The kindness of strangers is one of the great rewards of running

How people often go out of their way to help is worth more than the health benefits that runners seek

- ANURAG BEHAR

started running in 1991. The two long breaks I have had to take from running in these 34 years have both been recent, neither because of running injuries.

In October 2024, I tore a muscle around my spine doing something else and could not run for more than two months. Then, beginning April 2025, I couldn't run for about four months for another health reason. Changing this habit, around which my day has been organized for 34 years, was easy because it was physically impossible to run for much of this period. But I did terribly miss running.

Writing about running is now quite a subgenre. Its mediative thrall, its tribulations and triumphs, and its effect on life can make for a riveting read. This piece, though, is about a simpler matter: runs that brought me kindness.

Memories of past runs would randomly pop up in the months when I couldn't run, both scary and funny. A cobra striking and missing my leg by a whisker; my chest choking in Amsterdam one late autumn like a heart attack; a woman in a Kumaon village making fun of her husband's belly and telling him to run while pointing at me; a doctor near Udupi chasing me and yelling that walking is better than running.

And then there were those who were instinctively kind to a stranger when kindness was needed most.