ELKMONT, ALA. — Finishing seventh in a half-marathon isn’t usually a big deal, unless the participant happens to be a sweet bloodhound named Ludivine, who’d wandered into the Alabama race by accident.

April Hamlin’s 2-year-old dog wasn’t expected to be a factor during Jan. 16’s inaugural Elkmont Half Marathon, which began downtown and ventured along rolling rural roads, about a 45-minute drive northwest of Huntsville.

“[We] had let her out of her pen the night before and that’s where she ended up,” Hamlin wrote on Facebook the day after the race.

Speaking with TODAY.com via email Monday afternoon, Hamlin said that while she was relieved when friends at the race texted her to say Ludivine was safe and accounted for, another concern crossed her mind. “My first reaction was that I was worried she had gotten in the way of serious runners who had trained for the event,” she wrote. “And that Barry Pugh, the race coordinator (also a work colleague) would kill me.”

Showing up at the starting line, Ludivine must’ve felt the spirit of competition among dozens of human runners — and, based on her fast start, perhaps a runner’s high as well.

Source: Today