Carol Nichols knew the moment she brought Leah home that she had her hands full.

“Leah has been like this ever since day one,” Nichols said as she tossed a stick for the 7-year-old chocolate Lab to return.

“I should have taken her back,” Nichols said with a laugh. 

Leah’s game of fetch was at the end of a 6½-mile run. She ran 26 miles over three days to complete a goal set by Nichols.

Nichols, 63, of Jay rode her bicycle 900 miles along the Whistle Stop Rail Trail over seven months, with Leah running beside her. 

The 14-mile, multiuse trail is a converted railroad line that runs from Livermore Falls to Farmington. Nichols lives a few houses away from the trail head and uses it year-round. 

“I come down here because this is the way she is if I don’t,” Nichols said as Leah continued to chase the stick again and again. “She is one of those dogs that you need to spend a lot of time with.”

The quest to reach 900 miles started soon after mud season ended in May.

“I was going for 500,” Nichols said. “Then in September, I had over five (hundred). I said OK, let’s go for six. In October, I said 700.”

November came, and Nichols and Leah had more than 800 miles on the Whistle Stop. “I said, ‘Let’s go for 900.'”

Leah’s exercise has come at a small cost: a third meal each day.

“I would never think of feeding her three meals a day if we were not out here,” she said. “I try to keep her as healthy as I can, and I feed her the best food that I can afford.”

“It’s always about her. That’s why I am out here,” Nichols said.

“Come tomorrow, we are taking a break,” she said as her bike odometer registered 900 miles. “It will be 902 by the time we get home. We will take a couple days’ rest, and then start running.”

Leah could not have a more compatible owner and playmate.

Nichols likes to ski and kayak. She picked up racing road bikes when she turned 50. An attention-hungry dog and a “couple of close calls” helped her call it quits. 

“She is as competitive as I am,” Nichols said of Leah, who enjoys skijoring and reached the finals of the DockDogs World Championships in July.