The Ultra Marathon Caballo Blanco is one of the world’s most famous long-distance foot races. It’s also a story of cross-border and cross-cultural sharing, and nurturing and respect.
In the 1990s, a self-described American “trail-running bum” went to live, train and run with the runners of the Tarahumara tribe in Mexico's Copper Canyon. The ideas and information exchanged changed the fortunes of the man and the tribe, and also created one of the world’s great endurance races.
Few people, even within the small world of ultra long-distance running, recognize the name Michael Randall Hickman. Many more know him by his chosen name, Micah True. And still others know him as "El Caballo Blanco," the White Horse, the subject of Christopher McDougall's best-selling 2009 book, “Born to Run.”
The story of True and his relationship with the Tarahumara natives and the celebration of their running heritage, which led to the founding of the Copper Canyon ultramarathon, is a piece of cross-border history worth remembering.
When most of us couch potatoes and armchair fitness buffs think of running, we think of jogging. Maybe a few miles at a time, maybe as part of a regular fitness regimen. When ultrarunners think about running, they think about greater distances, up to 50, 75 or even 100 miles.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, long-distance running was not an organized sport; it was largely an obsession shared by a handful of apparent fanatics. True was one such fanatic: a person for whom running, especially long distances, was a way of life.
True was born Michael Randall Hickman in 1953 in Oakland, California. His father was a drill sergeant in the Marine Corps, and the family lived on military bases across the country.
During True’s time at Humboldt State University, where he studied Eastern religions and Native American history, he was already athletic enough to fight informal boxing matches for money, under the name "Gypsy Cowboy." Between 1974 and 1982, he boxed professionally as a middleweight, going by the name Mike "True" Hickman.
By the early ‘80s, he had changed his name to Micah True, and was living in Boulder, Colorado, where he caught the running bug. Here, he adopted the lifestyle of a “trail-running bum,” earning enough working in Boulder during the summers to spend winters in Mexico and Guatemala, where he ran 20 or more miles every day.
A chance encounter with a Tarahumara runner in Colorado led True to Mexico, where he sought to better understand the tribe’s approach to running. The Tarahumara is made up of bands scattered across the vast Copper Canyon region of Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains. The Tarahumara are also known as Raramuri, which means "runners on foot" or "those who run fast."
Because of their remote location, the Tarahumara use long-distance runners to communicate between villages. Tarahumara runners regularly cover up to 200 miles over two days in a single run.
The Tarahumara run to hunt and to convey information, but they also run in ceremonial events, most famously the Rarajipari, or ball game. The Tarahumara runners traditionally run in rope sandals called huaraches.
Once in Copper Canyon, True immersed himself in Tarahumara culture. He ate their food, traded his modern running shoes for huaraches and ran with them to learn the secrets of their physical endurance. It was in Mexico that he came to be known as Caballo Blanco.
In 2003, True organized the first Copper Canyon ultramarathon to help the Tarahumara "preserve their culture and running heritage." The ultramarathon has been held annually since March 2003. The race starts and ends in the town square of Urique in Chihuahua, Mexico, and covers about 50 miles of dirt trails.
For the 2006 race, True reached out to McDougall, a runner and a writer for Men's Health, to attract outsider runners and publicity. Top runners competed in that year’s race, including Scott Jurek and Jenn Shelton. McDougall turned his experience of the race into “Born to Run,” which brought some notoriety to True, the Tarahumara and the race itself.
The 2012 race took place on March 12, and drew the largest crowds to date, with hundreds of people, mostly local Tarahumara, showing up to compete. The race featured prize money for the top 10 finishers, and vouchers for seed corn for all runners who finished the race.
Weeks later, True disappeared during a run in the Gila National Forest in southwestern New Mexico. After a massive multi-day search, True's body was found off the trail near a stream. An autopsy indicated that True had likely suffered a heart attack and fallen off the trail while running.
After True's death, the Tarahumara changed the name of the race to Ultra Marathon Caballo Blanco, in his honor. To this day, the race draws international and local runners and supports the Tarahumara community.
True was more than a man obsessed with running. He was an informal cultural ambassador between the running culture of the Tarahumara and the outside world. His reverence and admiration for the Tarahumara and their culture transformed his life and theirs.
The story of True, the Tarahumara and the birth of the Ultra Marathon Caballo Blanco is an example of the cross-cultural exchange that has fueled many of the region's stories.
Thumbnail photo By Eli Duke - https://www.flickr.com/photos/elisfanclub/6825740460/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22984817
