The South Asian running experience

Seeing more runners who look like me is a beautiful thing

The third of my conversations at Runlimited in London last month was about the burgeoning South Asian running community.

It feels unfathomable to have had an event like this for South Asian runners back when I was running in London, over a decade ago, so it was a real pleasure to be was joined by Harkiran Kalsi (Women Make Moves), Amritpal Ghatora (Tracksmith), and Mara Hafezi (South Asian Heritage Month) and a beautiful audience.

I’ve purposefully been profiling South Asian runners since the very start of Running Sucks. It’s an important, personal topic for me to highlight, and it’s been incredible seeing more and more South Asian-focused run collectives springing up.

The USA has (at least) four in Masala Milers (NYC), Chai and Miles (SF), NJ Maniacs, and Chaitown Runners (Chicago), but the UK has so many now. There’s Chai Mile Run Club in Leicester, and in London there’s Sikhs in th…