Training for the Camino de Santiago

John Martinez is the Grand Knight of St. Mary’s Knights of Columbus Council 9151, the leader of the organization. He’s the man running around on Fridays at the catholic church fish fries making sure that the line moved fast and the customers were satisfied with the fish, hush puppies, coleslaw. He also manages volunteer Knights and customers.

But there is a surprising facet to Martinez that gets pushed to the side during this Covid period. He is in training to help disabled people travel the Camino de Santiago in Spain.

The Camino de Santiago, also known as the Way of St. James, are a series of pilgrimage trails leading to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. Tradition holds that the remains of St. James the Apostle, patron saint of Spain are buried there.

“About 2012, 2013, a movie came out by the name of ‘The Way’ with Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez.” The movie is about a father whose son dies, and he undertakes the pilgrimage known as ‘Way.’ A documentary was also made about two childhood friends in the movie, ‘I’ll Push You,’ where one of the friends is handicapped and the other pushes him in a wheelchair on the trail to Compostela,” said Martinez.

“It’s a documentary about Justin and Patrick on how they traveled to the Camino and all the things that they encounter... So I’m leading to why this is so inspirational for me, and why I want to do this. Throughout the whole story, it talks about them.” He continued.

“The documentary talks about how they overcome these obstacles and how they together walk the trail, from this little dream that Justin had, ‘I’ll Push You.’ It’s exploded into this just inspirational movie.” A movie that had affected him, he decided to do it himself. Since he is retired, time wasn’t a problem and he thought about making the pilgrimage a reality.

“Because Patrick was able to do this, he said, well, let’s make it possible for others that have a vision in their mind of traveling to a land and accomplishing this feat. Let’s make it possible for others. So they take about 10 to 12 mobility-limited people and they take them with the aid of helpers to do this trek. Now, it’s not the 500 mile trek, it’s about 100.”

The event was canceled for July and rescheduled for September of this year. Pushing someone in a regular wheelchair is impossible under these conditions at hand. “You have to have one that can withstand going over rocks, gullies, rivers, you have to have something that’s going to be able to withstand that.”

So how does one train for pushing a special wheelchair on the Camino?

“On occasion, I bring my wheelbarrow with me. I put 75 pounds of sand in there. In order for training, the sand packets they have to be there. And the first time I did it, I’m walking on FM 2325, like nine or 10 people stopped me. I mean, it was ridiculous. Can I help you with that? I’m like, no, I’m actually… and I explained.” He put signs that read ‘In Training’ on his wheelbarrow but people still stopped and once they read the signs, would drive off.

Of course a lot of borders have to be open and the trails too for this to happen in September. But, if you see someone pushing a wheelbarrow down the road, don’t stop. It’s only John Martinez, in training for the Camino de Santiago.