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Steamboat Springs — Sometimes Justine can just be, well, a jackass.

Midway through a Thursday evening workout, Tom Williams' burro stopped in the middle of the road. He yanked once, then twice on the harness he held, but seemingly dead-set on upholding a stereotype, the stubborn Justine planted her hooves and didn't budge.

"After I got her, it was three solid weeks before I could get her out of a dead walk," Williams said, recalling the early May process of breaking the animal in. "Finally, I had to use a butt rope and horse treats.

"She really likes horse treats."

Thursday's frustration wasn't nearly on that level, and it didn't take horse treats to resolve. On the third tug, the 3-year-old burro fell back in line beside Williams, jogging down a dusty road in the far northern reaches of Moffat County.

"She's really a lot of fun to run with," Williams said. "She can carry all your water and your pack. I don't run by myself anymore. She's too much fun to run with."

Change in plans

Had everything gone to plan, Thursday's workout would have been an important one, and Justine's hesitation, even as slight as it was, might have been a worry.

Everything hasn't gone to plan, though, and instead of a final tune-up for Williams' original goal - Saturday's Burro Days race and celebration in Fairplay - Thursday's jog saw Williams easing back into the sport.

"That felt all right," Williams said afterward, looking surprised. "I haven't run for more than a week."

An early July riding accident ended Williams' hopes of competing not just in the Fairplay race, but also in the other two spires of the triple crown of Colorado burro racing: the Gold Rush Days race in Buena Vista and the Boom Days race in Leadville.

Williams fell from his horse and broke his ribs while checking the fence on a friend's ranch.

"The dog got after the horse and (it) bucked me off," Williams said, looking at the floor and shuffling his feet. "It doesn't really buck, but I lost a stirrup and fell."

Adopting and adapting

Williams, a native of the Baggs, Wyo., area, has long been a regular runner. He's completed in half a dozen marathons, logging finishes everywhere from Jacksonville, Fla., to Taos, N.M. He ran the Steamboat Marathon in 2006 and has been a regular in the Steamboat Springs Running Series throughout the years.

"I still get between two and 10 miles a day," said Williams, now 62 years old.

It wasn't until Justine came into his life that he contemplated burro racing. He got the animal from a friend and got the idea to race it from a flier for the Fairplay event.

The flier still is pinned on a bulletin board in the octagonal log cabin Williams shares with his wife of 20 years, Rose, and their 19-year-old son, Kevin.

It hangs alongside everything else important to Williams' newest pursuit, from newspaper clippings to race rules and event schedules.

"I'll go next year," he said, determination flashing behind a pair of eyeglasses that sit low on his nose.

Things had been going well.

Once Justine decided to run, she grew to be as enthusiastic as Williams.

"I got her into running finally, and I had to get her bulletproof," he said. "Sometimes we'd come to a bridge and she'd balk. She wouldn't cross water, wouldn't do this, wouldn't do that and would just set her feet. But if you give her treats all the time, that helps."

After spending three weeks getting Justine to run, it took two more to convince her to load into a horse trailer. Eventually, though, her temperament calmed and the running pair began to hit the road.

Out and about

Justine made her racing debut in May in the 7-mile Little Snake River Race for the Cure. They continued to rack up miles around Williams' home, and they ran to church in Dixon one Sunday morning early in the summer.

"I parked the donkey outside and went in," he said. "Afterward all the parishioners came out and petted her."

Williams even hauled Justine to Hayden to run in last month's Cog Run.

They weren't exactly fast, narrowly avoiding finishing last, but it was all a sign of progress.

"They usually don't encourage dogs to run, but this isn't a dog. She doesn't do anything," he observed wryly. "She didn't have the best day. She had to stop and visit with two or three horses along the way."

While his plans of running in the massive burro races are on hiatus, his plans of racing with the donkey are not.

Williams walked over to the bulletin board where his plans and mementos hung and pulled the Steamboat Springs Running Series schedule from behind a handful of papers.

"Yeah, there it is," he said, pointing a thin finger at an Aug. 16 event. "The Continental Trail Divide - 16 miles. We'll do that one."