Kutaisi Marathon for Georgia’s Street Dogs

Dog Organization Georgia is organizing this fundraiser.

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For every 8 people in Georgia, there’s approximately 1 street animal.

… and there are up to 30,000 street dogs in Tbilisi alone (that’s Georgia's capital).

You might be wondering why I’m telling you this.

Well…

I’m Paul (hello!), and I’m about to run a marathon

I’m English, but I’ve spent the majority of my last three years in Georgia.

I love the street dogs here:

Their boundless enthusiasm, their instant loyalty, their constant desire to make friends: it’s all infectious. If you’re having a shitty day, you can always rely on these happy silly dogs to show you some love.

They’re always up for an adventure, and they often join me and my friends on hikes and runs. If you know me, you’ll know I’m always feeding these dogs or petting them or laughing at their stupidity (just like many others here in Georgia).

Superficially, these dogs are a nice addition to the country. But many of them are sick and injured, some roam the streets because they’ve been abused and abandoned, and many of them struggle to survive. It’s a tough life.

Anyway, I’m running a marathon in Kutaisi in mid or late December. I haven't decided on the exact date, cos that’ll depend on the weather.

It’s self-supported, so it’s not an ‘official’ race. I’ll just be leaving my apartment, running/jogging/limping 42.2km, finishing outside my apartment, then celebrating with my friends and some beers. Well, if I can still stand up.

While running this marathon, I’m raising money for Dog Organization Georgia, who help Georgia’s strays in a whole bunch of ways. If you can afford to throw some money our way, here’s what your donations can contribute towards:

Neutering one female: $90-140
Neutering one male: $70-90
Fully vaccinating one adult dog: $20
Fully vaccinating one puppy: $32
Feeding and sheltering a dog (or puppy!) for an entire month: $100

Oh, and for those who actually care about the marathon (I realize that’s probably not many of you, lol. Let’s face it, we’re all here for the dogs), my goals fall into three separate categories:

My optimistic but possible goal: to finish within 3 hours 30 minutes
My likely goal: to finish within 4 hours
My main goal: to simply complete the distance on my own two feet, without getting run over by a Georgian driver

Cheers for reading, cheers for donating, and cheers for helping!

Learn more about DOG here: https://www.instagram.com/dog.org.ge/

And follow my training on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/hybrid_paul

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