Tim L
So with the latest period starting, it means that a new charity is brought in to the fold and we bid adieu to Risky Genes who walked away with a little over $450.00 to continue their fight against hereditary cancer. I’m glad Chris Skrenek chose Second Chance Animal Rescue Society because I’ve always had a soft spot for animals. I’m a cat guy myself but really like all creatures, even the pet tortoise my brother and sister in law own (fun fact: tortoises can live to be 80 or 90, so if you get one, it’ll probably outlive you). Sometimes I see people running with their dogs and I think that’s awesome. I’ve always liked the idea of getting a dog and having a constant running companion but to be honest I think that’s one of those things that requires more effort to make a reality than I’m willing to put in! Convince me otherwise though, folks!
Inspired by SCARS, and speaking of running dogs, the last post I wrote, I think I mentioned how there was a long distance race up in the Yukon where athletes had to run the length of the Yukon Quest sled dog trail and it got me to thinking about how resilient a sled dog needs to be to be able to do its job. There was a movie I saw recently on The Disney Channel called Togo and in it, a team of sled dogs had to rush to receive medical supplies from Anchorage in order bring them back to to the remote town of Nome to save the children from a cholera epidemic. Sounds like a Hollywood script that a writer quickly whipped up but it’s actually based on a true story. The scene where the sled dogs are running over ice floes in the open ocean is pretty nuts. I like running in challenging terrain, but that’s where I draw the line!
I go up to Whitehorse once in a while to visit my sister and her family and one of the times I was there we went on a sled dog adventure. The date was February 28 2010 and I remember that because it was the same day that Sidney Crosby scored the Golden Goal to give Team Canada the Olympic Title. I think there were only about 8 other Canadians that didn’t watch that game that day either, haha. It’s ok though, I may have missed an iconic Canadian moment, but at least I can say I missed it doing something equally Canadian like mushing a sled dog team! I learned on this particular outing that sled dogs start their training at 9 months and each dog in the team has a specific role to play depending on where in line they are deployed. Once trained the teams can travel as far as 130km a day in remote and difficult terrain, an unbelievable distance. The dogs also need to be able to identify areas to avoid and follow the commands of the musher. The job definitely requires some major brainpower on the part of the dog.
Why am I talking about sled dogs? Good question, I’m kind of going on a bit of a rant here but The Streets Initiative is inclusive of non humans that like to run too I guess. Stay tuned next week and we can get into race horses if you want or maybe if you all play your cards right I’ll write about that lizard in South America that can run on water. Say what you want about amphibians but those basilisk lizard legs can fly bruh! Looks like me out on the water when I hear the dinner bell ring… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0TijmAUqY
Either way, it’s been a great past couple of weeks continuing to explore southeast Edmonton and I’ll say this: I used to deliver pizza back in the day and pride myself on knowing my way around the city but Mill Woods always has me befuddled. That entire area is a warren of curvy streets that get you thinking north is south and east is west. I even got lost once just trying to get to my starting point! Take it easy and ’til next week, happy running everybody!
-Tim
