I can’t believe my luck. Harvard’s weather is notoriously changeable and last year at this time there was snowfall after snowfall. But today it is, quite simply, a beautiful day. So once I’d settled into my temporary digs I got my running gear on and went for a run along the Charles River. This place is a joggers’ paradise. There are footpaths on both banks of the river and they just go on and on. I did a ten kilometre circuit out far beyond the boathouses. I thought about one of my favourite authors, Haruki Murakami, who wrote evocatively about running along these pathways in What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.