She also explored areas around the course, including fields and water, before eventually returning to the runners.
The Washington Post reported that fellow runner Jim Clemens remembered hearing Ludivine return after he thought she had disappeared for good. She would wander away, explore streams or yards, and then suddenly come running back toward the leading runners.
Another runner, Tim Horvath, spent much of the race near Ludivine. Accounts from the event suggest that she repeatedly left the course only to reappear and continue running.
That behavior makes more sense when Ludivine’s breed is considered.
The American Kennel Club describes the bloodhound as one of the most accomplished scent-tracking breeds in the world. Bloodhounds are known for an extraordinary sense of smell, physical persistence and the stamina necessary to follow trails through difficult terrain for long periods.
Their distinctive physical features are not merely decorative.
Their loose facial skin and long ears can help trap scent around the head as the dog follows a trail close to the ground. Their powerful bodies were developed for sustained tracking rather than short bursts of speed.
In other words, a bloodhound becoming distracted by dozens of smells along a rural Alabama road was hardly surprising.
What was surprising was Ludivine’s ability to investigate those distractions and still maintain a pace that many trained human runners would consider impressive.
A finishing time of 1:32:56 works out to roughly seven minutes and six seconds per mile over the half-marathon distance.
And that calculation assumes she traveled only the official 13.1 miles.
Considering her various detours, Ludivine may have covered more ground than the marked course.
Her Owner Had No Idea
While Ludivine was becoming the unexpected star of the race, her owner, April Hamlin, was not standing near the finish line cheering.
She did not even know her dog had entered.
Hamlin later explained that Ludivine lived on a farm with room to wander. ABC News reported that the family was not immediately alarmed by her absence because they assumed she was simply outside exploring and sniffing around the property.
Other contemporary accounts described the morning as beginning with Ludivine being allowed outside before she wandered toward the race.
Hamlin eventually learned what had happened when friends connected to the event began contacting her.
Imagine receiving that message.
Your dog is missing from the yard.
But instead of being told that someone has spotted her wandering down a highway or sitting outside a neighbor’s house, you discover that she has just completed a half marathon.
Hamlin’s first reaction was not simply pride.
She was worried Ludivine might have interfered with the runners.
She later told Runner’s World that she was embarrassed at first and concerned her dog had possibly gotten in someone’s way. The irony was that Ludivine had apparently done considerably more than simply wander onto the course.
She had become part of the race.
Hamlin also expressed disbelief that Ludivine had completed such a demanding distance because, at home, she considered her dog remarkably laid-back.
“She’s laid back and friendly,” Hamlin told Runner’s World, adding that she could hardly believe Ludivine had completed the entire half marathon because the dog was usually “really lazy.”
It was the perfect detail for an already improbable story.
A dog with no formal racing ambitions, described affectionately by her own owner as lazy, had just beaten the overwhelming majority of the human field.
The Unregistered Competitor Who Nearly Finished Near the Front
The race had 165 finishers, according to ABC News.
Ludivine’s unofficial seventh-place performance therefore meant she finished ahead of more than 150 human participants.
That result becomes even more entertaining when her racing strategy is considered.
She did not conserve energy according to a carefully planned pace.