Everybody loves a good training partner. They run with you in fair weather and foul, they push you, they make the miles fly by, they make it fun. And there’s no better, more faithful training partner than your dog. They’ll never complain about going for a run and every single time you go out running together they will act like it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to them in their entire lives.
But while they put in all the hard miles with you, you get all the glory. They never get a medal or a t-shirt. They never get to stand on the podium. So, at Run247 we want to celebrate our canine running buddies. We’re bringing you a series of articles about running with your dog, from parkrun to long runs in the mountains, from beginners to elites, from kit tips to how to use running with your dog to benefit your training.
First up, we’d like to introduce Rosa, a German Short-Haired Pointer who lives in Chamonix. Rosa lives with two elite runners, Natalie White and Robbie Britton, but she steals their thunder AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY.
Rosa and Robbie support Nats on her way to the win at Salomon Gore-Tex MaXi-Race in May 17
There can’t be many dogs who run as much ascent as Rosa, and she runs about 3k for every 1k Robbie and Nats do because there’s just so much to explore out on the trails. And German Short-Haired Pointers are estimated to have a VO2 Max of up to 240, so even Robbie and Nats's flat-out sprint is likely to be her warm-up.
Here’s a little insight into Rosa’s life as a trail dog. We’ll be hearing a lot more from her in coming weeks.
