The Women Creating a New Running Culture in India

On May 10, 2025, Dhamija — along with her 25-year-old daughter, Niharika — was among the 3,000-plus women who took part in the Mumbai chapter of the Nike After Dark Tour, a unique 10-kilometer women-only night race past the city's iconic landmarks. According to Dhamija, "Running in the dark is just not normal in India. There are a couple of small night events where I live where we can go and run safely. But other than that, I can't imagine it, not even walking. It's a sense of not being able to do something that should be normal."

While the After Dark race holds the distinction of being India's largest women's 10K to date, it points to a much bigger movement. Across India, women are lacing up to reclaim both their bodies and their streets. From sunrise jogs to evening runs, the movement is about more than just fitness — it's about freedom, self-determination and camaraderie.

While she says the prospect of training for 26.2 miles can be daunting, simply getting a post-run coffee or breakfast with her fellow runners is reward enough for putting in the hard work. “There’s also the element of accountability. If you’ve told your friend that you will run with her the next morning, you cannot let her down. You have to wake up.”

Running is often seen as an individual sport, however the support system is anything but, whether you’re training with friends or in the company of total strangers. Dhamija describes women she first met while running who are now close friends, bonding over banter and breakdowns. “I think a natural, unspoken bond is formed when you run with another woman,” she says. “You can talk about anything. It might be very personal or private, and the other woman will just understand. I’ve had so many conversations about menopause — still a hushed-up topic — while running with women who are complete strangers. Yes, you can talk about superficial things, but you can also talk about what’s really bothering you.”

The benefits of running are both physiological and emotional. “You see a lot of running failures, despite putting in the work,” continues Dhamija, who’s currently balancing caregiving for her aging father with a full-time job as a leadership coach and co-founder of an HR advisory firm. “How do you hold these failures with grace? There’s that sense of working hard and then surrendering the outcome. That’s my biggest learning from running, apart from patience.”

Along with depth of insight and a newfound sense of community, running also lets one view their city through a fresh lens, like mapping a psychogeography — eyes, mind, feet in sync — something 30-year-old Mishti Khatri, a Mumbai-based marathon trainer and Nike Run Coach, resonates with. While the first one or two kilometers are always painful for Khatri, who began running to overcome her childhood fear of it, she soon finds her rhythm. “It always seemed impossible before. But now, running is like meditation in motion for me. It is a very blissful space; I shut the world out,” she says. “Halfway into my run, the sun comes up. I feel I get to experience an otherwise teeming city in a different light. Sometimes, if I’m driving past my running route, I think to myself, Damn, I actually ran this distance. Because of running, I feel more connected to my city.”

Currently completing a PhD in endurance performance, the menstrual cycle and nitrates, with the goal of contributing to scientific research exclusively focused on women athletes in India, Khatri coached participants for the After Dark Tour for 10 weeks. The training sessions started with 40 runners and grew, by word of mouth, to over 400, with over 60 percent of participants identifying as first-time runners.

Yet every lap is laced with optimism. In Mumbai, young girls are forming their own running clubs and documenting every sweaty stride on social media. Many of them showed up for the Mumbai edition of the Nike After Dark Tour. The event saw women from different generations coming together to take to the streets on a muggy yet exhilarating night. “It’s so fulfilling to see women coming together and having this experience. Over the past 10 weeks, I’ve seen their confidence grow,” says Khatri. 

While more women in urban India across age groups and backgrounds are on the roads to reclaim space, agency and identity, Dhamija notes the hurdles that persist: a lack of safe public spaces, cultural stigma, caregiving responsibilities, and limited representation of women in coaching and leadership roles. She believes hyperlocal communities, with familiar faces and shared intent, can shift the culture. “In Haryana, for example, women taking up sports isn’t new. Just look at the women in wrestling,” she says. “Grassroots programs and even brands can help normalize running in the same way.”

Visibility is only the start. The future of running in India will depend on whether it can become a truly inclusive movement, one that welcomes women not just as participants, but as decision-makers, coaches and architects of change.

One such changemaker? Nike Run Coach Diljeet Taylor, who has trained over 100 All-Americans and serves as the Nike After Dark Tour’s Head Coach, having designed its global training program. Born in California to Indian immigrant parents, Taylor entered elementary school speaking only Punjabi. It was when she began running races — and winning, even beating the boys — that she finally came into her own. “I grew up as a young girl who never saw Indian women in sport. As a matter of fact, it was discouraged,” she says. “I felt like I didn’t have a true sense of belonging in sport as an Indian woman.” 

Now based in Utah, where she coaches Brigham Young University’s Division 1 women’s cross-country and track and field teams, Taylor traveled 48 hours to be in Mumbai for the After Dark Tour. “This is a full-circle moment for me, one that I’m beyond proud to be a part of,” she says. In addition to her official After Dark Tour duties, Taylor found time to have breakfast on race day with Dhamija, Matchavel, and Khatri, whom she chatted with on video calls individually in the weeks prior. Taylor knows that what women experience upon crossing the finish line is more than just victory. “There is a sense of gratitude for what they were able to do, for showing up and completing what they signed up for. Most people think runner’s high is the euphoria of attaining a certain distance or pace. But beyond euphoria, it’s that sense of pride you have in yourself,” she shares.

To that end, Dhamija concludes, “If done right, recreational running can evolve into a deeply inclusive and transformative movement for women in India.” As for the naysayers? Matchavel has some advice: “I have learnt to ignore and simply mute them, both literally and figuratively. It’s a quiet win.”

There was nothing quiet about the After Dark Tour 10K, which electrified the streets of Mumbai with a cacophony of cheers and the pounding of sneakers on pavement, making clear that Indian women are passionate about running — for themselves and each other. And they’re showing zero signs of slowing down.