The Race

Today; overcast no running

Today was Gary’s workday so I thought I should talk a little about the race.  It is called the Ultra Caballo Blanco www.ultracb.com/‎, named after a man who lived in the Copper Canyon in Mexico (and in Boulder CO and California and even Hawaii).  He went by Micah True and he fell in with the native people there; the Ramamuri, although most of us know them as the Tarahumara.  The first race was probably nothing short of a miracle. Micah had seen them run and win in Leadville, Colorado and wanted to see them race against United State elite here on their own turf.  He wrote and goaded some of the best to come and race against them.  Some hardy souls did and it sparked interest in the running world.  There is a book, Born to Run by Christopher McDougall that talks about it.  I don’t know how well received the book  in the running world but it did help to catch attention to the amazing abilities of these people.  I suspect Christopher, like most writers, doesn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.  But after taking a few creative non-fiction courses I realize that is not frowned upon in the literary world.  Micah came up with a great solution to keeping some of the profits in the community. When you run, if you complete the race, you are given a voucher for 500 pounds of corn.  When Gary mentions that part people seem perplexed; the idea of the race is crazy or if the idea of running 50 miles for 500 pounds of corn that stay’s in the little town is worse.  But Gary doesn’t mind; he just wants to run with these people.

The race is 50 miles in the bottom of the Copper Canyon; up hills and dirt roads, with aid stations that hand out fresh oranges and bananas.  This year it sounds like there will be about 250 out of country racers alongside the 400 Raramuri.  A few days before there will be race for the Raramuri children, they are expecting about 400, and all of them will get a bag of school supplies.  (You can donate to the childrens race at http://www.ultracb.com/caballitos/

Gary has read about the Tarahumara for over forty years.  There is speculation that they were the inspiration for some of the Carlos Castaneda books in the 70’s and what good hippie didn’t have one in their library?  Gary wasn’t so interested in those per se, he wanted to know, like he always wants to know, about the people.  What do they eat?  What to they believe in?  How do they get along with each other?  How do they deal with the land around them?  The book brought them back to the forefront in Gary’s very crowded mind.  Searches on the Internet brought You Tubes of them running and photos by Luis Escobar of people with kind, wise faces. 

Gary dreamt about the race, but he is a practical man.  Money has never been a strong point in our life; we are healthy, live in a great spot and have a rare love…that makes us pretty wealthy in our minds’ eyes.  It was a serendipitous meeting with old friends of whom the man runs, that started the foundation under Gary’s dream.  Bit by bit, encouraged by friends we have moved forward.  Now we are going; it is scary and exciting and a far cry from our normal, almost 60 year old lives…