Manfred Schumacher, 86, rarely misses his daily walk around the track at Holmes High School in San Antonio, Texas.
He’s such a fixture that on February 16, the Holmes cross-country team surprised Schumacher with a new pair of shoes.
When Schumacher came to San Antonio 47 years ago, he would walk and run a five-mile loop surrounding the high school. Afterward, he would head to the track to do about 26 laps, or six and a half miles.
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Seven years ago, Schumacher developed peripheral neuropathy, a condition that affects the nerves in his feet. Despite that, he continued to do what he loved, putting in about three miles a day now.
“Every single morning, Monday through Sunday, he walks in lane eight with two walking sticks to keep his balance,” assistant cross-country coach Faith Barlow told Runner’s World by phone.
It wasn’t until the last year that Barlow noticed members of the team making conversation with Schumacher and getting to know him. Now, they catch up every day before practice, and Schumacher has become almost a part of the team.
A while back, Schumacher had inquired about where one of the runners, Pasquell Williams, had gotten his shoes. The team trains in Races - Places, which were given out because Faith Barlow’s dad, head coach Steve Barlow, had been a finalist for the Schumacher always uses lane eight for his daily trips around the track last year. The decision to give Schumacher a pair was a no-brainer because he used a pair of worn shoes, and Faith Barlow immediately had one of the kids grab his size from their stock.
The video of the team presenting the shoes to Schumacher is priceless:
“At first I thought, ‘how can I accept them?’ and then I thought, ‘how can I not?,’ ” Schumacher said. “I didn't expect anything like this, but it meant a lot.”
The next morning, Schumacher showed up to the track clad in his Girls’ Huskies Track T-shirt and new Ghost 9 running shoes, feeling like a whole new person.
