Micah True, a.k.a Caballo Blanco
On March 27, 2012, Micah True, a.k.a Caballo Blanco, an ultra-running legend and inspiration to potentially millions of runners set out from the Wilderness Lodge in Gila, New Mexico for what was supposed to be a routine 12-hour run through the Gila National Forest on trails that were apparently well-known by Caballo. When he still hadn’t arrived by that night — and missing a trip to Phoenix — the owners of the lodge notified authorities and news quickly spread through Twitter and Facebook. By the next day, dozens of people were combing through the Gila Wilderness looking for Caballo Blanco, including Christopher McDougall, Scott Jurek, Kyle Skaggs, and other well-known people in the running community — a testament to how many lives he affected during his life. Unfortunately, on March 31, 2012, Caballo Blanco’s lifeless body was found and the running community had to begin the process of mourning one of our own.
I can almost assuredly say that the news of his disappearance and subsequent death are the only time I’ve ever called friends and family members to inform them about the death of a “celebrity” that I had never personally met. If you’ve read my review on Born to Run, you know how that book has inspired me and changed my life. Without the story of Caballo Blanco and what he was doing with the Tarahumara, Christopher McDougall would not have had such a thrilling story to tell and I’d likely have stopped running again, after enduring shin splints and other injuries that would limit me to three miles or less per run, and I never would have learned to love running and why to love running. Simply put, Caballo Blanco inspired me and changed my life for the better, and I will always be grateful to him for that.
Rest in peace, Micah True.
