RUNNING WITH SHERMAN
YOU South Africa|26 December 2019
When Christopher McDougall rescued a crippled donkey from its filthy stall, he had no idea they’d end up running a marathon together
Will Pavia
RUNNING WITH SHERMAN

WE ARE three men at the edge of a field in Pennsylvania, about to go jogging.

It’s a warm afternoon, the locusts are in full voice and the countryside is lush and gorgeous with steep hills, stony tracks and large open pastures. The only complicating factor that I can see in this little jaunt is that each one of us is going to be hanging onto a donkey.

“When you start with a donkey it’s like zero to 60 immediately,” says Christopher McDougall (57) a writer, renowned authority on jogging and sometime donkey-runner, who’s the leader of our expedition. He’s tall, rangy and shirtless, and has a yellow bandana tied around his shaved head that makes him look vaguely shamanic. He’s holding the halter of a large, frisky Equus asinus called Flower.

I’ve been paired with a smaller one named Matilda. “Matilda is a goer, man,” Chris says. I think he means it encouragingly. We’re by the gate, pressed against the fence by our respective running partners. A friend of Chris’, a fit-looking teenager named Jack Boomsma, is behind me holding the lead of a small grey donkey named Sherman.

Sherman is the hero of this story, a donkey who’s achieved greatness in spite of his disadvantaged upbringing.

He was rescued from a hoarder’s barn, his hooves hideously misshapen. They feared he’d die. Chris taught the donkey to run a marathon.

At the time, Chris’ elder daughter had been asking for a donkey for her 10th birthday. They live about an hour and a half outside Philadelphia in a beautiful log cabin overlooking a river. When Chris saw the place on a property website he couldn’t understand why it was so affordable. The estate agent explained that it was deep in Amish country, too far from the madding crowd or a grocery store for most young city couples trying to find a home.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة 26 December 2019 من YOU South Africa.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة 26 December 2019 من YOU South Africa.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

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