Bob and his burro

Oh gosh. It would be so easy to devolve this post into gratuitous “ass” jokes … but I’ll try to stem the tide of my usual immaturity for a few paragraphs. My good pal Bob Sweeney, a loyal program follower from afar in Colorado, just finished his pack burro racing season earlier this month, along with his loyal donkey named Yukon. Alert followers of this blog will recall that Bob has forged one helluva great ultramarathon career, having represented the USA at 100km, and having run some very fast and competitive times at ultra distances all the way up to 100 miles. Bob’s a competitive dude, and he has turned those competitive juices to the admittedly unique fringe sport called pack burro racing. Check out this outstanding CNN article and video on it. It’s a fascinating sport, combining ultra endurance, ultra patience and ultra luck in taming the wild beasts that accompany the humans. Here’s what Bob said in a Facebook post that accompanied this picture: “Yukon and I took most of the season to figure each other out but finally started running as a team the past two weeks. He usually slows and stares at photographers so I was happy to see this shot of us running relaxed while leading the race in Victor. We didn't get the win but Yukon showed he still has the competitive spirit.” 

In a subsequent email, Bob pointed out that our Marist Running world has cornered the market on these bizarre outlier offshoots. Some examples: It’s been well chronicled how we are a true friend to the racewalk community, and we’re proud of that; my trance-like fixation on fixed-time ultramarathon races; loyal program follower Peter VanAken (hammer throw school record holder), who has branched out into the eyebrow raising pursuits of dragon boat racing and sculpture parks accompanying our cross country course at Vassar Farm. I’m sure I’m forgetting some other oddities out there. Anyway. There. I did it. A whole post about donkeys without any “ass” puns. If you bother to check out the CNN piece, you’ll notice they showed far less restraint.