When ultra runner Evan Birch drove from his home in Calgary down to Montana to pick up his new puppy Nova in 2017, he knew he wanted a dog he could run the trails with. He’d started running 15 years earlier as a way to cope with the stress of his work as an emergency responder and recently, his distances had picked up to between 20k and 40k. At that time, Nova joining him for those types of distances may have seemed overly optimistic, but when she turned one, she started joining him on the trails – and the pair has barely stopped for a breath since.
“I realized how much she loved it, and I realized how much I loved having a training partner that I could literally take with me anytime I wanted to go, without having to make plans,” says Birch, describing Nova as “a little rocket” when she's on the trails.
