SAN ANTONIO – Rain or shine, you will more than likely find Manfred Schumacher in the middle of his 47-year-old routine, walking along the red-surfaced track at Holmes High School.
At 86 years old, Schumacher walks 3 miles a day, seven days a weeks.
He says he used to run 5 miles a day for 40 years but was hindered by neuropathy – a condition that occurs when the peripheral nerves become damaged or disrupted – in his feet seven years ago.
His drive to wake up every morning to work out has been fueled by young runners who have run alongside him every morning since he moved to San Antonio in 1970.
This year’s Holmes High School cross-country team decided it was time to highlight Schumacher’s commitment on Thursday morning and officially make him part of the team by presenting him with what any avid runner wants: a new pair of running shoes.
RELATED: Video shows Holmes HS cross-country team surprising elderly man with new shoes
“He’s out here every single morning. He wears the same pair of gray Under Armour shoes and it’s the only pair I can remember seeing him in,” cross-country assistant coach Faith Barlow said. “I had the kids go grab him a pair and I thought it’d be nice to give him a brand-new pair of shoes to walk in.”
The Husky Track Twitter page that Barlow manages posted a video showing the team surprising Schumacher with the shoes after his morning workout.
Barlow said she did not anticipate that the tweet would collect more than 430 retweets and be liked more than 620 times since the time of the posting.
Senior Pasquell Williams presented the shoes to Schumacher, and his appreciation for the gift has served as a motivational message for the team.
“He inspires the team a lot (and) we were all looking on our phones on social media during first period (of school) and throughout the day. Then we were, like, ‘Woah, this is blowing up’,” Williams said. “It was just, like, a pair of shoes but we look at him, like, ‘Well, it probably means a lot more to him than it means to us.’”
Schumacher said he had asked Williams where he bought the shoes he was wearing but never imagined receiving a pair the same morning.
“Later on, as I was walking a couple of laps, (Williams) came over and asked me what size in shoes I wore. And then I wondered why he was asking me that,” Schumacher said. “For them to do this for me … yeah, I could’ve easily cried.”
For Schumacher, receiving the shoes has been a humbling experience that will never leave his memory, even at his age.
When asked what Holmes Husky Track means to him, he said, “Everything … this track is my life.”
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