Furry Friends 5k
Fundraiser for animal rescue organizations
Albion Hills
It's fun to mill around before this race in a crowd of animal lovers and their dogs. There was a dog refreshment station with a long line of water dishes and little swimming pool. AdventureDog walked along the line and drank a little from each dish until he got bored with that.
AdventureDog and I are on the poster! (Bottom middle.)
He was really keen to get going.
Right from the start, AdventureDog chased his Lab friend Barley, who was rescued from the same northern town as A-Dog. Unfortunately, Barley belongs to pro triathlete Taylor Reid but A-Dog refused to let that worry him. This race is run on hilly trails near our place so he felt totally comfortable in the terrain and wanted to be in the lead pack. He was attached to me by the waist so I was towed along - yikes!
Barley soon disappeared over the horizon because even AdventureDog can't make me run like Taylor Reid. At 1.5 km, we were passed by another pro triathlete, Kristen Marchant, so we knew that A-Dog's pace was still too fast.
He took care of that near the 2 km mark when I caught a toe on a tree root and went for a Superman flight, yanked forward through the air by the cord around my waist. I landed hardest on my left forearm and later found bloody scrapes in five different places around my body - and lots of dirt! The important thing is that my Ambit 3 was not damaged; the arm will heal. :) On the down side, my sore ankle got tweaked again.
We ran at a more reasonable pace after that and had a nice stop at the aid station with dog water bowls. It got exciting for everyone when we started passing dog walkers on our 2nd lap.
Word got out that race favourite Taylor Reid's dog Barley had taken a nature break, which not only knocked Taylor off the podium; it meant he had to run the last 2 km holding a bag of poop!
AdventureDog and I crossed the finish line in a decent time, then one of us went for a swim in the river. Although we didn't catch Taylor and Barley, A-Dog got in the last word by taking a big bite from Taylor's post-race pizza slice as we were chatting.
This year's Bolton race raised over $30,000 for animal rescue charities, more than double what we raised last year. So far in 2019, Furry Friends 5Ks at various locations have raised more than
$100,000 $115,000.
AdventureDog and I spent the rest of the day recovering.