Stray dog awarded medal for remarkable half-marathon feat
A stray dog has been awarded a medal after completing a half-marathon alongside the two-legged athletes.
Stormy, a one-year-old stray dog, joined the Goldfields Pipeline Half Marathon in Kalgoorlie last month.
“He’s very popular, even more popular than anybody could suggest,” Allison Hunter, Volunteer Coordinator at the Goldfields Pipeline Marathon, told Yahoo7.
The adventurous pup completed the half-marathon in about 2.5 hours and would have placed “around the 80 mark” out of 110 participants, according to Ms Hunter.
Stormy came to the starting station of the half-marathon at about 8.15am, half an hour before the race started at 8.45.
“He rocked up and started doing his little bit, having his little play, we actually thought he was with the volunteers actually,” Ms Hunter said.
“At 8.45, when they started, I had the air horn and said ‘Go!’ and as I said go, off the dog went, he started running with them all,” Ms Hunter said.
Ms Hunter progressively moved to aid stations along the way and was surprised by a familiar face at the final station.
“He was at the finish line with volunteers and there’s a photo of him sitting in the marquee,” Ms Hunter said.
“He had actually done the whole half-marathon. So, he stopped at all the aid stations and volunteers had a play,”
Kat Donovan was a volunteer at the 10 kilometre event start line.
“He was really friendly and said hello to all before he continued on his way to the finish line,” she said.
“Made himself very well-known out there,” she said.
The athletic canine has been honoured for his running skills.
“Myself and the organiser Grant Wholey actually went down to see him last week and gave him his own half-marathon medal,” Ms Hunter said.
No slouch in the fashion department, Stormy was also given a custom Goldfields Pipeline marathon bandanna “to keep his head warm”.
Prior to race day, Stormy lived in the Kurrawang Aboriginal Christian Community, where the community cared for him while his owner was in Perth according to Ms Hunter.
“I was told that he was owned by everybody, so he just sort of moved around everybody. He is so well looked after. But we’ve since discovered that he does have an owner,” she said.
“One of our volunteers offered to take him back to the community where he came from, but of course because he was on council land, they actually rang the ranger and that’s when he went into the custody of our local rangers,” she said.
“If he’s not claimed, we do have somebody within the community that is wanting to give him his forever home,” Ms Hunter said.
