Of course, I'd prefer having a carefully selected personal instructor help guide my photographic journey.
But I have neither the money or the time to pursue such things (photography comes third after medicine and classical piano for me).
Therefore, posting on FM for critique is the next best thing, at least imo. Thankfully, people on these forums generally know what they are talking about, a rarity in online forums.
Back to the original question: I think it's a very nice image with a clear context, your job is just to make it easier for the viewer to see.
One way to do it (just a suggestion) - to use either transform tool or Lens Correction filter to introduce more pronounced perspective towards the top, so you get converging vertical lines instead of them being almost parallel. Besides directing the eye, this will also move your runner to the center of the image. Next step would be to crop the top, removing the trash cans and leaving the runner in an upper third. The final step would be putting runner in a spotlight with circular gradient contrast and brightness.
I do like the edit quite a bit and I think it's compositionally more "sound."
But I've grown to like the uneasiness and the heaviness (literally with stifling cityscape above the runner) imparted by the unusual composition and framing.
Let me preface my comments by saying I don't know nearly as much as the folks who have already commented on this image. What attracts me to this image is the complete isolation and apparent lonelyness. Except for the dumpsters and trash cans, there is not any evidence of life other than the runner. I thought the wider image reflected the isolation more than the cropped images. My .02 cents worth.
To my eye, the original is superior (substantially) to all of the proposed revisions.
You mention the "heaviness" of the area above the runner. It is precisely that heaviness that, for me, depicts a story worth seeing. I find my eyes "running" around the shot and appreciating the vastness of the environment compared to almost irrelevant focal point. It's reminiscent of a rat in a maze, and I like the emotion that evokes.
The crops and recompositions all certainly train the focus on the runner, but they do so at the expense of some very interesting context, I think, and they look rather dull to me. Suffice it to say that yours was the only composition that gave me pause, and engaged my mind in taking in all of the scene. I like that, and think it is perfect as is.
