A marathon runner and homeless dog
In June of this year, a stray dog named Gobi participated in a 250-kilometer ultramarathon in China, where the young girl made friends with Dion Leonard, a 41-year-old participant. Dion has now launched a campaign to get the adorable dog back to his residence in Edinburgh.
In actuality, Dion had travelled to China in March to compete in the Gobi Desert Marathon for the first time this year.
Dion noticed the dog wandering the field before the start of the six-day, seven-race stage. On the first day, she started racing behind the competition, and a bunch of American runners first called her Tinto before dubbing her Gobi.
As per Dion
He decided to accompany me on a stage that was between 25 and 30 kilometres long and through the Tian Shan mountain range on the second day. She was completely educated about racing with all the competitors there because she had actually travelled across one of the biggest sand dunes in China with us the day before, but on the second day she chose to keep with me.
As per Dion
I remarked, “She is such a little dog, but she has a great heart.” I had to catch up with her because she would run ahead of me and wait for me 20 or 30 metres down the road.
Over the course of a week, the dog finished four of the six stages of the event. Dion remembers having to cross a portion of the river with Gobi once. At that moment he felt a real connection between them for the first time.
Dion finished second in a competition with 101 other cyclists. Gobi also covered about 80 miles of running in a week.
As soon as the race was ended, Dion called his wife to discuss taking Gobi home. Gobi, however, has a protracted procedure to go through before he can eventually join Dion and his wife at home.
