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

She’d been curled up beside him when he woke up this morning. “You know what you’ve got to do now, don’t you?” Richard, one of the other runners, asked him.

“What?” Dion replied.

Richard had smiled. “You’ve got to give her a name.”

Dion had groaned at that. She wasn’t his dog! But she did seem to have attached herself to him. And he couldn’t just keep thinking of her as “dog”. Richard was right. She needed a name. But what name?

It should be short, he thought; long names just got shortened anyway. It should be fun and playful but not silly. It should suit her. And it should have something to do with the race, maybe.

Then he had it. Part of this race led through the Gobi Desert. And that was the perfect name for her. Gobi.

Gobi was excited. Now she had a name! And the man had given it to her! And he’d fed her and let her curl up beside him to sleep. This was so great!

And now it was daytime again, the sun was out, and it was nice and warm, and they were about to run some more! She couldn’t wait!

She was so excited she actually wandered away for a little bit. There were lots of other runners, and many of them said hi to her and petted her. Some even fed her or gave her water. It was really nice.

But once the race got underway, Gobi went looking for one runner in particular. A tall one all in yellow. She found him after a little bit, and he smiled when he saw her.

Then they started running together again.

Dion was surprised at how happy he was to see Gobi return. He’d thought she’d got tired of him or found her owner, or something else. But here she was, running alongside him like she’d never left.

Today’s race led through a bunch of boulders. The footing was tricky because the rocks shifted around beneath your feet. You had to be careful if you didn’t want to get hurt.

Dion slowed a little as he reached the boulders. Gobi didn’t. She was light enough that she could leap from rock to rock without a problem.

Julien was the same way. Dion had seen him leap from rock to rock the day before. Today Dion had made sure to be in front before they got to the boulders, because he knew he’d lose some time once they reached that section. Sure enough, he soon heard Julien coming up behind him.

But when Dion got to the top of the pile, he stopped. He could see for miles from up here. There was the next checkpoint, way ahead, just past a small village. There was the starting line, way behind them. There was the path from here to the village – it was nice and flat and straight, and they’d been running on that until the markers had led them up here.

And there was one runner, flying down another path.

It was Tommy.

“Whoa,” Julien said from beside Dion. “Not right.”

When Dion reached the checkpoint, he stopped and found one of the race organisers. “Tommy somehow skipped that whole rocky section back there. I don’t know if he did it deliberately or not, but it’s not fair.”

The woman raised her eyebrows. “We’ll look into it,” she said.

Dion still wasn’t sure the organizer believed them, but he’d done all he could do. Time to get back in the race.

Tommy was way ahead, but the race path curved a bit. At one point, he and Dion were maybe half a mile apart.

Dion assumed Tommy had seen him and would slow down but Tommy continued running fast ahead and didn’t stop for Dion so that they could run together as they had before Tommy had gone another way.

Dion tried to catch Tommy. The gap was too big, though. All that happened was that Dion wore himself out, and Julien shot past him.

Dion was mad at himself. He’d had this problem before. He got angry, and then he got careless. During his first ultra race he’d got so angry he’d actually quit the race partway through. He was starting to feel that same way now. Usually his wife was there to help him get over his anger, but she was back in Scotland. Dion was all alone.

Then he glanced down at Gobi, still running beside him. He smiled. No, he wasn’t alone. And having that little dog there was enough to take his mind off chasing Tommy down – and everything else. Just having Gobi with him was enough to keep Dion going.

This race wasn’t over yet.

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obi was happy. The sky was clear, the weather was warm, the ground was firm beneath her feet, and she and the man were running together. From time to time he would look over at her and smile. The warmth of that smile was even brighter than the sun beating down on them, but in a good way. It filled Gobi up.

Then she heard a strange rushing sound up ahead. What was that? Whatever it was, it was getting closer!

Dion heard it before he saw it. It was the rapid beat of running water. He could tell from the noise that this wasn’t another creek. No, this was something a whole lot bigger and faster. Sure enough, as he topped the next rise, he spotted a broad expanse ahead. It was a river! Dion had no idea how deep it was, but the race markers led right across, so he had to assume he’d be able to make it across as well.

With a sigh, he shifted his bag higher on to his back. All of his food was in there – if that got wet, he’d be in real trouble. Fortunately his clothes were made to dry quickly, and he had covers over his shoes that kept out pebbles and things, and also made them reasonably waterproof. That was all he could do.

Drawing a deep breath, he took a careful step into the water. It was surprisingly cold considering how warm the day was, and he sank down up to his waist, but that was it. At least the riverbed seemed solid. He could make his way across, he just had to go slowly. One wrong step and he’d get completely wet. Plus he could hurt himself since he couldn’t see where he was putting his feet. This was going to take a while.

Gobi watched as the man plunged into the water. She wagged her tail, but he didn’t look her way. He was clearly busy concentrating. She sat down just beside the water and watched. Surely he would turn around and notice that she wasn’t with him. But several minutes passed, and he got further and further away. Finally Gobi couldn’t take it any longer. She began anxiously running up and down the river bank. Was the man going to leave her?

At the sound of her bark, Dion stopped. He always made a point of facing forward, always forward, during a race. There was no point in looking behind you, after all. It was just about what lay ahead. But this time he did glance back. Gobi was sitting at the river’s edge, barking and whining, anxious that Dion was going to leave her. It was the same thing she’d done at the creek the day before. She made it across that somehow, Dion told himself. She can do the same here.

Except this wasn’t the same. The creek had been only a few feet wide, and not much deeper than his ankles. This was at least a hundred feet across and waist-deep on him. There was no way the little dog could cross that on her own, not unless she knew how to swim. And if she could swim, wouldn’t she already be doing that?

Not my problem, Dion told himself. He was here for the race. That was it. He hadn’t asked for Gobi to follow him. That was on her.

But he’d fed her. And given her water. And named her. And he had to admit, he liked having her with him. She lifted his spirits.

And right now, listening to her whimper and whine as he left her behind nearly broke his heart.

“Oh, fine!” Dion declared at last. Turning carefully, he started to make his way back. The second she saw him turn around, Gobi was on her feet, tail wagging furiously, her whimpers changing to happy barks.

He was coming back! Gobi was ecstatic! She barked with joy and even pranced in circles as she waited for the man to reach her.

When he was close enough, Dion reached out one long arm and scooped Gobi up off the ground. Then he hugged her to his chest. The little dog lifted her head and licked his cheek, which tickled. Dion laughed.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome,” he told her. “Now let’s get going, okay? Just try not to squirm too much. This is going to be tough as it is.”

And it was. Before, Dion had kept his arms out for balance. Now one of them was clutching Gobi instead. That meant he only had one arm free. He had to go even more slowly and more carefully than before. And he still slipped a few times, though never enough to go completely underwater.

Through it all, Gobi was amazingly good. She didn’t struggle at all. She didn’t bark. She didn’t whimper. She just snuggled up against his chest and watched as they slowly inched their way across the river.

Once they’d reached the other side, Dion set her down. She quickly circled him, barking and wagging her tail. Then she nipped at his shoes.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re going,” he agreed. He was tired from the river crossing, but he knew he couldn’t stop now. Especially not with Tommy already so far ahead.

Remembering what Tommy had done earlier was enough to make Dion mad all over again. But this time, instead of frustrating him, that anger gave him strength.

“Let’s go,” he told Gobi. “Let’s see what we can do to cut down his lead.”