Who is quicker – a two- or four-legged runner? In case this very essential issue troubles your mind, do attend the initial for Bulgaria marathon for dogs and their owners. The invitation belongs to the Live Actively program for healthy lifestyle, implemented for the 11th time by Nestle Bulgaria.

People and dogs will run together, encouraging each other. The owners will lead their pets by the leash, in order for everybody to be sure that the duos will finish simultaneously. The idea is synchronicity to be achieved between the person and the dog as a sign of their strong relationship. The route will be a specially marked path with no obstacles along – a sign of mercy, granted by the organizers on the occasion of the debut marathon.

"We hope that plenty of people will join us, as the Facebook invitation is now a fact, named A Marathon for Dogs and Their Owners," manager of the campaign Elizabeth Popova explains. "We shall wait for all the participants on June 18 at 9.30 am at the central entrance of Sofia’s South Park. After the marathon there will be interesting workshop lessons for pets and owners, in order to assist the latter in the training of the dogs for simple commands like ‘come’, ‘sit’ etc. We will demonstrate different sports activities – Frisbee, agility and there will be also dog dances. We have invited plenty of trainers for the purpose, seeking their assistance within these initiatives. Our partners from the Ekoravnovesie municipal company will bring 10 puppies for adoption, so some of the guests might leave with a new pet. There will be also plenty of awards for the participants."

Sign up in Facebook and become one of them – so far up to 300 owners with the respective number of dogs have declared their intention to participate. Some of them have even been sending playful challenges. A black-and-white handsome Border Collie has already put his owner behind the starting line, while fearful mignon Candy reveals a jagged smile and a wrinkled muzzle, threatening to make everyone… laugh to tears. However, who will be more challenged over the forthcoming marathon – the animal or the human?

"We expect the lesser challenge to remain for the owners, since those people who would bring their dogs to such events usually do sports in their free time alongside the animal," Elizabeth Popova presumes. "At the same time there are breeds like Jack Russel Terrier with very playful representatives and their temper might prove them to be even more active than their owners. However, our event is aimed at everyone – both at people, involved professionally into sports with their dogs and also at amateurs who are not so well-prepared, but have the will to spend some quality time with their pet."

Live Actively takes place each year and a growing number of people have been turning to movement, sports and healthy food. The different events since the firstedition in 2006 have seen over 140,000 participants so far, great Bulgarian sports stars among them.

"Our goal is to take people outdoors, in order to do some sports, have fun and live actively," Elizabeth Popova goes on to say. "As health is what matters the most, we try to help people to live the healthy life – when we are active, we keep our good shape."

English version: Zhivko Stanchev