Stray Dog Becomes the True Winner of 155-Mile Race After Finishing with a New Dad

Although an unlikely time and place to find a forever home, Gobi the dog proves that when it comes to adopting a dog there’s no such thing as a bad time. An unlikely setting for a friendship to be born the stray pooch met her new dad, competitive runner Dion Leonard from Scotland, during a gruelling 155-mile marathon in June that crosses some of China’s largest and harshest deserts.

Just two days into the marathon Leonard was waiting on the start line when he noticed that there was a little dog looking up at him, “I thought to myself this little dog isn’t going to last very long at my side as we raced off, but she ended up running the whole day and 23 miles distance,” he told the Dodo. When the pup couldn’t keep up either because of the extreme terrain or weather the organisers of the event would give her a lift to the next stage so she could be with Leonard.

On the final day of the marathon the two of them crossed the finishing line together and although they may not have finished first, they both found something during the race that no medal or trophy can come close to, a new friendship. Now Leonard is on a mission to adopt the pup despite the financial and bureaucratic issues and move Gobi from China to Scotland, more of which you can learn about here.

Dion Leonard was racing in a 155-mile marathon when a stray dog decided to join him

Ready for his second day of running another 23 miles he looked down at the start line to see a little dog looking back up at him

“I thought to myself this little dog isn’t going to last very long at my side as we raced off”

But it turns out the stray pooch stayed by his side for the whole day

There were times that the weather made it too difficult for Gobi to run with Leonard, so organisers offered her a lift, but on the final day the two of them crossed the finishing line together!