.” Otherwise you have to put off the combat initiative roll until the following round in order to fit the declarations in.
EXAMPLE PER RAQ SEQUENCE:
Wandering monster roll: 1, an encounter will happen.
Type, number, distance: Dwarves, 8 of them, 20 feet from the party. No one knows whether they’re friendly or not yet.
Initiative is rolled by players and DM: Dwarves win.
Reaction roll is rolled: 2! They will attack immediately.
But you can’t go back in time and ask for declarations; casters know that they can be interrupted, and at 20′, the Dwarves can pin the party in melee in the first round if they’re allowed to immediately attack, and no one had the chance to declare a retreat or withdrawal in advance of being set upon. If you allow combat to begin here, it’s barely different from a surprise attack: The PCs are sitting ducks with no agency. They should have the opportunity to evade, or at least let a PC with great +3 charisma try to diffuse the attack (a 5 is still hostile but it’s not a 2!)
So the right thing to do is describe the Dwarves mounting their attack in the first round of the encounter, and if the PCs decide the same, you call for declarations and roll a new initiative for combat, the same way you would if the Dwarves and PCs had exchanged dialog.
No changes to the RAW, following it to the letter, better and more fair results.
Cheers!
"You see this." 
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