Ludivine proudly collects her medal after a tough race (Picture: Elkmont Half Marathon/Facebook)

It’s easily done really. You go out to pee, you go for a little wander, and suddenly you find yourself competing in a half-marathon.

Well, it’s easily done when you’re a two-and-a-half-year-old bloodhound, who likes to roam around town.

This weekend, April Hamlin from Elkmont, Alabama, let her dog Ludivine out of the house to pee and, next thing she knew, her pet hound had come seventh in the county’s inaugural Trackless Train Trek Half Marathon.

The pup had snuck out of the back garden and made her way to the starting line of the race. She then proceeded to run the entire 13.1 mile course, crossing the finish line in seventh place, with an impressive time of 1:32.56.


April only found out about her hound’s exploits when race volunteers starting texting her pictures of the pup wearing her medal.



‘My first reaction was that I was embarrassed and worried that she had possibly gotten in the way of the other runners,’ she told Runner’s World.

Jim Clemens, who finished the race in fourth place, just ahead of Ludivine, says the pup was prone to distraction: ‘She would run off to romp through streams and into yards to sniff around for a while.’

(Picture: We Run Race Photos/Facebook)

According to fellow runners, she also spent some time investigating a dead rabbit at the two-mile mark.

However, she was determined to finish. ‘Every time I thought she had dropped off to go back home, I would hear her coming back up to me, and she would race past me up to the two leaders,’ Jim adds.

As for April, she’s still in shock. ‘I can’t believe she ran the whole half marathon because she’s actually really lazy,’ she admitted.

Advertisement Advertisement