Runners in a marathon were joined by a four-legged furry competitor that wound up stealing the show.
Mr Joshua, a goat, crashed the Town of Conception Bay South’s T’Railway Trek Half Marathon on Sunday as runners passed Taylor’s Pumpkin Patch, said Mayor Darrin Bent.
‘The goat decided, “Well, I’m not staying here, I’m joining them!”‘ Bent told CBC News.
Joshua’s owner, Jeremy Taylor, said he found out his goat was missing through social media.
‘He decided to break his collar, which he had on for years, and join the runners,’ Taylor told the news outlet.
Taylor said his goat is accustomed to groups of people and has gravitated towards them.
‘When he seen the crowd running, he decided to join in not knowing this is one of the longest runs he’s ever had,’ he said.
Joshua traversed about two kilometers of the route in Newfoundland and Labrador and stopped at a water station. Some of the 250 marathon participants ran alongside him as he sped up and slowed down.
The goat ran around four kilometers before his owners found him and walked the final half-kilometer with him so he could cross the finish line at Topsail Beach, Bent said.
‘We very quickly put a medal around his neck and he became quite the star,’ the mayor said.
‘Most people who actually ran the half marathon wanted their picture with Joshua at the finish line.’
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Joshua helped make the first year of the marathon a success, and has already been invited to next year’s event to oversee the finish line.
‘To have Joshua join in and become a kind of a mascot-star of the event is something we didn’t expect and we’re just delighted that the G.O.A.T.,’ the mayor said, referring to Greatest Of All Time, ‘Of the race is really a goat.’
Joshua is not the first animal to run a marathon. In 2013, a chocolate Labrador named Boogie ran most of a 13.1-mile course in Evansville, Indiana, and was rewarded with a medal around its neck.
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