I liked Joe Henderson before I ever met him, because he was a literary pioneer of the original running boom. I have appreciated Joe Henderson since he published my first professional article in 1975. He has been my friend for almost four decades. I asked him to send me one of his books and I found this chapter. – JDW
Chapter 24. The Dog
(1993) SOME OF THE best running partners never say a
word but sometimes yelp for reasons known only to them.
They never takes showers but sometimes jump in rivers and
ponds to cool off. They prefer an extreme form of fartlek
but will run any pace you choose, even if it’s little more
than a walk to them.
Meet my best running mate ever. His name was Mingo,
and he was an Australian cattle dog – a so-called “heeler”
bred for herding.
My wife Barbara, who’d never had a family dog as a
child or adult, finally surrendered to my pleadings. We
adopted Mingo from a shelter, and he instantly became her
dog – parking himself in her office all day while waiting
for her offers of a walk or a ride.
He didn’t ask me for a run, and I didn’t offer, until the
vet told him during an exam, “You’re getting fat. You need
more exercise.”
That’s when we started teaming up each morning. As
with beginning human runners, Mingo had to work himself
back into shape. A half-hour was as long as he could go at
first, but as the weight peeled off he soon could run all I did
and still beg for more.
What began as his weight-loss program became much
more. Our runs together were as good for me as for him.
Before Mingo, I had run mostly on the neighborhood
streets. These routes weren’t fit for a dog, because he had
to stay leashed and would jerk me around as he stopped or
sprinted without warning.
Mingo took me to the better parts
of town – to quiet, empty places such as Pre’s Trail where
he could do his doggy fartlek unrestrained.
I leashed him only when we came upon other runners
and hikers. There weren’t many, and very rarely a woman
alone.
This brought to mind the greatest inequity in running:
Men can run in the best places with little concern, while
women must worry.
A woman wrote to me recently, “I live in an area with
lovely parks, and I’d love to run there almost daily. My
problem is that, as a woman, I don’t feel safe in those
secluded areas by myself and often have trouble finding
someone to train with me at times that are convenient to
both of us. What do you suggest?”
I told her that we too have lovely parklands, including
miles of riverfront trails. These draw lots of exercisers and
also, unfortunately, more than a few low-lifes. Women
have been attacked here – not many but enough to make all
women wary and to frighten some away from these paths.
My wife, an avid woods-hiker, was reluctant to go here
alone until Mingo adopted her. With him she feels safe.
“He has never acted aggressive or protective,” Barbara
says. “But the bad guys don’t know this. If I see them when
Mingo is with me, they back away without saying a word to
me.”
I appreciated our boy for a different reason. He would
go out to run with me at any hour, for any distance, at any
pace and wouldn’t expect me to say a word to him.
(Later) When you fall in love with a dog, you must
expect that it will someday break your heart. Dogs live
their lives in fast-forward, at seven times human speed –
which means you’ll probably outlive your pet.
I knew that Mingo, the being I ran more miles beside
than any other, wouldn’t even last his allotted dog-years. At
age eight he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
He ran with me his final morning and ate normally that
evening. The next day I found him dead in his bed from a
seizure. Always eager to please, Mingo spared us from
deciding when and how he should leave us.
For more than 30 years, Joe Henderson was a columnist and editor at Runner’s World magazine, and he has published more than 30 books. He’s a veteran of over 700 races, from sprints to ultras. He teaches running classes at the University of Oregon in Eugene and coaches a local marathon team. His columns appear on his website, joehenderson.com.
I see Joe’s story trending on JDW.com and that is so good. Joe had a stroke many weeks ago and the last I heard from a credible source he is getting better slowly. Just like he ran. Giants can take their time.