Navigating Life’s Currents

Mac Balatico finds camaraderie, freedom, and fulfillment in Dragon Boat racing

Story by Zach Read | photos courtesy of Mac Balatico | Published August 27, 2024

As a boy growing up in Guam, Mac Balatico, like many of his peers, aspired to join the US military.

“We all wanted to be part of the Armed Forces,” shares Mac, a human resources specialist for the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

For Mac, the decision was made easier by the establishment of the ROTC program at the University of Guam in 1979, years before he finished high school. ROTC allowed him to stay on the island for college and join the U.S. Army as a reservist, a decision that led to a 32-year career in the Army, with 26 of those spent on active duty.

Mac’s career in the Infantry and Adjutant General’s Corps took him all over the world, from Fort Bragg, now Fort Liberty, where he had his first assignment away from Guam while in his early 20s; to Heidelberg, Germany; the Pentagon; Saudi Arabia; and locations around the US.

Heidelberg may have been his favorite spot. It’s where his four-month-old daughter spent her early years, speaking with a German accent as she started learning how to talk.

“Heidelberg had been preserved by the Allies in World War II because of its historical value,” Mac says. “It is one of the most beautiful places in Germany.”

Mac recalls his experiences in the first Gulf War as a brand-new second lieutenant arriving in Saudi Arabia, part of the first combat troops on the ground in the region, two months after moving from Guam to Fort Bragg.

“If you had told me I would be sitting in a combat zone as my first assignment, I wouldn’t have believed it,” shares Mac. “But the thing is, we constantly trained, so when the time came, everyone would know exactly what was expected of them.”

After setting up defenses, his unit moved north to the boarder of Saudi Arabia and Iraq. When the ground war started, they crossed into Iraq and began combat operations.

“During our time in Saudi Arabia, we trained alongside the Saudi Arabian National Guard, French forces, and U.S. Marines,” Mac explains. “There were nights when you’d look up at the sky, hundreds of miles from anywhere, and notice the calm and quietness, see stars, shooting stars, and satellites. You could take in how beautiful it is there.”

As Mac transitioned into the Adjutant General’s Corps, he began working on the personnel side of the military. That’s when he became a human resources specialist. In 2014, he retired from the military; a year later he joined the School of Pharmacy from Jacksonville State University in Alabama.

Today Mac is the primary contact for all personnel actions for the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry (CBMC) and the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics (DPET), along with the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery (CICBDD) and the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC). The service mission of the School resonates with him.

“All the parts of the School—finance, facilities, human resources—help drive the School’s mission forward,” Mac says.

In his free time, Mac’s dedication to exercise carries on from his military days. In recent years, he has expanded beyond his love of cycling to include dragon boat racing. As he was looking for additional cycling Meetup groups, he stumbled across the Chinese tradition that has existed for thousands of years.

“I found it by accident in 2016,” Mac says. “[At first], I had no idea what it was or what it entails. I did a little research on it, discovered how long it had been around, and that the various towns participating in it in China raced dragon boats in the hope to have a good rice harvest.”

Mac saw that an introductory class would be given the following weekend and signed up to give it a try. He showed up 30 minutes early for practice at Lake Wheeler, south of Raleigh, wondering whether he would like it.

“There was a deck that overlooked the lake, and I remember watching to see if I could see the team practicing,” Mac recalls. “I saw them coming down the other side of the lake, paddling as hard as they could. I stood there and thought, ‘Oh, my gosh. What did I get myself into?’ I saw them go nonstop a good distance and thought, ‘That’s a long way.’”

Mac got in the boat and his teammates showed him the proper technique for paddling, how to avoid getting tired, and how to conserve energy. As a beginner just trying it out, he was allowed three free practices. After the third practice, he joined, and eight years later, not only is he still with the team, he’s helping with coaching and recruiting.

Mac loves the sport and credits it with “keeping him young.” He has mastered the proper technique, helping conserve energy by not relying only on his arms, and instead incorporating his core to twist and rotate through the motion. This allows him—and all racers—to use the muscles needed to row for an extended period of time. He worked through the pain he felt initially as he developed new muscles.

Today Mac and the team travel to races ranging from Maryland to Florida, among other locations. The boat consists of 22 crew members, 20 of which paddle, and the diversity of age has spanned as young as a 17-year-old high schooler to a 77-year-old retiree. The camaraderie he and his teammates have formed help them row together as a cohesive unit, pushing each other to do the best they can in races that are often decided by a second or less.

“As you’re racing, you may be hurting,” Mac says. “It’s a fast sport, an all-out sprint, but you think about how there are 19 others out there with you who are feeling the same thing, and it helps you push through.”