Pumpkins in the Park 5K
By Randall Crosby
I ran the Pumpkins in the Park 5K this past Friday evening (10-24-08). My sighted guide & partner for this race
was Rick Unrue. It was our first time running together so neither of us knew what to expect. We hadn’t even
had a practice run together so it would be a new experience for both of us. While Rick had walked with me as my sighted
guide many times before, I could sense that he was somewhat concerned about my safety while running with him. This is
a normal reaction from my first time guides so I told him that we would just have fun, stay safe and cross the finish line
and just think of this as an adventure, this is the way I approach every race. Anything above this I consider a bonus.
The crowd at the starting line seemed bigger and slower than usual and I was told later that there were (unofficially) over
one thousand entries. We started in the back and became stuck in some slow traffic so we lost some time and it never
really opened up so that we could run at a fast pace. We dodged and weaved around runners and walkers the entire race
but it was fun, we would finish in a time of 32:18, not a PR but not bad. During the race Rick described to me some
of the runners in Halloween costumes, dressed up like bright orange pumpkins or skeletons. Sometimes I think I have
more fun visualizing images in my mind as a blind person than people who have sight and can only appreciate the actual physical
image. I tell my friends that being blind is an advantage when running in a 3.1 mile race because I can’t actually
see just how far away the finish line is like my sighted running counterparts, of course I’m making a joke here but
I believe in turning a negative situation into a positive. I became legally blind in 1988 at the age of 27 and it was
a difficult time for me and I had to make some adjustments in order to adapt. Little did I know that only three years
later I would face something equally devastating. I would become “legally bald”. That’s right,
I was losing my hair. It’s bad enough to lose one’s sight but to lose one’s hair! Now that’s
traumatic. Of course, I’ve now learned to embrace my blindness as well as my baldness. My lack of hair is
also an advantage during my races because I’m more aerodynamic (this is meant to be funny so it’s OK to laugh).
It’s just a matter of turning a seemingly negative situation into something positive.
Rick is part of the Park Avenue Christian Academy (PACA) youth running team so we shouted out encouragement to the kids we met along the way (about 15 or more in all). I always enjoy hearing the voices and foot-steps of the kids in these events, I’m glad they’re not just sitting at home on their computers or video games. I also think that if they see me running past them, a 47 year old blind man that this will hopefully motivate or inspire them, as well as the adults. That’s why I felt it was important for me to run in this race because I knew there would be a big turn-out. “To see and be seen” as they say or at least the “be seen” part would work for me. I always enjoy hearing the other runners calling out my name and giving me a kind word of encouragement and then I try to match the voice to a name, sometimes I get it right but not always but I make a game out of it.
The challenge of getting to this race was almost bigger than the race itself because during the days prior to it all my sighted running guides fell by the way one by one. Each of them had a conflict or prior commitment so I actually felt as though I was left sitting on the side lines on this one. I had resigned to not going at all but on the day of the race only three hours before the start time I tried one last resort of calling on some other friends and the extra effort paid off. I had to think outside the box and go a little out of my comfort zone but I find that when I do this I usually am rewarded by getting back more than what I have to invest. As a blind person I have to struggle with trying to be independent yet not being afraid to ask for help. Many times the asking for help is much harder than being independent. In this case I was asking for a ride to and from the race as well as a sighted guide during the race and it all worked out very well and could not have gone any better. It was a fun evening of running and being with friends, two things that I really enjoy. Looking back on this past week I can see how far I’ve come with my running. On Monday I ran 3 miles with my daughter Stephanie, Tuesday I ran 7 miles with Dave Taurasi (my longest distance yet), Wednesday I ran 2.5 miles with Dave (speed work & very difficult after the 7 mile run the day before). I rested on Thursday and ran the Pumpkin 5K with Rick on Friday for a total of 15.5 miles for the week. I think that would have killed me six months ago, so all the training is paying off. I plan to run the Disney Half Marathon with my friend and sighted guide Chaz Wendling and my daughter Stephanie, on January 10, 2008 and raise money for “Foundation Fighting Blindness” through sponsorships if all goes well and I stay healthy. (Chas, Stephanie and Randall in photo above right) I made a pact with myself a few years ago that the blinder I get the stronger physically I will become and at this point I can’t get any blinder but I can get stronger and hopefully this will continue and maybe one day through the grace of God and modern medicine or science I may have sight again but if not then I’ll just carry on and have fun doing it. I’ve learned to find strength and calm from the words of the Bible so I’ll end with this quote from Hebrews 12:1 “… let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”.
For information about this volunteer fundraiser (Foundation Fighting Blindness) and its programs, you can visit http://www.fightblindness.org/site/PageServer.
Or to make a donation online, visit my personal page.
http://www.teamblindrunner.com
Or for more information contact me (Randall Crosby) at: blindrunner@cfl.rr.comBLIND DRIVING BURNOUT I’ll close with a message from Joel Osteen, who I receive a daily email message from as a source
of strength as I go through this adventure called life as a blind person. Joel Osteen:
Living the Full Life Today's Scripture Today's
Word from Joel and Victoria Submit comments to Randall
Crosby at: blindrunner@cfl.rr.com
By Randall Crosby
I have enjoyed running the 5K events for a couple of years now and most of my runner friends will agree that we always want
to go as fast as possible. But sometimes the feet just aren’t fast enough as we have a “need for speed”.
All my friends at my café at Kennedy Space Center and around Brevard County know that I talk a lot about “blind
driving”. I always tell my friends that my blind driving seems acceptable around most of Florida since there seem
to be a lot of other blind drivers out there besides me. I draw this conclusion by the way some folks out there drive,
as if they were blind. A little known fact among the blind driving community is that those reflectors that are placed
on the center lines of most highways are not only there for the sighted drivers. They are raised up an inch or two so
that when a blind driver such as myself drives on them they make a very distinct bumping sound to warn the driver that he’s
crossing over the center lane. This is sort of like driving by Braille. 
One advantage of blind driving is that when I drive at night I don’t need headlights. There’s
a well known song called “Jesus Take the Wheel” by Carrie Underwood, well all my friends were singing that song
long before Carrie made it famous. They sang it every time I would get behind the wheel. My friends always laugh
when I tell them about these blind driving stories and facts but after about a year or two of talking with my friend Gabe
about letting me drive his car we finally did it recently. So this is where we combine the “need for speed”
with “blind driving”, thus adding one more adventure to my “blind adventures chronicles”. 
Gabe’s car is no ordinary car, in fact it’s extraordinary but he’s the first to say that he likes to drive
it and treat it just like a regular car, though it’s far from regular. The car is a beautifully maintained red
’70 Ford Torino convertible with over 500 horsepower under the hood. A real muscle car. So why shouldn’t
he let his blind friend drive it? I personally could think of a couple of good reasons but I was on the receiving end
of this gesture so I didn’t argue. So one Saturday afternoon Gabe gave me a few simple instructions, among them
was, “don’t crash”, then he jumped out of the passenger side with me at the wheel and said “It’s
all you buddy.” And with that I was blind driving, very cool. I pressed the accelerator down and I did a serious
burnout and smoked those tires, there was smoke everywhere! 
Gabe’s car has a special brake called a “line lock” that locks the front wheels so that the rear wheels
will spin freely when the driver accelerates thus allowing for a nice burnout. The car never actually moves but the
rear wheels spin as fast as you care to press on the gas pedal and produce a lot of smoke. It’s a fun and safe
(well, kind of safe) way for a blind person such as myself to “drive” or at least get a sense of driving.
Once again I give a lot of credit to my friend Gabe for trusting me with his wonderful car because I had to keep one finger
on the button that holds the brake on the front wheels. One slip of the finger and I would have suddenly been moving
at a very fast speed which would have ended badly for both me and the car but it all went well. As an extra bonus one
of Gabe’s friends let me drive his customized golf-cart that had a fiberglass Corvette hood on it, that was fun.
I think for my next adventure we’ll take the Torino up to the Tennessee rock climbing walls and this time I’ll
drive.
“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness of it…” (Psalm 24:1).
God wants you to live
an abundant and satisfied life. He wants you to enjoy the fullness of the earth and life’s experiences. When you open
your mind to new things and new situations, you are broadening your horizons and opening yourself to new opportunities. It’s
easy to get stuck in a rut, doing the same thing the same way all the time. But when you open yourself to new people and new
ideas, you are making room for God to reveal Himself to you. You are making room for Him to work in your life. Make the decision
to explore something new this week. Take a different route home from work. Try something new on the menu at lunch. Be open
to new people who may not necessarily look like you or act like you. Let God direct and broaden your horizons. As you do,
you’ll encounter new opportunities and live the satisfied, full life the Lord has in store for you! http://www.joelosteen.com/
Blind
Driving
A poem by Randall Crosby
Blind driving, blind driving.
It’s a fun thing to do.
If you see me coming down the road,
You’ll want to try it too.
Blind driving, blind
driving it’s a fun thing to do.
Just close your eyes or put on a blind-fold,
Here’s the steering wheel, just grab a hold.
Now
you’re on your way!
What about the stop signs & red lights
you may say!?
Just ignore them, it’ll be OK.
Those sighted drivers run them every day.
But what about
the pedestrians?
Well, I’ve only hit one or two,
and they all walked away from the scene.
I
just tell them that I’m blind driving and then they know what I mean.
The cops all try
to stop me,
They tell me it’s not right.
I just tell them there’s worse drivers than me and they even have sight.
When I talk about blind driving,
My friends
begin to pray.
They tell me, “Randall that’s just crazy”
And they always say no way.
But
I don’t let it bother me and if they start to bring me down
I
just head for the open highway or take a ride downtown.
My wife wants to take my keys,
but I just beg her not to please.
Why she
won’t even pay for my court costs and parking fees.
But that’s
no problem for me,
Because once I’m out on the road,
Everything else is a breeze.
Those sighted drivers complain
that the sun gets in their eyes,
But a cloudy day or clear blue skies,
It makes no difference to me.
Just as long as I’m behind the wheel,
Blind
driving sets me free.
Click here for video of Randall climbing the Tennessee Wall near Chattanooga
Topped
Out By Randall Crosby I took a big gulp since I knew
the next word would mean the point of no return. “Do or die”, I thought to myself. “Bad choice
of words”, I then thought. How about “Go for the gusto”, there that’s better. Then whether
I was ready or not (I wasn’t), the word came out of my mouth (a very dry mouth). “Climbing”, I said
as confidently as I could. “Climb on”, Chaz replied. That was it. I had to put my feet on the
base of the 90 foot rock wall and begin the vertical journey to the top. This moment had been the culmination of three years of loose planning
and many conversations and a few visits to the “On the Edge” rock climbing gym in Melbourne with my friend and
climbing mentor Chaz Wendling. Chaz introduced me to the sport about three years ago when he took me to the rock climbing
gym for the first time and showed me the basic technique of climbing a 35 foot rock wall. We went there several times
in the first two years but had gone very little in the past year so I wasn’t sure if I was ready for this adventure
to the Tennessee Wall near Chattanooga, TN for a climb on real rock. Chaz had come into my café at Kennedy Space Center a few
days earlier to say that he was going with his friend, Ed Hall, for a weekend of climbing and that I should come along.
Chaz said I was ready for it, so based on that, I decided to go. But now it seemed like a bad decision as I moved up
the first two feet of the ascent. I thought to myself, it’s time for a quick prayer, so I did and then I remembered
the bible verse that I had read the day before in an email from Joel Osteen, a nationally known evangelical pastor that I
receive a daily message from. Many times I find that Joel’s messages are inspirational and pertinent to the challenge
I’m currently facing and this had been the case this time as well. Joel had come through once again, it was titled
“The Power of Two”… “Two
are better than one… If one falls down, his friend can help him up” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). Right on Joel.
I knew that Chaz would be there for me. I printed the message and kept it in the pocket of my climbing pants during
the entire trip just for some extra insurance. This verse and others have been a source of strength for me over these past two or three years of
coping with a world of total blindness. I tell people that being partially blind, as I had been for about twenty years,
is much different from being totally blind. Both are very challenging but also very different. Seeing bits and
pieces of stuff through blurred vision is better than seeing nothing at all, of course neither of these options is desirable.
Having experienced good sight, poor sight and having no sight at all I have learned that a person with perfectly good sight
can be disabled and a person with no sight can be very able bodied, it’s just a matter of attitude. The system is called a “top
rope” and it consists of a two hundred foot rope that is tied to my harness and then is taken up to the top of the climb
(90 feet) by the lead climber (that was Ed in this case) and then it is run through the top rings that are bolted to the rock
wall and then the rope is dropped down to the belay (that was Chaz) and he holds the rope and feeds it through his belay harness
and stacks it on the ground next to him as I go up. I totally trusted Chaz to keep me safe but what about every inch
of the two hundred foot rope and what about the rings at the top. Were they really secure enough? But I was climbing.
I was now about 15 feet up. Only 75 more feet to go. “Wonderful”, I thought to myself. Now I
found myself without an obvious hand-hold and my feet were struggling to hold on too, so it was time for a move. “Here
goes”. The move didn’t work, I slipped and fell totally free of the rock and was coming down. Chaz had
me tight on belay but the rope is dynamic, this means it’s slightly elastic so I experienced a few seconds of free fall.
But the system worked, I didn’t fall any further than expected. It was a relief to me after this fall because
I had experienced my worst fear, the fear of falling and I was safe and well. So I began climbing again and continued
up to about 30 feet. My legs and arms were burning already and I was feeling tired, breathing hard and sweat pouring
off me. I had just slipped off (peeled away, they call it) the rock for a second time and realized that it’s different
from the rock wall at the gym because your body slams into the real rock about ten times harder - the rock is unforgiving.
I knew I had
to get my feet onto a good hold and place both hands high above my head on good holds so that I could stretch and relax and
rest. Chaz had taught me that we can rest while hanging some thirty or more feet high on a wall of rock, crazy as that
may sound. So I relaxed and rested. Chaz yelled up some words of encouragement since he saw that I was struggling.
“Good job Randyman,” he yelled. He usually calls me “Randyman” or “Champ” and I
always smile or laugh when he does, it gives me a boost of confidence, which I needed especially at this most challenging
moment. As I rested my mind had random thoughts, I remembered last night’s dinner. We had left Rockledge
at about 5:00 p.m. planning to arrive at our campsite some ten hours later so at about 7:00 p.m. Ed told us that it’s
a tradition to stop at Crystals for burgers. Based on Ed’s recommendation we all ordered a meal called “The
Cheez-a-nater”, consisting of 5 Crystal-cheeseburgers and chili-cheese fries. This was a lot different from the
traditional pasta dinner consumed by runners the night before a meet. But when in Rome… I wondered if the “Cheez-a-Nater”
would get me through this climb. Ed
had set up a second top rope. He was about fifty feet up on the wall while I climbed so that he could offer both moral and
tactical support as needed. It was a good idea. “How far up there are you?” I yelled up. He
said he was about fifteen feet above me. He said that he was sitting on a ledge big enough for both of us to sit on
and relax so this gave me some motivation to reach him. I started climbing again, fighting for every move and every foot,
feeling my way along with my hands and using my knees to find the next good foot hold. Chaz and Ed could give me some
verbal description and instruction from their vantage points but a lot of this searching I had to do on my own. Chaz
and I had learned together by trial and error how to develop a technique for me to climb without sight. This was our
final exam and so far we seemed to be passing, as long as I could keep going up. I don’t have to see to know how
high up I am, I can sense it and am aware of the danger and the fear of the height and of falling. The fear of height
and of falling is not a visual thing, it’s a mental and physical thing and it rarely leaves my mind during the entire
climb. Sometimes it gets to the back of my thoughts but then sometimes it jumps up to the foreground and that’s
the tricky part, blocking it out and focusing on the climb. Meanwhile my muscles are screaming out at me to stop.
I remember
thinking that this is several times harder than any workout I’ve had in the gym. We had hiked a mile and a quarter
up the mountain just an hour earlier to get to the rock climbing area and that was quite a challenge in it’s own right.
It was very slow going for Chaz and I, since Chaz had to direct me on each step as they were mostly uneven stone and most
of them were very high up so that I had to balance myself on Chaz’s shoulder or arm. It took us an hour to complete
the hike and I had already been feeling some fatigue from that before even starting the actual rock climb. These past
two years of running and training for 5K races and spending extra time in the gym had definitely paid off because prior to
that I could have never handled this physical endurance test I was now facing. For some reason, now I’m
climbing with a new energy and determination. It seems easier in a way, as if the first fifty feet had been a warm up
for this last section. I’m suddenly more focused and intent on the climb and have no thoughts about the ropes,
harness or caribeeners, it’s all about the climb. I try some of the techniques that I had learned in the gym;
an arm-bar, then a leg bar, at one point I have to smear the wall with my feet. This is done by using the rubbery climbing
shoes to their full capacity by clinging to the smooth wall where there are no foot-holds and then push yourself up, “easier
said than done,” I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, I’m really getting this stuff, I’m really climbing,
it’s all coming together.” Chaz and Ed both yelled out words of encouragement. I asked them how much
further to the top and they yelled back, “About ten more feet and your’re topped out!” Before repelling down I took a deep breath and relished the moment. I yelled down that the
view is beautiful from up here. That got a laugh as I expected. Then I yelled, “I can’t see it with
my eyes but I see it with my ears and my senses. I feel the beauty with my soul”. I envisioned the beauty
of the tree tops down below and the thirty foot high waterfall we had passed by on the hike up to the base of the rock wall.
In my mind’s eye I had snap-shots of every scenic mountain setting I had seen before whether it was from real life or
from a painting when I had sight. I could imagine how wonderful it must look from this high up. I also thought
about my friends Chaz and Ed who had made this moment possible and (Gabe) George Gabrielle (my friend from Kennedy Space Center)
who has shown me the power of positive thinking and our mutual friend Bobby Cook who is confined to a wheelchair due to cerebral
palsy and whose picture I had carried with me up here so that we could both experience being higher than the tree tops together.
At this moment
I learned what it means to “top out”. It’s awesome.
“On belay”, I called out to Chaz. “Belay on”, he replied. 
Still I was having doubts as I thought about how I had learned to trust the system of ropes, harnesses and caribeeners in
the gym. “Trust the system”, I told myself, “you know it works”. “Yes but the gym
has a big soft mat on the floor, there’s nothing but bedrock down there now”, I thought. 
Now Ed is only about five feet above me so I make a few more moves and reach him. I grab his hand and give him a high
five and join him on the ledge. “Glad to see you”, I say. He laughs and we chill for a while.
I find that the ledge is big and it’s like a safe refuge so now it’s almost like starting on a new climb and it’s
difficult to leave the safety and comfort of the ledge. Just getting started is the hardest part. I leave Ed on
the ledge and continue on, forty more feet and “I’m there”, I think to myself. The words “topped out” rang in my head. I had never heard that term from Chaz before, it must not be a term
that is used in the gym, only used out here on the real rock. I asked myself the obvious question and I yelled down
“Topped out? Does that mean reaching the top?” I thought to myself, now that sounds dumb. Chaz
yelled back up from eighty feet below, “You got it champ, go for it and top out! Ten more feet and you top out!”
I gave it all I had. I was going on pure adrenalin now, just like running the last few hundred feet of a 5K and I emptied
the tank. I topped out at ninety feet.
IOA
Corporate 5K By Randall Crosby Since I rely on my hearing during the race my ears are tuned like radar to all the sounds around me.
At the first mile mark I enjoyed the sound of the bagpipes from a group of musicians and then at the two-mile mark we approached
a rock & roll band and this kind of surprised me because I found myself temporarily deaf from the loud volume of the music.
This only lasted for about one minute as we passed by but I had to focus and force myself to relax and just place one foot
in front of the other and stay with Gabe since I had really lost my sense of direction and had no point of reference without
my hearing. A teacher/counselor of vision impaired once told me that “seeing is 180 degrees but hearing is 360
degrees”, in other words we must maximize the positive strength and minimize the negative weakness. This race was more like a contact sport for me since I bumped into
other runners and tangled feet a few times but it was a challenge and another learning experience. There were several
times when I let go of my end of the rope and wrapped my arm around Gabe’s shoulder and grabbed his arm with my other
hand to literally hang on for dear life as I grew increasingly aware of my chaotic surroundings. Gabe joked with me
days later that I was really holding on tight. Gabe had his own obstacle to overcome this time since he was in his seventh week of a total of what will be
eight weeks of radiation treatment for prostrate cancer which was diagnosed last December. He’s been doing great
throughout this and is actually physically and mentally stronger than ever as he is determined to get through it all and put
it behind him. He is turning this negative situation into a positive outcome to share with others as he always does.
We actually stopped by the clinic on the way to this race so that he could receive his daily treatment of radiation and then
we went on to run the 5K. Getting zapped with radiation is not the ordinary pre-race warm-up but Gabe says he feels
fine and is doing well. The camaraderie of being part of the KSC team
was fun and it made for some good memories, so we’ll look forward to next year. I’ll be the guy wearing
the full body armor. KSC Team results: Both
our men’s and women’s team placed 5th in the category of Government Employees Group: Men's Team Geoff Studds = 22:48 Ted Moore = 23:28 Steve Maldony = 25:23 Bill Piastuch
= 26:33 Justin Junod = 29:30 Women's Team Melanie Carlson = 30:45 Christine Solga = 33:00 
I ran the Corporate 5K in Orlando last Thursday, April 24, 2008. Gabe & I signed up with the Kennedy Space Center
team for this event. There were about twelve runners on the team (that’s not an exact or confirmed number, just
an estimate). Gabe & I enjoyed supporting the KSC team and our team captain in her 4th term, Marie Quiaoit-Bell.
The crowded field of 10,600 runners made it difficult and even impossible for Gabe & I to set and maintain a fast or steady
pace so we changed our goal to just finishing the race without incident. We had several near misses as we weaved between
faster runners and slower walkers on both sides. Since we run side by side with a short rope it added to the challenge
for Gabe to keep us both safe. But we finished with a time of 33:10, a few minutes slower than our PR. (see team
results below) At left, Gabe Gabriel, in black, stands next to running partner Randall Crosby.
Stepping Out on Faith
(SWOF 8K Race)
By Randall Crosby
I just ran the Space Walk of Fame (SWOF) 8K race this morning (April 12, 2008) and am pleased that I feel pretty good, not too tired or sore (at least not yet). The extra running & training is paying off. I’m sure that experience also helps since this was my ninth event (the others were 5K’s). This time I was not able to run with my friend George (Gabe) Gabrielle since he was out of town so I ran with one of my new running partners, Angela McFall. People sometimes tell Gabe that it’s great that he runs with me as my sighted guide since I’m blind and Gabe always says jokingly that he’s just the guy who holds the other end of the two foot rope and that Randall is doing all the work, but that’s his humble way and is always quick to encourage others and not take any credit for himself. I have found that Angie has these same qualities. It’s been fun to face these new challenges of running these races but I find that it’s even more fun with a partner who has the same goal in mind.
In my short 2 years of running as a blind runner with a sighted guide I’ve learned that a good partner is critical. I have to trust them a lot with my own personal safety but I’ve also learned that the more relaxed and trusting that I am the more relaxed and alert they are so it’s definitely a team effort.
This was my first time to run an 8K, until now I had only run the 5K distance so I was not totally certain about finishing or at least finishing gracefully and with everything in tact. I spent the first mile as usual, doing a mental inventory of how I feel. My feet and legs felt fair, they’re always kind of stiff at first. My breathing was better than ever as I remembered Gabe’s instructions to breathe in and out very deep and slowly and to take long strides and above all to relax, it took me a few races to learn to relax probably due to not seeing the ground I’m running on or anything else for that matter. Someone recently told me that every step I take is a step of faith, I hadn’t thought of it like that until he told me that. I noticed that I’m more comfortable with the crowd at the starting line, hearing the footsteps of the other runners all around me. During the start of my two or three races I was very intimidated and frightend by the sounds and worried about tripping and falling with another runner but now I felt like I was in a rhythm with the other runners and felt a lot more confident. This all comes from experience and repetition, something I’ve grown to appreciate when learning to do any task as a blind person. Suddenly I hear the little footsteps of a child and Angie says it’s a young girl about 6 years or so she’s swerving a lot and I could already sense this from the erratic sound of her little steps so we carefully maneuvered around her and passed her without incident. It’s just part of the adventure. I then used the remainder of the first mile to say a short prayer to God to keep us both safe and to give us strength to finish the race. That always helps.
At the two mile mark Angie joked that we should stop at the Howard Johnson for a cup of coffee, I agreed. Of course we didn’t stop and even passed up some of the water stations and we maintained a steady pace and were breathing fairly comfortably all the way to the finish line. In the days prior to the race I kept visualizing the 3-mile mark since that’s the longest distance I’ve run so far. I tried to block it out of my mind so it wouldn’t be an issue during the race but it kept popping up in my mind. I was warned before the race that there were a lot of rough spots along the course, pot-holes, dips, etc. because it’s an old street that winds along the Indian River in Titusville and I found it to be true. I think I found every dip and bump with my feet in the road for the entire 5 miles but we kept going, one foot in front of the other. When we arrived at the 3 mile mark at about 29 minutes I was confident we would finish with a good time since we were only about a minute slower than my best 5K time. We maintained a 10 minute average per mile (our final time was 49:52).
I had been encouraging another runner along the way since we were alternately passing each other at different intervals throughout the race so at about the 4-mile mark I was a few paces ahead of him and I looked over my right shoulder to gesture with my hand and to say for him to come on, only 1 mile to go. Just as I made that gesture my right foot found a pretty large bump and I suddenly was going down. The rope held between Angie and myself was now vertical instead of horizontal. Angie was pulling up very hard as I was going down and she kind of screamed. I caught my balance at the last minute so I didn’t actually fall. I could sense that Angie was concerned and even maybe upset with herself (even though it was my own fault for being over-zealous and careless) for this near fall but I assured her that if I do actually fall and even get scratched and bleed then I’ll just get up and shake it off and keep running. It’s all just part of the race and part of life, when we fall we just get back up and try again.
Angie is my fifth sighted running partner that I have teamed up with in a race event but this all started with a combination of my great trust in my original running partner and friend Gabe and the safe environment of my first ever 5K two years ago at the Shuttle Landing Strip at the Kennedy Space Center which I knew would be a perfectly flat and straight surface. I joke with people that I won’t ever trip on a pot-hole or a dip on that surface, it’s probably the most well maintained surface in the world. It was then that I gained the confidence to pursue running other 5K races on other more challenging surfaces and with other partners without fear or at least without hesitation, the fear is normal and a part of life but it’s a matter of recognizing it and then overcoming it that is the key I suppose otherwise we’ll remain frozen in the same place in life. The more I run with different sighted partners the more I have learned to trust them and gain more confidence and I find that this transfers over to other areas in my life. But I’ve also learned that they have to trust me as well and have confidence that I’ll keep us both safe from falls so it’s a true partnership. Running side by side for several miles is a true test of teamwork and friendship. I have noticed that I have grown closer to or bonded with each of my sighted running partners after our experience of running together in an event. I think my sighted partner has a feeling of accomplishment after helping me to complete a race and they even learn some new things about themselves as well as some things about my world of blindness. I know that I in turn learn something from every event.
As I was writing this and reflecting on today’s race it occurred to me that it would be neat if there was a 5K race in which runners teamed up with a partner who was blind-folded and ran with a rope between them and then they could switch the blind-fold at the halfway mark. Maybe we could even have an event for our leaders of governments of countries to do the same… maybe a step toward world peace.
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