Chad Is Running Colombo? In Conversation with Chadwick and Aaron

By Thaliba Cader

At five in the morning, Chad already knows. Somewhere in the house, Aaron is getting ready to leave. Chad has no interest in waiting for the formalities. He finds the leash, picks it up, carries it over to Aaron. There are few negotiations more straightforward than this.

We are running!

By the time I met Chad, I had already seen enough snippets online to understand that he had become something of a local character. But photographs, as it turns out, do not quite prepare you for Chad in person. He was excited. VERY excited. There was barking, movement, investigation and a brief period during which I appeared to have entered territory that Chad had decided required his supervision. He positioned himself beside Aaron with the seriousness of a small security detail. Then, almost as quickly as it began, the inspection was over. Chad came over, became curious, leaned in and decided I was acceptable. Within minutes, the dog who had been watching me as though I might be a threat was behaving as though we had known each other for years.

That seemed to be the first lesson in Chad. He contains multitudes.

He is watchful but affectionate, protective but extraordinarily sociable, energetic but capable of settling into a cuddle, and apparently convinced that every person he meets is simply a friend he has not yet had the pleasure of meeting. At two and a half, Chad has lived in Sri Lanka for only six months. Before that, he spent most of his life in Dubai. Yet Colombo has adopted him with surprising speed.

People recognize him on the streets. Children ask for photographs. Runners know him at events. His appearances can produce the sort of commotion usually reserved for people who have spent considerably more time cultivating a public profile.

Chad, naturally, has no idea. Or perhaps he does.

Aaron thinks Chad has a fairly uncomplicated explanation for his popularity: people love him.

“In general,” he says. It is difficult to produce a stronger counterargument.

For Aaron, who grew up as an only child, Chad gradually became something closer to a sibling. Then, somewhere along the way, he appears to have secured another unofficial family title: favorite child.

“Growing up as an only child, you're used to a certain kind of quietness at home. Chad completely changed that dynamic; he effectively filled the role of a sibling and quickly claimed the title of ‘favorite child’ in our family,” says Chad’s human friend.

Aaron does not particularly describe himself as a runner. He simply likes running, and he likes doing things with Chad. In Dubai, the two became part of a run club, where Chad learned the strange choreography of running with strangers: the gathering, the waiting, the starting, the rhythm of feet, the occasional pause, the familiar faces appearing week after week.

When they moved to Sri Lanka, the habit followed. And Colombo, with its early mornings and increasingly visible running culture, turned out to be an excellent place for Chad to exercise on his zoomies.

There is something almost perfectly suited to him about a run club. It is exercise, but it is also social. Nobody has to know one another particularly well before beginning. You arrive, you move, you talk, you stop for photographs, you leave having met somebody new. For Chad, this is essentially a dream society. He wants to run. He wants to be around people. He wants to know what everyone is doing. And, judging by his behaviour, he would also like everyone to know what he is doing.

That enthusiasm eventually became the basis for Zoomies Run Club.

“It really evolved naturally from seeing how much joy he brings to the sport,” Aaron says.

The name seems appropriate. Anyone who has watched a Golden Retriever experience a sudden burst of energy will understand that “zoomies” is not merely a clever title. It is a state of being. At running events, Chad's popularity can create its own little traffic system.

He is not attending an event.

He is attending his event.

Aaron has learned to manage the attention, particularly when excitement begins to build around him. But beneath the photographs and social media following is a dog who still seems happiest doing something remarkably ordinary: running beside his person. That may be what makes the whole thing work.

And now, there is a book.

Chad and the Great Tuk-Tuk Chase, scheduled for publication in October, takes the real-life Golden Retriever into a fictional adventure after he loses his duck and ends up chasing a tuk-tuk. It sounds exactly like the sort of thing that could happen once you give Chad enough freedom and a sufficiently interesting morning. But the book has a purpose beyond giving children another reason to fall in love with a Golden Retriever.

Its themes include friendship, sharing and kindness, while a portion of the proceeds is intended to support charity. Aaron also hopes to use Chad's growing platform to draw attention to stray dogs, particularly those living outside Colombo.

That is where Chad's little corner of the internet begins to become something more interesting. Sri Lanka's animal-welfare landscape is not confined to the capital. Colombo has a visible network of volunteers, organizations and individuals working with stray animals, but outside the city, resources can become much harder to find. The animals become less visible. The people caring for them often have fewer resources and considerably less public attention. Chad happens to have attention in abundance.

Chad does not appear to approach the world with very complicated rules. He likes people. He likes running. He likes Aaron. He likes attention. He likes being included. And, apparently, he believes everyone else should be included too. In a city where people hurry past one another every day, a dog can sometimes accomplish something humans have become strangely bad at: making a stranger stop. Chad runs towards a crowd because he assumes they are happy to see him. People run towards Chad because, increasingly, they are. Perhaps that is how a Golden Retriever ends up becoming a familiar face in Colombo. Not through a grand plan, but through repetition. Through morning runs and muddy paws. Through photographs taken by strangers. Through children asking for one more picture. Through a leash carried proudly across a room at five in the morning. The difference is that there are now considerably more people waiting to see where he runs next. And if Chad has anything to say about it, they had better keep up.

CHATTING WITH AARON

1. When you think back to the day Chad first came home, did you ever imagine that he would one day become such a recognizable face around Colombo?

Not at all! When I brought him home in Dubai at just 35 days old, he was just this tiny, high-energy fluffball. I got him as a surprise for my mom because she’d always wanted a Golden Retriever, and he was one of the last puppies left on the farm. Back then, my only focus was managing this little puppy. Even when we started our Sunday running tradition in Dubai, it was just about the two of us doing something together. Moving to Sri Lanka and seeing him become a local celebrity, where strangers stop us on the streets and kids queue up for photos at running events, is completely surreal.

2. You’ve described Chad as being almost like a sibling. How has having him around changed your own life, beyond simply having a dog at home?

Growing up as an only child, you're used to a certain kind of quietness at home. Chad completely changed that dynamic; he effectively filled the role of a sibling and quickly claimed the title of "favorite child" in our family. Beyond just the companionship, he has completely reordered my life and how I connect with the world. I don't necessarily even consider myself a traditional "runner"; I just love running and spending time with him. But through Chad, I’ve been pulled into these incredible, tight-knit communities, first in Dubai and now here with the running community in Colombo.

3. There is clearly a serious amount of running in Chad’s life. From those early run clubs in Dubai to Zoomies in Colombo, how did a dog end up becoming part of a running community in the first place?

It really evolved naturally from seeing how much joy he brings to the sport. When we were in Dubai, we joined a run club where he learned the rhythm of the group and ran beside strangers. When we brought that habit to Sri Lanka, we realized how perfectly suited running clubs are for his personality. Introducing Zoomies Run Club with a few of my friends felt like the perfect next chapter. It allowed us all to combine the community aspect that first made Chad a runner with the larger-than-life personality people have come to love online, creating a shared lifestyle right here in Colombo.

4. Now there’s a children’s book, Zoomies and charitable work taking shape around him. If Chad could have his own little corner of the world, what would you ultimately want it to stand for?

I want Chad’s corner of the world to stand for connection, kindness, and bridging the gap for those in need. The children's book, Chad and the Great Tuk-Tuk Chase, focuses on simple but vital themes like friendship and sharing. But the bigger picture is using his platform to address the massive imbalance in animal welfare here in Sri Lanka. While Colombo has a wonderful network of volunteers, the resources thin out drastically once you leave the city. If people stop scrolling to watch a happy Golden Retriever running through Colombo, I want to use that attention to make them think about the stray dogs waiting quietly outside the city. Ultimately, I want Chad's legacy to be about bringing people together to do something positive.