Stray dog wins hearts and new home — after following man through 155-mile ultramarathon

It’s still unclear how or why the scrappy, apricot-colored dog with pointy ears showed up to the starting line of the 155-mile ultramarathon in June. The closest village was several miles away, and all that lay ahead was the vast, unforgiving Gobi Desert.

Dion Leonard, a distance runner from Scotland, noticed the pup scampering alongside a group of American runners, but didn’t think she would last long — much less through most of the six stages of a grueling, week-long endurance race.

Until she reappeared by his side at the start line on the morning of Day 2.

“This little dog’s sort of sitting next to me, looking up like, ‘Are we going to run together today?'” Leonard told The Washington Post. “I didn’t really think that much of it. I thought, let’s see how long this dog lasts.”

The dog, whom he soon nicknamed Gobi, followed him through all 23 miles that day, climbing nearly 20,000 feet in elevation as they crossed the Tian Shan range and journeyed into the Gobi Desert. At times, she would charge ahead of Leonard, motivating him to run faster. At other points, he stopped to give her beef jerky and water from his own pack.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/08/07/stray-dog-wins-hearts-and-new-home-after-following-man-through-155-mile-ultramarathon/