Mangum Track Club Shirt Run (15 miles) 2010

By: Jason Rose

One of the most enthusiastic members of the Mangum Track Club is a good-looking young lady by the name of Dakota. I’ve never seen so much impatience and exuberance in the early morning hours. By 7 am Saturday morning, she was anxiously trying to get everyone  going by running around from person to person and making quite a racket. How could she have so much energy you ask? Well, she’s a boxer-black lab mix and yes, she is a member of MTC. This is not her first shirt run and I’m sure it won’t be her last. Any track club that allows dogs in is good in my book. Complete the shirt run, get a shirt, join the club. Simple as that. For those of you that don’t know, MTC was started by 5 guys out in the sticks of Central Carolina in the late 80’s. They made up shirts that said “Mangum Track Club”….one of the guys’ significant others asked for a shirt. They said she would have to complete the 15-mile point-to-point run in order to get a shirt. She did, and the shirt run was born. Its a roughly bi-annual occurrence, welcoming new members to the tune of almost 40 runners for the Spring 2010 version.

Leo and Landon graciously drove up and I tagged along. After fighting with the GPS in the dark, we eventually found the meeting point. Apparently, those fancy satellites have a hard time finding an old broken down 8 foot square hunting dog pen out in the middle of nowhere. Once everybody was at the meeting point (this is also the finish), we are shuttled out to the start point 15 miles away. Early on it’s rather disconcerting that a lot of the drive is downhill. The 40 newbies plus the 20 vets gathered at the intersection of Hwy 109 and nowhere and with little fanfare; Mark the organizer told everyone to start running. Fitting: no timing chips, no starting gun, not even a bugel (Frosty 50). Fresh off my hernia discovery, I set off for what would be a long, lazy run so I won’t bore you with much of my details. Camera in hand, I wanted to get my money’s worth (it’s free for newcomers).

Ran with Landon for a little while before I told her to go on ahead. Leo and his broken foot served as a mobile crew/support/camera. Along the 15 miles, there are also 3 water drops where runners can get water or refuel their bottles. Early on in the race, I saw a blind man running stride-for-stride with his pacer, attached at the wrists by some kind of blind running device (The BRDW1 as I would come to find out). I didn’t see him after the first couple miles- he was long gone ahead of me. Dakota the Lab-Boxer must’ve run about 20 miles total as she would run up, then back, then repeat said process while her owner kept a steady pace. I ended up running solo some but eventually spent the last half of the race with a 12 year old kid that had never run farther than a 10-k before; it was pretty cool seeing him finish the thing 15 miles later. All of the course is 2-lane country road without much traffic, so you have your pick of the asphalt most of the time. There are some long, peaceful stretches and several long, uphill stretches. Not sure, but the thing has to be a net uphill (thankfully, the last couple miles are downhill.) Encountered some picture-worthy items along the way, such as the random graveyard along the route. Not as disconcerting as Cagle Grave Road though, which apparently is a winding gravel road off the main road marked “No Outlet”. I did not venture down Cagle Grave Road.

Arriving at the finish 2 hours and 37 minutes later was not that bad as the pizza arrived about 5 minutes after I did. Landon had already slapped her “MTC” sticker on their SUV by the time I gathered my new sticker and shirt and exchanged congrats with members new and old. Amidst the pizza-fest, I noticed the blind man and went up to talk to him. He introduced himself as Ivan Castro. The Ivan Castro (he didn’t say that part). Inspirational miracle of a man, and as I type this I can’t help but note that it took me so long to summarize this race but I do so now on Memorial Day Weekend. A holiday meant to honour those who gave their lives for our comfortable freedom back home. Capt Castro as you may already know is the only blind active special forces member in the Army. He lost both his eyes to a close-proximity mortar blast a couple years ago in the Middle East that by all rights should have killed him, and nearly did. Sometimes we see blind people who adapt remarkably well to their surroundings and are at peace with it; often it seems they are those who were born blind and know no other. Capt Castro lived an athletic lifestyle for almost 40 years before losing his vision and to see this man doing what he is currently doing is remarkable. His outlook on life is one that I can only hope to emulate just a little bit. I asked him about running and he said it’s easier than skiing- someone has to tell him when to turn there! Yes, this man will ski down a mountain without seeing any of it! He even said he drives some if the co-pilot is brave enough. I’m not sure whether he was kidding about this, but I lean toward not. A couple extra dings on an army jeep are probably not a big deal to him in the whole scheme of things. I ask about the device I saw on his wrist as he ran. “Oh, that,” he remarks “is the BRD Whiskey 1″. Blind-running-device, white shoelace version 1.0. Gotta love the Army acronyms. After chatting with him and his crew for a little while, we said our goodbyes, and I felt honoured to have run with Ivan. A “Thank You” is the least I could say for Ivan and countless others like him that defend our country no matter what the suits may say back in Washington.

I’d highly recommend the “Shirt Run”. An easy hour drive, great company, peaceful route, good food and of course, a shirt you will find nowhere else.