In June 2016, “Australian-born Mr Leonard,” as BBC News called him, ran the Gobi March, “a 250km (155 mile) run across the Gobi desert.” The Associated Press described “a 155-mile race across desert dunes, over mountains and through yurt villages in the remote autonomous region of Xinjiang in northwestern China,” and Canadian Running wrote that “The race’s six stages are run over a span of seven days.” It was, Trail Runner wrote, “a race Leonard badly wanted to win.” “I was there to compete and win the race, I wasn’t there to look after a little dog,” he told China Daily.
“It was June 20, 2016. At the start line, Leonard was running through his final gear check, when he noticed a small dog trying to chew on his gaiters,” Trail Runner wrote. “He shooed away the stray. The dog was unfazed and jumped back to renew its attack on the gaiters.” “I started to speed off and I’m thinking this dog won’t last the whole day but she was still with me at the end,” Leonard told BBC News, and “From then on she didn’t leave my side.” “The mutt had run the entire stage,” Trail Runner wrote.
“During the next day’s stage, Gobi was again trotting alongside. Then, 55 miles into the race, the two came to a river crossing so wide and deep that it proved impossible for the little dog,” Trail Runner wrote. In his book, quoted there, Leonard wrote: “I was a quarter way across the river, when I finally did what I had never done in a race before. I turned around”; “I ran back as best I could, tucked her under my left arm, and waded back out into the cold water.” “Gobi kept pace with Leonard for nearly 80 miles in 100-plus degree heat,” the AP reported, and “Leonard asked organizers to let her ride in the car on some of the competition’s hottest days,” China Daily wrote. Leonard “went on to finish second in the 250-kilometer race,” Trail Runner wrote.
“I made Gobi a promise and told her I was going to bring her to the UK,” he told BBC News. “Mr Leonard had left China after the race, leaving Gobi with a friend, while he organised the medical tests and quarantine procedures to take the dog home with him to Scotland,” BBC News reported. She was “being looked after in Urumqi, China when on Aug. 15 she escaped through an open door,” Global News wrote, in “a city of three million people,” as China Daily put it. Leonard “flew back to Urumqi to begin a search, giving out flyers and posting on social media,” BBC News reported, and “A weeks-long needle-in-the-haystack search of the city followed. Leonard even recruited volunteers,” Trail Runner wrote. BBC News wrote that “his hopes began fading after they failed to find a lead for five days.”
Then “he received a call from a local Chinese man on Wednesday night, who had seen Gobi at the local park,” BBC News reported. “A local person had seen all the posters and the TV work and was walking his dog when he spotted Gobi and he called me,” Leonard said. “When we got there, I walked through the door and she came running towards me and ran around my legs and jumped up on me. It was love again at immediate sight.” After that, the AP wrote, “Together they waited out 90 days of quarantine in a dank Beijing apartment,” and on January 5, 2017, BBC News reported: “Gobi finally joined Mr Leonard in flying back to Scotland on Tuesday.” He later told the story in his book, Finding Gobi. “But she chose me,” he told China Daily.
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- He came to win a desert race, but a stray dog wouldn’t leave him. Trail Runner: “impacting a race Leonard badly wanted to win.” His words, in China Daily: “I was there to compete and win the race, I wasn’t there to look after a little dog.” His words, in BBC News: “From then on she didn’t leave my side.” 451
- His name is Dion Leonard. BBC News: “Australian-born Mr Leonard”; “the ultra-marathoner.” 1
- In June 2016, he raced across China’s Gobi Desert. BBC News: “a 250km (155 mile) run across the Gobi desert in June.” The Associated Press: “a 155-mile race across desert dunes, over mountains and through yurt villages in the remote autonomous region of Xinjiang in northwestern China.” Canadian Running: “Gobi March 2016, an ultramarathon in China, in mid-June”; “The race’s six stages are run over a span of seven days.” 237
- At the start line on June 20, a little stray kept chewing his gaiters. Trail Runner: “It was June 20, 2016. At the start line, Leonard was running through his final gear check, when he noticed a small dog trying to chew on his gaiters”; “He shooed away the stray. The dog was unfazed and jumped back to renew its attack on the gaiters.” 4
- “I was there to compete and win the race,” he said. China Daily: “I was there to compete and win the race, I wasn’t there to look after a little dog,” Leonard said. 5
- But she ran the whole stage beside him. Trail Runner: “The mutt had run the entire stage.” His words, in BBC News: “I started to speed off and I’m thinking this dog won’t last the whole day but she was still with me at the end.” 41
- Then they hit a river too deep for her. Trail Runner: “During the next day’s stage, Gobi was again trotting alongside. Then, 55 miles into the race, the two came to a river crossing so wide and deep that it proved impossible for the little dog.” 4
- Already wading across, he turned back. His book, in Trail Runner: “I was a quarter way across the river, when I finally did what I had never done in a race before. I turned around.” 4
- He tucked her under his arm and carried her through the cold water. His book, in Trail Runner: “I ran back as best I could, tucked her under my left arm, and waded back out into the cold water.” 4
- She ran nearly 80 miles with him, and he finished second. The Associated Press: “Gobi kept pace with Leonard for nearly 80 miles in 100-plus degree heat”; “after Leonard came in second.” Trail Runner: “he went on to finish second in the 250-kilometer race.” China Daily: “ran 124 kilometers.” 345
- But while he arranged her trip home, she vanished in Urumqi. BBC News: “Mr Leonard had left China after the race, leaving Gobi with a friend, while he organised the medical tests and quarantine procedures to take the dog home with him to Scotland.” Global News: “being looked after in Urumqi, China when on Aug. 15 she escaped through an open door.” 16
- He flew back and searched the city with volunteers. BBC News: “he flew back to Urumqi to begin a search, giving out flyers and posting on social media.” Trail Runner: “A weeks-long needle-in-the-haystack search of the city followed. Leonard even recruited volunteers.” 14
- Then a man walking his dog spotted her in a park. BBC News: “he received a call from a local Chinese man on Wednesday night, who had seen Gobi at the local park.” His words: “A local person had seen all the posters and the TV work and was walking his dog when he spotted Gobi and he called me.” 1
- “She came running towards me,” he said. His words, in BBC News: “When we got there, I walked through the door and she came running towards me and ran around my legs and jumped up on me. It was love again at immediate sight.” 1
- In January 2017, she finally came home to Edinburgh. BBC News (January 5, 2017): “Gobi finally joined Mr Leonard in flying back to Scotland on Tuesday.” His words: “Today we went for a run at Arthur’s Seat …” 2
- “She chose me,” he said. His words, in China Daily: “But she chose me.” To the Associated Press: “It was definitely fate, and I’m so glad that she chose me.” 53
Sources
- Finding Gobi: Runner reunited with marathon companion dog (August 25, 2016) BBC News
- Gobi marathon runner returns to Edinburgh with dog (January 5, 2017) BBC News
- Man’s best friend lost, then found after a desert trot (Leanne Italie, July 2, 2017) The Associated Press, on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser
- Getting to Know Gobi (Doug Mayer, April 23, 2020, with excerpts from Leonard’s book Finding Gobi) Trail Runner
- Book about stray dog’s marathon journey to be published in Mandarin (Angus McNeice, October 3, 2017) China Daily
- #BringGobiHome: Stray dog adopted by ultra-marathoner lost, then found (August 25, 2016) Global News
- Stray dog bonds with ultrarunner and joins him for much of 250K race (Tim Huebsch, August 1, 2016) Canadian Running
Notes
How far she ran: the AP says “nearly 80 miles”; China Daily says she “ran 124 kilometers” (77 miles). The Short says “nearly eighty miles.”
Which day she found him: the Short says “On day two.” Trail Runner puts it at the start line on “June 20, 2016,” with the river on “the next day’s stage,” but the sources quoted here don’t number the day, so this page gives the date.
Six or seven days: the race’s “six stages are run over a span of seven days” (Canadian Running); Trail Runner calls it a six-day race, and the AP and China Daily a seven-day race.
Did helping her cost him the win? China Daily wrote that he “relinquished his chances of winning the race when he chose to turn back and help Gobi over several river crossings”; Trail Runner wrote that “the decision wasn’t critical to the podium order.” The Short says only that he turned back, carried her and finished second.
The search: BBC News says “five days” without a lead after he arrived, the AP “About 10 days after Gobi disappeared,” and Trail Runner “weeks-long.” The Short gives no number.
Who was looking after her: “a friend” (BBC News), “a person in the race community” (AP), “foster parents” (Trail Runner), “a caretaker” (China Daily). No one is named here, and neither is the man who found her.
Quarantine: “90 days of quarantine in a dank Beijing apartment” (AP); Global News says 120 days.
Dion Leonard is alive. Only his published words, including excerpts from his book Finding Gobi, and reporting by major outlets are used. Nothing is told here beyond the race, the search, her homecoming in January 2017 and his book; his family, his private life and where he and Gobi are today are left out.
Pictures: no free photo shows the 2016 race, the river crossing, the search or the reunion; every picture of them we found is a race organizer’s or press photo, a poster or Leonard’s own social-media post, so none is used. Dion Leonard is with Gobi on a leash at Tianchi (Heavenly Lake) in the Tian Shan near Urumqi in September 2016, after she was found (Dionandlucja), and at the finish of the Kalahari Extreme 250 km race in South Africa on October 25, 2013, another desert race, not the Gobi March (RunningDutchie). The places are from other years: the Barkol Shan, in the eastern Tian Shan in Hami prefecture, Xinjiang, in February 2007 (B Aichner); dunes of the Kumtag Desert near Shanshan, eastern Xinjiang, on June 30, 2026 (CatOnMars); a river on the outskirts of Turpan on August 7, 2017, not the race’s river crossing, and a street in Urumqi’s Saybagh District and People’s Park in Urumqi on August 5, 2017, not the park where Gobi was found, which the reports don’t name (Radosław Botev, Fundacja Nomos); the Urumqi skyline from Hong Shan in July 2019 (Albertaont); and Edinburgh from Arthur’s Seat on May 3, 2025 (4300streetcar).
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 1 'Of Foreign Lands and Peoples (Musopen, public domain); Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition: IV. Bydlo (piano) (Musopen, public domain); Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 'From the New World': II. Largo (Musopen, public domain).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
.jpg){kind=link}
