Try the Moonlight Dog Walk | Love That Pup | Cathy Kirkman | Palo Alto Online |

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Love That Pup

By Cathy Kirkman

About this blog: This blog explores life in Palo Alto with our dogs, cats and other pets, as well as the urban wildlife around us, the title being a reference to Sharon Creech's lovely story, "Love That Dog." I grew up in Palo Alto surrounded by ...  (More)

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Try the Moonlight Dog Walk

Uploaded: Sep 3, 2014
This Friday night 9/5 is the Moonlight 10k/5k run and 5k walk over at the Baylands. This blog post is for people like me who never really thought about going, and who didn't know that it's a great opportunity to walk with your dog and be part of this fun event.

I never really paid any attention to this event because I don't race, at least not until last year when a friend suggested that we just go anyway. So I found out how much fun I had been missing out on by not going all these years. My friend doesn't race either, but she had gone before and had had a wonderful time. So I brought dogs to walk, and we had a blast.

The logistics of traffic and parking were very well managed. We didn't get there early but still we found it easy to park and walk over to the event area. There were so many people we knew that it seemed like a neighborhood block party, on a grand scale. There was great music, even warm-up exercises set to the music.

We did the walking course with the dogs out along the levee and then back down the road, and it was really beautiful in the moonlight. There were a lot of other people walking, many with dogs, so it felt like an ad hoc pack walk, which can be an invigorating psychic experience for your dog. Once we got back to the baseball field, there were numerous sponsor and vendor booths to visit, along with free food and drink with tables and chairs so we could sit down and relax.

If you would like to participate, you can sign up online, or you can just go over there on the spur of the moment and register at the site. The 5k walk starts at 7pm, and the event opens at 6pm; be sure to allow time to park and walk over.

Please note that dogs are only allowed for the walk, not the run:

"Dogs are permitted on the 5K walk but not on either run, where the terrain and darkness makes it too dangerous to have them. No retractable leashes. Bring your own clean-up bag."

I would like to say I will hope to see you there, but this Friday is my son's 21st birthday so we have other plans. But I hope to be there next year. It's all for a great cause, the Weekly's Holiday Fund, which benefits local non-profits. It should be a lovely evening!

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Comments

Posted by Scottie Zimmerman, a resident of Midtown,
on Sep 4, 2014 at 4:34 pm

Cathy, I love your description of this Moonlight Dog Walk. I'll tell my friends with dogs!

Meanwhile, it's worth mentioning that the event is sponsored by the city of Palo Alto and the money raised goes to various local nonprofit organizations. I went to the page you linked to, and they're no longer accepting online registrations. So people with dogs can just show up and register/pay at the starting gate. Fun!


Posted by anon, a resident of Midtown,
on Sep 6, 2014 at 3:33 pm

Thanks Cathy for writing about this event. My friend and I went and took my two dogs. We all had a great time.


Posted by Cathy Kirkman, a Palo Alto Online blogger,
on Sep 9, 2014 at 8:18 am

Cathy Kirkman is a registered user.

Dear anon, thanks for writing and I'm glad you enjoyed it! Hope to be there next year with my dogs.


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Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund

For the last 30 years, the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund has given away almost $10 million to local nonprofits serving children and families. 100% of the funds go directly to local programs. It’s a great way to ensure your charitable donations are working at home.

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