Thoughtful Stranger Decides to Run Right Behind Woman on Isolated Trail So She’ll Feel Less Alone
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A Good Samaritan helped a stranger on a local trail yesterday, Dumb Runner has learned, following close behind a fellow runner for more than a mile so that she would feel safer and “less alone out there.”
The selfless man, who identified himself only as Luke, said he first spotted the stranger about two miles in to his run in Levite Park.
“I saw her 50 yards or so ahead of me on the trail, and I could see she was running all by herself,” he said. “I figured she could use some company—it’s so quiet and remote out there—so I speeded up until I was, like, six or eight feet behind her.”
“It was a good workout. By the end, I think she was up to about 6:40 pace.”
Luke, who never did learn the young woman’s name, said he matched her pace for roughly 1.3 miles, even as she sped up.
“It was a good workout, to be honest,” he said, laughing. “By the end, I think she was up to about 6:40 pace. By that point I was breathing pretty hard.”
Then, Luke said, the stranger met two other women running in the opposite direction and stopped to talk to them.
“I couldn’t tell what she was saying, because she was talking pretty quiet” he said. “But I guess she must have known those other runners, because they ran off together, down a side trail.”
The woman never thanked him or even acknowledged his presence, Luke said, but he’s OK with that.
“I didn’t do what I did expecting praise,” he said. “I did it because that’s just the kind of guy I am.”
