Running mates

With a gym bag hanging tightly in his right hand, Mark Mitchell stepped onto the growling L train car.

A shuffle of people plowed around him while Mitchell quietly sat down in a nearby group of seats. Surrounded by people of all nationalities, the 46-year-old was content with just listening and watching during the 25-minute ride.

Staring out the window, he watched as the Philadelphia skyline sped across his gaze. The City of Brotherly Love, standing right before his eyes.

Yet today, he was not a tourist and this was not a sight seeing trip. The former military man, now U.S. Postal Service worker, needed no reminder of that, but as the car slid to a screeching halt he received one.

“The train runs right in front of the stadium and as soon as I got off, I got this warming feeling,” Mitchell said. “I could hear the crowd from so far away erupting and roaring. I couldn’t believe that I was going to be right in the middle of that.”

* * * * *

Nearly 30 years ago, Mark Mitchell became a state championship track star at Wyandotte High School in 1982. From there, he joined the military with aspirations of funding his way to Florida State, where he had plans to run track.

“It didn’t work out,” Mitchell explained. “Lack of support and the academics failing because of that lack of support was the cause. So, after two years in the army, I put in to try out for the All-Army track team.”

That decision would unknowingly alter and change Mitchell’s life forever, for that is when he met Reggie Hill.

“Mark and I were stationed in the military together at Fort Knox,” Hill said. “They had what they called the Blue Grass Games. Mitch was the one who got me started with that and the All-Army stuff.”

A friendship quickly sparked from there and the two became training partners. For two years, the duo competed together in All-Army competitions as well local and national meets.

“I ran for the All-Army two years in a row.” Mitchell said. “Reggie made it as a javelin thrower and I was the only one to make it from that area as a runner. We made it together.”

“We both started competing in annual events together and just trained all the time together,” Hill said.

The acquaintances became friends, and soon the friends became family.

Eventually though, fate would split the pair of track stars apart. Mitchell was shipped out to Korea while Hill continued to run competitively, which he ultimately chose as a career path. He left the army while Mitchell stayed.

“He went overseas and I then went to Desert Storm,” Hill explained, “When I came back, I started to run competitively and eventually went to the Olympic trials. It built up from there.”

“But me and Mark have always been real good friends, ever since those first Blue Grass Games.”

That friendship would stand a test of time as it would be over a decade and half before the two would talk again.

* * * * *

Besides being considered one of the biggest track meets in the world, the Penn Relays is also deemed “the first and oldest of relay track meets” in the United States of America.

Since the competition’s first meet in 1895, which was located at the University of Pennsylvania’s football stadium in Philadelphia, more spectators have watched the Penn Relays than any other track and field competition save for the Olympics and World Championships.

Famous track athletes such as Jesse Owens, Marion Jones and Usain Bolt have competed in the meet and even celebrities like Bill Cosby regularly attend the three-day affair.

As far as general attendance, over 100,000 people came to watch the competition just this past April.

“If I had to pick out one thing that makes it so special it’s the people,” Mitchell said. “Philadelphia embraces that track meet. It’s their NBA championship every year; it’s so big there. They embrace the Penn and the tradition behind it.”

The meet is smothered in tradition, fame and prestige, and that’s why when Hill contacted Mitchell in late January about running in the event, it was a no-brainer.

"He found me on Facebook,” Mitchell said. “Ironically, I had been getting off work and training at Anytime Fitness just to get back into shape when Reggie contacted me out of the blue.”

It had been 15 years since the two last spoke.

“We had a long talk and he told me about how important I was for him back when we ran together and how I helped him get where he is today,” Mitchell said. “He wanted to repay the favor and asked me to run in the Penn Relays with him.”

With his invitation delivered and accepted, Mitchell trained intensely for the next three months for his trip to Philadelphia. On the day of the event in late April, Mitchell found himself drenched in the cheers and heritage of the Penn as he stepped off the L train car.

“It starts with the stadium,” Mitchell said. “You walk up to it and it looks like a giant castle. It’s surrounded all the way around with flags on top and there is a brick building that goes all the way up to the top so it captures the roar of the crowd.”

“It’s hard to explain that feeling when you first see it.”

From the train, Mitchell met up with Hill, a doctor and an assistant to the Mayor of Montgomery, Ala., and the 4x400 relay team walked into the concrete cathedral. Through the check-ins, the crowd, the locker rooms and then out onto the field, the experience was overwhelming.

“I can’t explain it. It’s more than you can even imagine,” Mitchell said.

The foursome raced together in the Master’s 40 and older relay, finishing in ninth place with a time of 4:12.86. In the end though, the results meant little to the group.

“No one gets booed at the Penn,” Mitchell said. “50,000 people won’t boo you, so there are no losers. They just embrace you. To be a 46-year-old and compete in the Penn, it was an honor just to be there.”

* * * * *

It has been nearly three months since the relays.

Mitchell is back in his Lansing home, winding down from a day’s work. He is discussing what’s next for himself, a nearly 50-year-old trackster.

“I will be running in some meets, probably some indoor stuff,” Mitchell said. “It just kind of depends on what sort of old-timer meets are out there for a guy like me.”

Plans are in motion for Mitchell and Hill to run in the Penn again next year, hopefully improving upon their finish. Yet besides his own aspirations, Mitchell has two other track careers he has taken a keen interest in — his children’s.

After the Penn, Mitchell signed 7-year-old Mark Jr. and 6-year-old Martayah up for the Kansas Force track team and both have done very well. In fact, Mark Jr. has qualified for the AAU Junior Olympics in the 100 meters, 200 meters and long jump next month.

“Mark Jr. is the no. 1 200-meter guy in the region,” Mitchell said. “He took his first long jump and he jumped a 12.8 as a 7-year-old. Martayah is jumping extremely well in the long jump, so she may make it to nationals too.”

Thus a new bond is born. Over 20 years ago track bound Mark Mitchell and Reggie Hill together, a friendship that lasted decades, and now the sport is doing it again.

This time though, it’s between father and child.

“I think me running track again has been a sort of motivation for them, and them for me,” Mitchell said. “It’s something we can do together.”