LITMIR.BIZ

      The jungle, Ecuador, November 2014

      The vegetation was getting even more impenetrable, and more and more mud was sticking to our boots with every step we took. All four of our team were probably as exhausted as we had ever been, and in this business of extreme racing that is an exhaustion that most people can’t really begin to imagine.

      I looked down at the new fifth member of our team: a filthy, wounded dog, covered in mud and blood. As he trod slowly through the swampy earth, dragging each paw out of the ground with a visible effort, you could see that somewhere underneath the matted fur was a beautiful golden creature. As we struggled on, side by side, I found myself unconsciously matching him step for step. Not wanting to get ahead of him, because he was clearly finding it so hard to keep up, and yet not wanting to slow down to the point where we had no hope of staying in this increasingly gruelling race.

      The Adventure Racing World Championship was – is – the pinnacle of the year for adventure racers. And this race, in the heart of the Ecuadorian jungle, was the climax of months and months of heart-bursting, leg-busting training. Staffan, Karen, Simon and I had set out as a team of four highly trained athletes determined to come in the top three of the adventure racing world, if not in the top one. And yet now, as the captain of our highly trained team, I found myself distracted and preoccupied by the struggling dog by my side.

      He seemed to ask for no pity; he just seemed to be quietly determined not to leave my side. All I had done was notice him, talk to him and give him some food. And yet in the intense, feverish atmosphere of the jungle, I felt myself drawn to this struggling creature as he appeared to be drawn to me.

      At one point he suddenly disappeared; shot off into the vegetation in search of some creature that only he could see or smell. I told myself that he was probably gone for ever, on some mission that a mere human couldn’t understand, and that I had just been imagining that there was some kind of bond between us. I bit my lip at the thought of never seeing him again. I couldn’t believe that a dog – random, stray, appearing out of nowhere – could have so affected me.