Forever Young: Great River Ragnar Relay #1

I heard the roar of the crowd before I ever saw Charles Earl McJilton.
My “Better than Bond Girl” teammates and I were waiting for the last runner of Van to arrive at Village Park in Stockholm, Wisconsin during last weekend’s Great River Ragnar Relay. This is the third Ragnar race in my quest to run all of the Ragnar Relays starting with the original race – Wasatch Back in June.
We were sitting in the shade talking when we heard the cheering. The course leading up to the exchange chute was lined with runners clapping and cheering for Charles. He smiled politely as he handed the slap bracelet to his daughter Gen McJilton.
He was like a rock star as he tried to make his way through the crowd, which congratulated him and clapped for him, to his family and “Jilty” teammates.
McJilton will celebrate his 80th birthday on Aug. 26. His family had gathered for the event from all parts of the country and Tokyo. It was Jen who decided running the Ragnar Relay might be the perfect way to celebrate her father’s milestone. It was him, after all, who enticed all but one of his seven children to follow him into the sport.
McJilton ran a little in high school, but says, “I wasn’t very good.”
He went off to college and then to the University of Washington for Graduate School. There he met a young man who was in the same program.
“He was from Oregon,” said Charles after the first leg of his Great River experience. “Everybody from Oregon was a track star.”
He said they developed a friendship and running became part of it. And a funny thing had happened since those days of mediocre performance in high school. McJilton had gotten pretty fast.
So even after high school, he kept running. He eventually tackled just about every kind of distance race there is including marathons (in under three hours) and Ironman Triathlons.
His last Ironman was three years ago in Canada. His age then was a spry 76 years old.
McJilton’s passion for running was contagious. He said he never had to goad his children into running. They just saw what it did for him and how much he loved it and wanted to try it.
“I just went out and did it, and I did encourage it,” he said. His oldest daughter Francis accompanied him to a marathon and decided “that it looked like fun.”
His son Charles IV said he ran his first marathon in 1976 with his father.
“And I beat you,” he said smiling at his father who just nods.
His children were a little worried about their father’s ability to handle the Great River Relay. But even if he couldn’t finish his three legs, they’d be there to run for him.
And what better tribute could they give the man who gave them the gift of running (and probably a whole lot more)? And what better way to celebrate his 80th birthday than to cram the family into a big, white van, head out to a small Minnesota town and run nearly 200 miles together?

Me with the Man, Charles Earl McJilton at a park in Stockholm, Wisconsin, Friday evening.