The 4 Paws Half Marathon

When the 4 Paws Marathon was first announced, I couldn’t have been more excited. It combined three of my favourite things: hanging out with my dog, running, and hopefully picking up some sweet bling for the wall at the end. In fact, I was so excited, that I abandoned New Years celebrations to enter at the stroke of midnight, 31st December, the second entries opened.

Like most runners with a dog, I have a special bond with my cocker spaniel Loki. He’s slightly insane, has some bizarre idiosyncrasies (like a set of stairs he must ascend after every parkrun, obsession of trying to get any inanimate object with a face to play with him, a refusal to climb a hill if there are pine trees on it, or rolling over if there’s absolutely anything he wants because he thinks it’s his best trick and will always get him his way), and definitely fits the race tagline of ‘run with your best friend’. For my first five years of running I had always wanted to get a dog who could come along with me, and last year my life finally fell into alignment and it was the right time to get one. Working Cocker Spaniels are fantastic running companions – they have incredible endurance and would love nothing more than to trot along at your side all day, but loyal and attached enough that they’ll always stay relatively close – and I have been taking him on all my training runs since he was old enough. So all in all, the prospect of a race where you were specifically set up to run with your dog seemed perfect to me.

It seemed like a long wait until September. In all my racing history, I’d never been quite so excited for a race before. We were entered for the half marathon – Loki wasn’t quite old enough for the full marathon, as the organisers put fantastic guidelines in place for your dog’s safety. In fact, everything about this race was very well thought through. It was obvious that the organisers were runners themselves, people who have experienced other events and learned what does and doesn’t work best for them, and who were determined to put on a great experience for people.

Race weekend came with great excitement; I had organized to tag on a couple of days in Christchurch for work, so Loki and I made the drive up from Queenstown on the Thursday. Loki definitely knew something was up. Like most dogs, he reads my excitement and feeds off it, and he was raring to go by the weekend. We had a practice run at Hagley parkrun on the Saturday morning – experienced at running as Loki is, we don’t do a lot on the lead and I was slightly worried about the first and last kilometer where he’d need to be attached to me in the race – and other than two swim sections (Loki obviously prefers duathlons), obedience was relatively on point and we were sorted. Nothing like leaving your training until the last minute!

The excitement began all over again at race registration, and firstly, let me say: the swag bags were amazing. The organisers had managed to get a wide array of sponsors, and as one of the first 50 entrants, we got some bonus goodies from Black Hawk as well. I even discovered that Loki had broken the lifelong Douglas Spot Prize Curse (none of us ever win any) and won himself a Further Faster prize. Bottle Lake Forest was already awash with dogs and some very athletic looking owners, and it was hard to not be tempted to spend all afternoon there hanging out and making new friends. But I had some more preparation to do – a friend of mine had told me about the nutrition she’d sorted for her dog on the day. Cue my panic: in all our long runs, Loki and I just share nutrition – pork belly – and in a uniquely Southland way, I’ve always figured if he needed more, he’d go off and find himself a possum or rabbit! A trip to the supermarket led me to the best conclusion: we’d share as usual, and I’d treat him to a steak breakfast. (I swear, that puppy eats better than I do.)

Race morning dawned with perfect weather: overcast and borderline drizzly, exactly my favourite temperature to run in. Loki couldn’t quite believe his luck when I presented him with a bowl of steak for breakfast, almost making up for the fact I’d got him out of bed early on his Sleep In Sunday. His harness and special race ID tag went on, my bib was attached, and off we went to the start line.

Think of the start line excitement you’ve seen at any race, and then add a hundred dogs to that equation. Turning up, it was the best kind of chaos. I had a lot of friends to say hi to – the crew from Further Faster, Craig from Furtography who was on photos – and then I made the executive decision to sit with Loki in the car for a while before the start. Loki’s a bit of a social butterfly who feels the need to say hello to every dog in his immediate vicinity, and I didn’t want him to get overstimulated when we had a long day ahead. Before we knew it, it was time to get going.

If you’ve seen the start line of a dog-friendly parkrun (or come to Queenstown parkrun, where our stalwart Frankie likes to announce the start with excited barking every week) you’ll have some idea of the noise of the start: excited dogs, all getting ready to go. There was a small group in the half marathon – the 10k and 5k races were much bigger – and you could tell the dogs just wanted to get out there. We were off, and almost all of us probably recorded a record speed for our first kilometer – all around us, people were being pulled by their excited pups. Loki was no exception. He’s obviously taken my terrible technique of “start a race as fast as you can, hold on until you either win or die” (spoiler alert: it’s always the latter) and we were one of the first out of the starting area. I managed to calm him slightly, but for running on a sandy surface underfoot, it was still a lot faster than I’d intended to start.

At the start line, there had been a lot of talk about whether people were keeping their dogs on lead the whole way round or not. I was surprised, as I’d assumed most dogs were like Loki: vaguely undisciplined on a lead and much better off, but we are a bit spoiled down in Southern Lakes, with a lot of places to run off lead together, and for the most part most of our fellow competitors were much more well trained and intending to stay leashed the whole time. (It wasn’t just that, though: one of my racemates informed me that he was keeping his dog on leash as if he didn’t, he’d never see him again!) For me, though, I was desperately happy to get through the first kilometer and let Loki loose. Ironically, he runs closer to me when not physically attached!

The field soon spread out, and as we got into the forest proper, there was a group of three of us trotting along together. It was quite gorgeous to see the three dogs immediately falling into a kind of pack formation to explore the forest together, though typically, Loki came back to check on me often – he’s always paranoid he’s going to lose me. (I may have played hide and seek on a run too many times!) It was nice running – sandy underfoot, but gorgeous through the forest. You quickly felt a million miles from civilization.

As we came into the first aid station, we came across a friend of mine – Rocky and Badger of Further Faster fame. Loki looks like a bit of a mini Badger, and the two of them quickly decided they were doing this race together no matter what – if either Rocky or I got ahead of the other, our dog would want to stop and wait. Team Black Dog Society was together for what came ahead!

The miles pass by quickly when you have someone to talk to and before I knew it (though I’d become very disoriented in the forest, and was very glad for the good course markings) we were on to the one part of the course I’d dreaded: the beach section. Now, I wasn’t dreading this for running purposes. Anyone who’s met Loki will know exactly why I dreaded it. Loki is, I assume, genetically part fish, and obsessed with water on a level that I’ve never noticed in another dog. If he can see water, he has a tantrum meltdown until he can get in it. When he’s in it, he insists – very loudly and repeatedly – that he have sticks thrown for him. And naturally, as soon as we saw the ocean, that was it: he was off to play in the surf, and bark at me for the fact I wanted to keep running instead of playing fetch with him. Needless to say… the beach took a long, long time. There was even a photographer halfway along who kept gesturing me to get Loki to run closer to me so he could get us both in the pictures, and as a result, there are many great photos of me obviously clapping and calling Loki, and Loki having absolutely none of it.

Switching back at the pier, we were running a little way from the water again (well, I was, Loki was running in the water parallel to me for a lot of it) and I was starting to notice that Loki was most definitely less fatigued than me. At 17km, there was a compulsory vet check – Loki came rolling into the station about 100m ahead of me and proceeded to, in his very nosy way, go through all their equipment and check it out. “He looks fine,” the vet said, dryly, as Loki impatiently tried to keep going with the race (I assume to find the next swim section). This was, however, a great part of the race: they checked the dogs’ heart rates and breathing to make sure they were safe to continue. Loki passed with flying colours, I probably wouldn’t have passed the same!

The last section to bring us home was along a quiet roadside (with a few ponds that Loki explored, of course – I have many photos of him off in yet another body of water, looking at me expectantly for a stick), and then back through the forest. Back on the leash for the final few hundred metres which of course suddenly became much easier – as Loki was once again straining at the bit and pulling me along. Headstrong working dog through and through!

At the finish line, I was overcome with a burst of pride for the puppy and what he’d achieved. He didn’t seem to care – actually, he didn’t even seem remotely tired – but he got a kiss and a cuddle regardless. And then all the treats began. We both received medals – his engraved with his name, both received ice creams, and even both got a massage… though he was not sure of that at all, and insisted on sitting on my back to keep an eye on someone rubbing my legs. The finish line atmosphere was relaxed, fun, and it was wonderful to stick around and watch others finish with the same joy and pride.

The race had been extremely accessible for a wide range of people and dogs, and I know that for some people it would have been their first race. Most of all, it was just gorgeous to see the bond and love everyone had for their best friend. I found myself tearing up more than once watching people cuddle their dogs, rightfully proud of what they had both achieved. (I also teared up for different reasons two hours later, when, after a power nap, Loki woke up with full noise mischief levels, and I had to take him for another run to get rid of some of his energy.)

If you have a dog, and you have the opportunity to enter this race next year, I wouldn’t hesitate. The organisers are amazing: they’ve put together one of the best inaugural events I’ve ever seen, and they’re committed to continuing this celebration of the bond between human and dog for a long time into the future. Loki and I will be back every year, trotting along together, arguing about exactly how many swim and fetch sections need to be added to a long distance running race. We’ll see you there!

As a VIP Member of Wild Things, Fleur earned herself WT$10 to redeem against any purchase in the Wild Things shop by writing this race report.

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