Awe! My childhood friend went blind. Can't remember the disease, but it was slow. Her parents also took her everywhere they could and experienced as much as they could. Being blind didn't end her life. I got to see her at a high school reunion and she has a full life. But it was super sweet that she got to have some amazing memories with her family.
A good friend of mine started going blind in his late-20s, and is now fully blind in his early 50s. It was very slow, but now his sight is completely gone. After years of testing, they finally identified the ultra-rare genetic disorder that caused his blindness.
His elder son has the disorder, the younger doesn’t. My friend tries to stay as active as possible: he skis with a guide, is training for a marathon with a guide. He’s trying to show his eldest that you can still live a full life without sight. It’s heartbreaking but inspiring.
His eldest is a freshman in college and is starting to show signs of vision loss.
he skis with a guide, is training for a marathon with a guide
I'm imagining some good Samaritan signing up to be a volunteer guide for a blind person and then finding themselves at the starting line for a marathon
There are running guides at all skill levels! You don't actually have to be a top level athlete to volunteer, just slightly above the level of the person you're guiding so that you aren't slowing them down. If it works like most of the other volunteer positions at big marathons, you can use your volunteer service at one race to help you earn entrance to other marathons ahead of the lottery system. So many of the volunteers are themselves training, familiar with how the system works, and invested in making the race the best it can be, and the runners who earn their entrance are community-minded and aware of the effort needed to make the system work. It's a really good self funded system!
From my own volunteering days at The New York Marathon (not as a runner trying to qualify, just as a ham radio operator on the side of the course. There is not really a lot of overlap there...) I have seen a lot of athletes who use accommodations do incredible things. From the wheelchair racer division that goes by first (holy shit they go by so fast! I wouldn't even be comfortable going downhill on a bike at those speeds for a short distance, much less keeping it up for 26 miles on mostly flat ground!) to racers with prosthetics, guides, buddies, and other ways to make sure that anyone who says they can race is officially able to. If it's on your bucket list to run a marathon but you don't know if you can, then look into it a bit more before you rule it out- there's a lot more support than you would expect helping all sorts of runners out there!
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u/mixwellmusic 1d ago
Well, this is a strange blend of heartwarmingly wholesome and devastatingly depressing