A marathon runner decides to adopt the stray dog that accompanied him for over 155 miles (100 km) during the race
When in life you are a professional marathon runner, it is customary to run up and down endless roads and to see the most interesting and curious scenes.
Rarely, however, does it happen that a marathon runner is the subject of one of these curious scenes unless there is someone who has decided to specifically "target" and interact act with them ...
This is what happened to Dion Leonard, a Scottish ultra-marathon runner who participated in the Gobi March China, in June 2016 -- a race of 250 km (155 miles) which takes place over a period of 7 days.
During the second of these days, while Dion was running, he met a stray dog that started following him as he ran and that continued to accompany him until together they crossed the finish line!
Among all of the 102 marathon participants, the stray dog decided to follow Dion and managed by itself to run half of the entire route.
Between the two a special bond was born and they even spent their rest time together.
Once they had crossed the finish line, Dion decided to leave the dog in the care of a local person. He then started a crowdfunding project that would allow him to pay the medical and insurance expenses needed to export the stray dog to Scotland.
The little dog was given the name Gobi (of course!); the monetary target that Dion had set for his fundraising campaign has already more than doubled and the marathon runner said that the extra money would be donated to various animal protection associations in Scotland and around the world.
Now Dion and Gobi, just have to wait until all the necessary checks have been carried out and it is hoped that by Christmas this tireless dog can rejoin the master who she found and chose for herself!
