I have had these pictures since early June. Until now I wasn’t sure if I could ever express the feelings I had while attending the Vision 5k at Boston College on June 7th. You should understand that many of the races I attend I will sometimes pick a day or two before they happen. Sometimes I pick a particular race on its description, or its past results (looking to see the number of people attending in past years), or sometimes I’ll pick one based on a feeling. This race I feel I was meant to be around. I knew I was in for a new experience when I arrived. When I was standing in the registration line and some of the other people waiting in the same line to register had white canes. They were led to the line by somebody because they could not see. I didn’t know what to make of it. Blind, running through the streets of Boston, IN A RACE??? Not only were there people visually impaired but if you wanted to take on the challenge you could wear a blindfold and try it without vision yourself. How did they do the running? They were tethered together with another runner as their guide. HOLY COW!! I watched and listened as I was running in total amazement. The guide would speak the directions pertaining to the turns, moving past other runners, uneven areas in the pavement and anything else that needed to be verbalized. They moved together like the syncronized swimmers in the Olympics except this was running through the streets of Boston, which to me was simply incredible to watch. And how did they do you might ask? I believe 50% of the top 10 finishers were blind. Including the WINNER. Check out the Vision5k website and put this on your “got to run” list or just attend it as a walker or watcher. You will come away with a greater sense of thanks for your ability to see (something we all take for granted) and a tremendous new respect for those that can’t see, but still believe in their own abilities “to do”.
