THIS was a first - the first time I have ever run a race with a dog!

The event was the Neolithic Cani-X, a four-mile run from the Bustard Inn on Salisbury Plain to Stonehenge.

It's a race which has taken a lot of organisation, particularly since I don't have a dog. Fortunately, two friends who I met in March at a Hash on the Isle of Wight came to my rescue. Deanna and Rick kindly lent me their beautiful four-year-old Labrador Boykie.

They came over on Saturday afternoon and in the evening we had our first run together. Boykie wore a harness which was attached to a lead, and which in turn was attached to a belt strung around my waist.

We went to Warsash and our first run in the Strawberry Fields Boykie just took off. It was hard to keep him under control and I had to rein him back. Rick ran with me, but Boykie just kept on going.

We practised with a run up and down the Solent Way footpath, and it was a different feeling being guided by a dog who just wanted to run and run and run.

Come race day, Rick, Deanna and myself drove to Stonehenge to meet all the other competitors and their dogs. Some of them had raced before, others were new to the game.

We were shepherded onto a coach and driven to the start. Ours was the shorter race distance, some had been ferried to Charlton Clumps for a half marathon race to Stonehenge.

Rick and myself went to the local pub for a pre-race bacon roll and coffee before getting ready for the race.

We put ourselves near the front of the 31 other competitors knowing that Boykie would be off. And he was. He shot off at the start and I thought I was going to come a cropper as I had to hurdle the tank tracks and the rough ground before we got onto the track.

Very quickly we lost Rick. We were going at six-and-a-half minute mile pace, and I was trying to rein in Boykie so he paced it. There were two other runners with dogs in front of us, who had shot off. They looked pretty experienced, but after half a mile we just settled into the run.

Boykie had eased back to seven-minute mile pace, and I was feeling good. We were third, and slowly picking up on the leaders.

I had a funny feeling in my stomach that we might even win this one. I had the stamina and the running, and reckoned on closing in on the leaders as we edged towards the finish, and then unleashing Boykie over the final half mile for a momentous victory with Deanna waiting for us at the finish line by Stonehenge.

We went through the half way point by the water station. Rick was way behind us, but Boykie was going well. And then, half a mile on.he stopped! Boykie started sniffing the grass, and just stopped. I got out a water bottle and squirted it into his mouth and on his head, but Boykie was disinterested in running.

Rick, who had been a good quarter of a mile behind us, caught us up as other dogs passed. Boykie was tired and didn't want to run. We rested him, and then began walking a bit, before getting into a trot.

Soon Boykie was running with us, though a little slower than before. We still caught a few runners and their dogs, and the familiar circle of stones at Stonehenge soon loomed into sight.

As we entered a field and the finishing straight, Boykie pricked up his ears, he could see Deanna and a photographer, and he started sprinting. I was off in pursuit being dragged along with Rick alongside. We crossed the finish line in around 32 minutes, and came around seventh. Rick and I were handed a medal, but I gave mine to Boykie and put it around his shoulders.

He was a happy dog, delighted to have finished, and he seemed to have had a good time.

Rick enjoyed the experience too, and went away thinking about organising a Cani-X race on the Isle of Wight.