Respect the Boundaries

I’ve been looking forward to the Bribie Beach Bash, an iconic race along the foreshore of Bribie Island. It’s a very friendly, relaxed event and a lovely day out. Imagine my delight when I found that the event was held on a stretch of beach where dogs are allowed on a leash. The race director was happy to have Guinness along providing we complied with council rules.

Francis and I took a trip to the race route to check out how much of the beach is dog friendly.

The race itself consists of events of several distances, all are an out-and-back course. We wanted to measure how far the dog friendly beach extended beyond the start line, so we could double that distance and choose the right event to enter.

The dog friendly beach was 2.6km long, which means that Guinness and I could enter the 3km, but not the 6km.

Some may say, does it really matter if you sneaked into the no dog zone so you could enter the 6km? After all it’s only 400m. I say it does, and for several reasons.

1. The area beyond the dog friendly zone is national park, and domestic animals are prohibited from national parks all over the country. Taking a dog into a national park is not only a breach of council regulations but also state government laws.

2. By doing the wrong thing here, we may cause trouble for the race director which could affect future events. The Bribie Beach Bash is a fundraiser, and there would be a lot of people affected if it wasn’t to go ahead because of runners with dogs breaking the rules.

3. On a wider scale, it doesn’t do anything to encourage race directors to welcome dogs into their events. Dog owners need to be “squeaky clean” to show that we are in fact responsible and respectful of regulations. That way race directors are likely to look on us in a positive light.

Whenever you are running with your dog, whether you are just out for a jog or are entered in a formal race, do the right thing. It benefits all of us.