This brilliant dog accidentally ran a half-marathon

A dog who snuck out of her back garden inadvertently ended up running a full half-marathon - and finished seventh.

Mon, 25 Jan, 2016 - 00:00

Ciara Flaherty

Ludivine was let out of the house in Elkmont, Alabama, on Saturday morning to do her business and before she - or her owner - had any idea what was going on, she had finished a race and was wearing a medal.

The two-and-a-half year old hound reportedly wandered around the starting line with the other runners and when the starting gun went off, she joined in, finishing the entire 13.1 mile course in 1:32.56.

An impressive time considering she had to deal with a host of distracting smells along the way - including a dead rabbit.

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Fellow runner Jim Clemens, told Runner’s World that the dog had no problems keeping up.

"Every time I thought she had dropped off to go back home, I would hear her coming back up to me, and she would race past me up to the two leaders," Clemens said.

"She would run off to romp through streams and into yards to sniff around for a while."

Meanwhile her owner April Hamblin had no idea that her dog was off on a run. But then some texts started coming in from friends who had spotted her.

All I did was open the door, and she ran the race on her own accord," Hamlin, 43, said.

My first reaction was that I was embarrassed and worried that she had possibly gotten in the way of the other runners."

Upon finishing the race, Ludivine was deservedly given a medal for her participation - although we imageine she was a bit non-plussed by all the fuss.