u/MustardGoddess
During the 2016 Gobi March ultramarathon in China, Australian runner Dion Leonard was joined by a stray dog who ended up running 77 miles of the 155-mile race alongside him. He named her Gobi and from day two on, she refused to leave his side. After the race, Leonard launched a crowdfunding campaign to bring Gobi home to Edinburgh, Scotland. What started as a £5,000 goal quickly turned into over £38,000, with the extra funds donated to stray dog charities. Gobi then went missing during quarantine, prompting Leonard to return to China for a desperate search. Against the odds, they were reunited and after completing the process, Gobi finally made it to Scotland. Leonard later shared their story in his memoir Finding Gobi (last slide), capturing a bond that turned a race into something much bigger.