Finding Gobi: The true story of one little dog’s big journey

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ey, check out the dog!” a man shouted from somewhere in the crowd. “Maybe it’s here for the race!”

“Is that right, girl?” another man asked, bending down to scratch her behind the ears. “Are you here to run with us?”

The dog didn’t know what to make of all this. There were a lot of people, more than she would have expected out here away from town and right on the edge of the desert. Most of them were dressed funny, but they were nice. Many of the runners stopped to pet her, and more than a few gave her scraps of food.

She was hungry. She was always hungry. She couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t been hungry. These people seemed to like her, and when she danced around them they fed her. So she danced. And got fed. And everyone was happy.

Then she saw him. He wasn’t feeding her. He wasn’t laughing or shouting. He wasn’t even standing with most of the other people. He was off to the side, shifting back and forth on his big feet. He was tall and skinny, and dressed all in bright yellow. He looked funny, but he wasn’t smiling.

The dog didn’t know what to make of this tall man. But she decided that she wanted to find out more about him.

“Well, hello there,” Dion Leonard muttered, glancing down at the small bundle of sandy-coloured fur bounding around his feet. “Where did you come from?”

She wasn’t a very big dog, he noticed. She was small and compact, and she had big dark eyes and tufts of fur around her mouth that made it look like she had a moustache and beard. He’d seen her with a bunch of the other runners earlier, doing tricks for food. But for some reason she’d singled him out.

It was probably his gear. Dion’s running clothes and even his shoes were all bright yellow. He knew he probably looked like a neon light.

He reached down and patted the dog, but he didn’t have time to give her too much attention. Today’s portion of the race was about to start, and he needed to be ready.

This six-stage ultra race would stretch over seven days and cover almost 155 miles. Dion had never been to China before, but he had done other multi-stage races like this. He used to be good at them. Then he’d hurt his leg. It had been a while since he’d entered a race, and he was worried. This was his last chance, he figured. If he didn’t do well in this race, he might as well just quit completely.

He didn’t want to quit though. He wanted to compete well – not necessarily to come in first, he wasn’t expecting that, but to make it into the top handful, at least. Even placing fourth would be enough to show that he could still do this.

Yesterday had been the first day and he had come in third, so that was an excellent start. But in order to stay in that top handful, he needed to concentrate. And that meant not spending any more time with somebody’s dog, no matter how cute she was.

“Better get back to your owner now,” he murmured, leaning over to pet her one last time. She looked up at him with those big eyes, almost like she understood him, and barked once. But she didn’t go away.

“Take your positions!” one of the race organisers shouted. Everyone tensed and moved to the starting line, completing final stretches. Dion was already done with all of that. He just made sure his shoes were tied tight and his backpack was securely on, and concentrated on the path up ahead. Little pink flags marked the way.

The starting gun sounded, and they were off! Dion didn’t try to push past people. This wasn’t that kind of race. You had to keep up a good pace, but it was more about endurance than bursts of speed. He knew enough to pace himself. The racers who sprinted out in front now would be worn out later. He had plenty of time.

He concentrated on his footing and his pace but was startled when a small blur appeared by his feet. It was the dog! She hadn’t gone away, and now she was running alongside him! Her little legs moved fast, but she was keeping pace.

Despite himself, Dion laughed. “All right,” he told her. “If you want to come with me, you can. As long as you can keep up.”

The dog barked in response. And kept right on running.

This is fun! the little dog thought. The bright yellow man was nice after all – he’d pet her and he’d talked to her, and he’d laughed when she started running with him. She liked to run. It was nice to feel the fresh air and watch the ground speeding by beneath her feet. He seemed to like it too. So she settled in and ran with him. They ran together.

A lot of runners listened to music when they ran. Dion didn’t most of the time – he preferred to keep his eyes and ears open. But he did get lost in his thoughts. A part of his brain concentrated on his footing, and the path, and the sun overhead, and the other runners. But a lot of him just tuned out. He thought about his wife Lucja back in Edinburgh, his job, his friends, his family. It helped the time pass quickly.

He wasn’t too surprised when he glanced down at one point and didn’t see any sign of the dog. She must have got bored or tired or distracted and decided to quit. That was fine. It had been nice having someone to run with, but Dion wasn’t here to make friends, even with a dog.

He was here to compete at his best. And now that he didn’t have to worry about tripping over the dog, he picked up his pace even more.

Time to get serious about this race.

Dion wasn’t sure how much time had passed – maybe an hour, maybe two – when he noticed a shadow near his feet again. The dog was back! He hadn’t heard her return, but she fell back into step beside him like she’d never been away.

“Welcome back,” he told her, and she barked once. She didn’t seem to mind the new pace either. For such a little dog, she was fast! And she had stamina too. They’d already been out here for hours, and it was hot, with no shade around for miles. Dion didn’t mind, and apparently the dog didn’t either. That was fine. “Let’s keep moving,” he told her, and she just wagged her tail in response.

The dog stayed with him for a while after that. Then the trail led across a small creek. It was about three feet wide, and Dion jumped across without even slowing down. The dog didn’t follow though. Her legs were much too short to jump that distance. And the water that ran through the creek was much too fast for her to wade across. Instead she sat down and barked at him, like she was calling for him to stop. Then she whimpered a bit too. She sounded so sad!

Dion didn’t stop, though. He couldn’t. He had a race to run, and she wasn’t even his dog! Instead he just put her out of his mind and concentrated on running.

Dion had only covered a few feet when the barking and whimpering stopped. Then, not ten minutes later, he saw a flash of brown and the dog was back by his side again. She must have jumped the creek after all, he thought. Or somehow gone around.

Dion laughed. “Determined little thing, aren’t you?” he asked. She barked in reply.

When he reached the next checkpoint, people cheered him on. But they cheered the dog even more! “There’s that dog again!” they shouted.

The dog wagged her tail and barked happily at the people. They were excited to see her, and she was happy to see them too. Someone gave her some food, and someone else gave her some water.

But she never let the man in yellow out of her sight. There was something about him, something she really liked. He was special.

He sat for a few minutes, talking to some of the other people. But when he rose to his feet and headed out of the tent, she followed. And when he started to run again, she was right beside him.

Dion had to admire the little dog. She didn’t know when to quit! Well, neither did he. The path led up into the mountains, which was tough. Then back down, which was even tougher because he had to worry more about keeping his balance and not falling. He could feel himself getting tired, but he refused to stop or slow down. One of the other runners, Tommy Chen from Taiwan, was out in front. He was really popular, and everyone figured he’d win. He’d come in first yesterday. Another guy, Julian from Romania, had come in second. Dion had been third. Not bad for the first day and his first race back. But Tommy, Julian, and another runner, Zeng from China, were all ahead of him already. Still, Dion managed to come in a close fourth. He was happy with that. It meant he was still in third place overall.

The dog had been right beside him when he crossed the day’s finish line. Even Tommy had noticed. “That dog, man!” he told Dion. “It’s been following you all day!”

“Has it had any water?” one of the volunteers asked.

Dion frowned. “I have no idea,” he admitted. “Maybe it drank at some of the streams on the way.” Someone set out a small bucket of water, and the dog practically attacked it. Dion felt a little bad about that. Still, it wasn’t like she was his dog.

When he started to move away, the dog looked up from the water. Then she trotted over to him. And that was that. She followed him to the tent he’d been assigned for the race and went inside with him. He’d brought an inflatable mattress with him – normally he wouldn’t have, because you had to carry all of your own gear, but he hadn’t wanted to risk hurting his leg again. Now the dog watched as he blew it up, then hopped up onto it as soon as Dion sat down.

Shaking his head, Dion pulled out a packet of nuts and dried meat. You had to carry your own food too. He was about to pop a piece of meat in his mouth when he stopped.

She was watching him intently. But she wasn’t begging. She hadn’t whimpered once, other than back at the creek. And as far as he knew, she hadn’t eaten anything all day.

“Here you go,” he said, tossing the meat in front of her. She wolfed it down and wagged her tail. Then she turned around a few times and settled down. Within seconds she was snoring, fast asleep.

“Great,” Dion muttered. “Just what I need, another roommate.” He was sharing the tent with several other runners, and three of them had stayed up all last night talking. Now he had the dog to deal with too. And she snored!

But he couldn’t bring himself to shoo her away. She’d run hard the whole day, after all. He couldn’t blame her for being tired. And if some soft snores were the worst she did all night, well, he could live with that.

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he next morning, Dion smiled down at the little dog prancing around his feet. “You ready?” he asked. She barked in reply.