Running with the pack: 59-year-old sprinter heads to Senior Games thanks to sled dog training

Denise Lawson’s pre-run routine has changed a lot in the 40-plus years since she competed in track meets as a teenager. These days, in between rest periods, she stretches, bounds and hydrates. Then she rounds up her retired sled dogs and gets to work.

Lawson will hit the track in Des Moines, Iowa, next week for the National Senior Games. She has already received one award as a Humana Game Changer, an honor from the event’s sponsor, for her continued advocacy for healthy living.

The 59-year-old wants to add more hardware to the 50-meter, 100-meter, 200-meter, 400-meter, 4x100-meter relay and shot put.

Lawson, a Northern Virginia resident, has rediscovered her love of racing in recent years. The retired Alaskan sled dogs she fosters helped reignite that passion.

“The return to the track has been almost gleeful. It’s kind of like when you’re a kid and someone’s like, ‘I’ll race you to that tree,’” Lawson said before a recent workout, surrounded by dogs. “Doing short sprints, there’s something fun about that.”

Competing in the National Senior Games wasn’t originally on the agenda. She picked up running again about 10 years ago for the social benefits, participating in corporate meets through her job.

She hasn’t stopped. From 50-meter races to half marathons and endurance swims around Alcatraz Island, the dog lover is always competing.

After qualifying for the National Senior Games through a regional track meet, she couldn’t think of a good reason not to compete.

The training process has changed greatly for Lawson since she was racing other kids on the playground, but injuries such as a broken arm and a “small” cardiac procedure haven’t stopped her.

“I have to really gradually work up to actually sprinting and can’t do it every day,” she said. “It’s definitely trying to do things smarter and a little differently than when you’re in your 20s.”

Honest living

If that process weren’t unique enough, Lawson adds a rotating pack of fostered dogs to the mix. She is careful not to call them rescues. Their living situation in Alaska is a dream for those canines, not somewhere they need to be saved.

Instead, she is fostering and rehoming them. The senior track star sees herself as a matchmaker. First, she helps the dogs adjust to a more suburban life, a far cry from their familiar Alaskan wilderness. Then, she finds them the right home.

While the dogs stay with Ms. Lawson, they run. She jogs and sprints with them.

The Alaskan sled dogs are bred to run and compete in extreme endurance events such as the Iditarod. Lawson and her boyfriend, Gordon Smith, compared the retired dogs to marathon runners.

They may love to run, but they also find the nearest bed to relax in once they get back home. The dogs may have distinct needs, but they are enjoying “honest living.”

“It just gives you this reality check; most of what we stress out about on a daily basis is not that huge,” Lawson said. “The dogs help remind us of that. They’re very simple. ‘Did I eat? Did I get to run? Do I have someplace to sleep?’ And they don’t hold grudges.”

In between runs and dog-pile cuddle sessions, Lawson is spreading the sled dog gospel with anyone who will listen. She has written and illustrated a series of children’s books about Black Bear, her first sled dog, and his fictional adventures across the country.

Nowadays, she takes the pack with her to readings at local libraries, schools and bookstores.

“I’ll talk about how the sled dogs come in all different shapes and sizes. You know, one might be a female, one might be a male, this one’s a lead dog. There are different roles. That one’s white, this one’s black,” Lawson said. “You know what? It doesn’t matter, because they all work together.”

An Alaskan in Virginia

Many concerned adults get more practical lessons. How does an Alaskan dog adapt to the sweltering Virginia summer?

The short answer: They shed. A lot.

Lawson noted a heat advisory in Alaska last month as temperatures neared 90 degrees. Warm weather isn’t completely foreign to the dogs.

“And they don’t have air conditioning up there, and the dogs primarily live outside,” Lawson said as Mr. Smith brushed Sundance, one of the newer arrivals.

By the time the interview ended, Sundance had shed enough fur to stuff a small mattress.

Cindy Abbott, a retired Iditarod racer who has trained countless dogs, said she won’t allow the Alaskan huskies to be rehomed in the “Last Frontier.” The call for these “genetically bred super dogs” to return to racing, unintentionally or on purpose, would be too great.

That’s why she sends them to Virginia with Lawson.

“I’m really picky,” Ms. Abbott said. “I don’t let just anybody have these dogs, and that’s one reason I don’t retire them in Alaska.”

In Lawson, however, Ms. Abbott found a kindred spirit who cares for these dogs in the same way. The pair met after Ms. Abbott’s final Iditarod in 2019. It was almost like fate, she said.

“There’s a dog out there for every person. It’s just finding that match. And Denise is uncanny in her ability to do this. She can touch people with this understanding of the soul of the dog,” Ms. Abbott said, noting that they have rehomed more than 20 dogs together. “Denise and [Mr. Smith] are just incredible. It’s all-encompassing in their lives.”

‘Run like a sled dog’

Lawson originally planned to visit Alaska once in 2018 after a neighbor’s recommendation. She has been back a dozen times since.

Her life has been consumed by the dogs. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

“They can teach you how to be more joyful. Sometimes, I’ll run behind a dog, and you look at their gait, and the way they’re running is so light,” the senior runner said. “They just kind of trot and float. And if you run with a dog attached to you and you both get in the same rhythm, it’s almost meditative. You’re just running together.”

While she trains for the National Senior Games, Lawson dons a shirt urging others to “Run like a sled dog.”

“They’re so effortless and smooth,” Mr. Smith said. “Like, how can I do that?”

Thanks to Mr. Smith and Lawson, dogs like Sundance have learned to love retirement. The pups’ foster parents have benefited just as much.

“The dogs got me in better shape than I’d be otherwise at this age,” Mr. Smith said. “They help [Lawson] stay in shape, too. They use that whole camaraderie. We’re one big pack, essentially.”

The parallels between a 59-year-old runner and her retired working dogs aren’t lost on Lawson. When she hits the track in Iowa, without sled dogs tied to her waist, she will be a senior athlete enjoying a run, just like her retired pack.

“Looking at what the dogs have been through and what they’re capable of, I try and find ways to challenge myself,” she said.

The National Senior Games begin July 24.