7.01.2008

Paws on Pavement

As you can imagine, walking for up to 6 hours in a day can get very lonely. For most of my walks, I rely on the company of my number one training partner, my dog Shenanigans. She joins me for just about all of my walks that are 10 miles or less, and often times, she'll walk the first few legs of the longer walks as well. She is a real trooper. However, unlike me, she doesn't get the payoff of actually walking in a big event at the end. So when I heard about the Paws on Pavement event here in Atlanta, I knew I had to sign her up.

Paws on Pavement is a great event that benefits the Briarcliff Animal Foundation, a non-profit organization here in Atlanta that formed exclusively to promote and provide funding for animal care. They raise money every year to help provide medical care for stray and abandoned animals in the city. In addition, they also provide financial support for a number of animal related programs, including the dog park area of Piedmont Park where we frequently take Shenanigans. Following Hurricane Katrina, the president of BAF (who is also a licensed pilot) personally delivered over $30,000 in veterinary medical relief supplies to Hattiesburg, Mississippi and airlifted a number of stranded dogs back to Atlanta, who were then treated and made available for adoption. All in all, they are an incredible organization and we were very happy to help support them!

Shenanigans (with some help from Mike and I) raised $25 for the BAF and proudly participated in their one mile walk. Between that and the two miles we walked to get to the event and back, we knocked out all of our training for that day! It was a beautiful morning for all of us and yet another great way to break up the monotony of regular training!

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