For local ultra-runner and Durango north City Market store manager Steve Collins, the upcoming screening of the film “Run Free: The True Story of Caballo Blanco” at the Smiley Building is especially poignant.
The film does not only document the life of the legendary and enigmatic runner Micah True – better known as Caballo Blanco – who inspired Collins and countless others to run far and run long after Christopher McDougall profiled him in the 2009 best-selling book Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.
The film, like the book, also documents the race that Caballo Blanco founded – the 53-mile Copper Canyon Ultra-Marathon – to honor the running traditions of the Tarahumara people of northern Mexico, some of the best long-distance runners in the world.
The first time Collins ran the Copper Canyon Ultra-Marathon was in 2013. It was his very first 50-miler. He loved the canyon scenery and the camaraderie he discovered among his fellow ultra-runners, but the thing that really stood out about the experience was running through fields of marijuana controlled by the local drug cartel.
When he returned to compete in the race for a second time in 2014, not long after Coloradans had voted to legalize recreational marijuana, the pot plants had been replaced with fields of poppies.
This year, Collins didn’t have a chance to see whether the poppy fields were still there. In the days leading up to what would have been the 13th running of the race, cartel violence tore through the village of Urique (where the race is based), ultimately leading to its cancellation.
Rumors of a cartel-style execution in Urique reached Collins and fellow runners before they even got to town. Then, as Collins tells it, on the day before the race, the cartel came back, disarmed the police and kidnapped the police chief and a teenage boy as his mother screamed, “Don’t take him! He’s my son!” The two are presumed dead.
Race organizers opted to cancel the race the next morning after a grenade was thrown in the neighboring town of Guapalina.
“We decided that we were not going to run in violence. We were not going to support violent acts,” Collins said. “Running is a peaceful act.”
Urique was on lockdown as Collins and his fellow runners hastily departed. As they drove out of Copper Canyon, they passed two Mexican military trucks filled with men in masks heading the opposite direction – one with an M-60 machine gun mounted on top, the other with an automatic grenade launcher.
Collins said he feels terrible for the local people in Copper Canyon who have to endure this kind of violence. “They are peaceful people,” he said.
If he were still alive today, Caballo Blanco – the White Horse – surely would be horrified and saddened by what is happening to his beloved friends in his beloved Copper Canyon. He moved to the remote area of Chihuahua in the 1990s to live and run with the Tarahumara, and he created the Copper Canyon Ultra-Marathon not only to honor their running traditions, but also to aid in their sustainability.
The race that he founded has become as legendary as Caballo Blanco himself. Each year, it attracts hundreds of local Tarahumara to Urique to compete alongside some of the best runners in the world. All race finishers receive 500 pounds of corn, which the international runners traditionally donate to the local people, commemorating the spirit of sharing, or “kórima,” which is a way of life among the natives of Copper Canyon.
“Run Free” is directed by Sterling Noren, a filmmaker from Seattle who met Micah True in 2009. Most of the material for the film was recorded in the weeks leading up to the 2012 race.
Shortly after that race, True disappeared during his daily run in the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico. His body was recovered several days later, found by some of his friends on a trail in a deserted canyon.
“Micah’s genuine passion for honoring the sacred running traditions of the Tarahumara people was the essence of his being,” said Maria Walton, executive producer of “Run Free” and True’s girlfriend at the time of his death. “We made this film to share Micah’s vision of hope for the Tarahumara culture and empower people everywhere with his joy of running.”
Sponsored by Saucony, the film debuted in Boston last week in conjunction with the Boston Marathon and already is making waves. It was named winner of the prestigious Award of Excellence from the IndieFEST Film Awards.
Collins is eager to see what it is all about. “I will definitely be there,” he said. “But there are far better runners than me in Durango.” For example, he points to local legend Jen Shelton, who knew Caballo Blanco and also was featured in Born to Run. “I don’t win races. I’m just a store manager who runs,” he said.
If you go
“Run Free: The True Story of Caballo Blanco,” a 90-minute documentary about ultra-running legend Micah True, makes its Durango premiere at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Smiley Building, 1309 East Third Ave. The one-night-only event is sponsored by the Durango Running Club.
Tickets are $11 in advance at www.imathlete.com/events/runfree or $15 at the door.
For more information about the film, visit www.runfreemovie.com.
