Leonard - Finding Gobi (Main Edition): The True Story of a Little Dog and an Incredible Journey

This is a work of nonfiction. The events and experiences detailed herein are all true and have been faithfully rendered as remembered by the author, to the best of his ability, or as they were told to the author by people who were present. Others have read the manuscript and confirmed its rendering of events. However, in certain instances names of individuals have been changed.

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First published in the UK by HarperCollinsPublishers 2017

FIRST EDITION

Dion Leonard 2017

Cover layout design Claire Ward HarperCollinsPublishers 2017

Cover photograph Jasper James 2017

All photographs used with permission. Photographs from the 2013 and 2014 Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon are courtesy of KAEM; photographer Hermien Webb.

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Dion Leonard asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

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Source ISBN: 9780008227951

Ebook Edition June 2017 ISBN: 9780008227975

Version 2017-05-16

For my wife, Lucja.

Without your endless support, dedication, and

love, this never would have been possible.

Contents

The camera crew finished up last night. Someone from the publisher arrives tomorrow. I can still feel the jet lag and other side effects of forty-one hours of travel in my body. So Lucja and I have already decided to make this, our first run of the year, an easy one. Besides, its not just the two of us we need to think about. Theres Gobi to consider.

We take it easy as we pass the pub, drop down beside Holyrood Palace, and see the clear blue sky give way to the grassy mountain that dominates Edinburghs skyline. Arthurs Seat. Ive run up there more times than I can remember, and I know it can be brutal. The wind can be so strong in your face that it pushes you back. The hail can bite into your skin like knives. On days like those, I crave the 120-degree heat of the desert.

But today theres no wind or hail. Theres nothing brutal about the air as we climb, as if the mountain wants to show itself off in all its cloudless glory.

As soon as we hit the grass, Gobi is transformed. This dog thats small enough for me to carry under one arm is turned into a raging lion as she pulls forward up the slope.

Wow! says Lucja. Look at her energy!

Before I can say anything, Gobi turns around, tongue lolling out, eyes bright, ears forward, chest puffed. Its as if she understands exactly what Lucjas said.

You havent seen anything yet, I say, pushing the pace up a bit in an attempt to loosen the strain on the leash. She was just like this back in the mountains.

We push farther up, closer to the summit. Im thinking how, even though I named her after a desert, I first saw Gobi on the cold, rugged slopes of the Tian Shan. Shes a true climber, and with every step we take, she comes more and more alive. Soon her tail is wagging so fast it blurs, her whole body bouncing and pulsing with pure joy. When she looks back again, I swear shes grinning. Come on! she says. Lets go!

At the top, I soak in all the familiar sights. The whole of Edinburgh is spread out beneath us, and beyond it is the Forth Bridge, the hills of Lomond, and the West Highland Way, every one of whose ninety-six miles I have run. I can see North Berwick, too, a full marathon distance away. I love the run along the beach, even on the tough days when the wind is trying to batter me down and every mile feels like a battle all its own.

Its been more than four months since Ive been here. While its all familiar, theres something different about it as well.

Gobi.

She decides its time to descend and drags me down the hill. Not down the path, but straight down. I leap over tufts of grass and rocks the size of suitcases, Lucja keeping pace beside me. Gobi navigates them all with skill. Lucja and I look at each other and laugh, enjoying the moment we have longed for, to be a family and finally able to run together.

Running isnt usually this fun. In fact, for me, running is never fun. Rewarding and satisfying, maybe, but not laugh-out-loud fun. Not like it is now.

Gobi wants to keep running, so we let her lead. She takes us wherever she wants to go, sometimes back up the mountain, sometimes down. Theres no training plan and no pre-mapped route. There are no worries either. No concerns. Its a carefree moment, and for that and so much more, Im grateful.

After the last six months, I feel like I need it.

Ive faced things I never thought Id face, all because of this little blur of brown fur thats pulling my arm out of its socket. Ive faced fear like Ive never known before. Ive felt despair as well, the sort that turns the air around you stale and lifeless. Ive faced death.

But thats not the whole story. Theres so much more.

The truth is that this little dog has changed me in ways I think Im only just beginning to understand. Maybe Ill never fully understand it all.

Yet I do know this: finding Gobi was one of the hardest things Ive ever done in my life.

But being found by herthat was one of the best things.

I stepped through the airport doors and out into China. I paused and let the chaos take a good hard whack at my senses. A thousand revving engines in the car park ahead did battle with a thousand voices around me as people shouted at their phones.

The signs were written in both Chinese script and what looked to me like Arabic. I couldnt read either language, so I joined the crush of bodies that I guessed were waiting for a taxi. I stood a foot taller than most people, but as far as they were concerned, I was invisible.

I was in Urumqi, a sprawling city in Xinjiang Province, way up in the top left corner of China. No city in the world is as far from an ocean as Urumqi, and as wed flown in from Beijing, I watched the terrain shift from razor-sharp snow-capped mountains to vast stretches of empty desert. Somewhere down there a team of race organizers had plotted a 155-mile route that took in those freezing peaks, the incessant wind, and that desolate, lifeless scrubland known as the Gobi Desert. I was going to run across it, knocking out a little less than a marathon a day for four days, then almost two marathons on the fifth day, and an hour-long sprint for the final six-mile stage that would bring the race to a close.

These races are called multi-stage ultras, and its hard to think of a more brutal test of mental and physical toughness. People like me pay thousands of pounds for the privilege of putting ourselves through pure agony, shedding up to 10 per cent of our body weight in the process, but its worth it. We get to run in some of the remotest and most picturesque parts of the world, and we have the safety net of a dedicated support crew and highly trained medical crew on our side. Sometimes these challenges can be excruciating, but theyre also life changing, and reaching the finish line is one of lifes most rewarding experiences.