This week has been a frantic combination of events. From yesterday's Valentine (love you Joy) to a quick trip east this weekend to visit family, it seems that this week will be over in a heartbeat. That said, I will be avoiding my leadership duties with the group over the next couple of days and will see you all next Tuesday. For those that will meet at 9 am Saturday, please enjoy another trip to Eau Claire and a sneak-a-peak look at the soon to be opened Peace Bridge. Yep, a year and a half after the scheduled opening, it sounds like we will get our first trot on the red rocket (or candy cane as some call it) later in March. Have a great weekend as the weather looks fantastic!
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Our friend Carroll is participating in a project relating to strokes. The organizer of the program is Morgan Moe morgan@citizenimpulse.com. He is looking for healthy lifestyle individuals around the age of 50 to participate in his project. Here are his words:
To give you a bit more information on myself and my project; I am a recent U of C graduate (Kinesiology) and long time volunteer Association for the Rehabilitation of the Brain Injured (ARBI) here in Calgary. I have recently been selected from thousands of applicants across Canada to be a part of The Next 36 (thenext36.ca). Next36 brings together the top 36 most entrepreneurial students in Canada for an intensive 9 month program funded by 3 of Canada's billionaires. As a part of the program myself and 3 other students will be developing a mobile and tablet application to help stroke patients and their families recover from a stroke.
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I wonder how many pieces of cake, chocolate, or various treats you had yesterday? I know I had a few, but don't tell Joy as they are not on the plan! I was sent a link to a good blog on Women's running that had a great piece of cake on their page today...mmm cake. If only they offered that on race day I think I would be complete! Although it doesn't go well with my beer...
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Every once in a while I like to pull a story out of my tickle trunk as a reminder of the challenges we face while training and competing in our chosen challenge. We all face obstacles that inhibit the perfect day. For some reason we have the ability to allow our challenges to overcome us. From the undulations, weather, previous nights booze, to whatever causes us to think we are oppressed, we do have a fortunate ability to do what we do. Sometimes I take things for granted and don't notice what a lucky man I am. I wonder how often that happens to you?
The story below is one of those feel good stories that always pick me up. I can't help but think back to 20 years ago when as a young runner I had the honour of guiding Larry Rienke (sp?) for the fall season. It is quite interesting to 'see' a route from the eyes of someone who can't.
Enjoy.
Love of Running Keeps Blind Marathoner Going
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
He is the only blind person in the 26.2-mile event.
“I love running, I love sports,” said Gokey, 55, who works as a switchboard operator for the police department in Modesto, Calif. “It’s recreation but very competitive for me.”
He has run nearly two dozen marathons, including four times in Boston and just last month in Sacramento since his first marathon almost 11 years ago in Napa, Calif.
Sunday will be his first appearance in the Houston event.
“I will sit home Sunday night and I’ll think about it,” Gokey said. “It never gets old. Finishing and the idea of finishing and getting my medal and wearing my medal for a week, it never gets old.”
Gokey was born blind, and he said that made his disability different from those who had sight and lost it later in life.
“I’ve been fortunate,” he said. “It’s not a big deal. It’s an inconvenience at times, but I’ve adjusted pretty well with it. I don’t have any fear with it.”
He trains at home on a treadmill.
“There are days I don’t like to train,” he said. “It does take a certain amount of discipline.”
In a marathon, a team of four guides leads him around the course, each taking a segment of the race. He is linked to his guides by two five-foot PVC pipes, the kind used in plumbing.
“They hold on one end and I hold on the other,” he said. “The pipe balances me. It feels like the treadmill. It’s probably psychological but it works out.”
His guide tells him his location on the course, or if there is a turn or a change in the surface, like a railroad crossing. Frequent irritations for him are reflectors cemented to the roadway that mark traffic lanes.
“Those things in the middle of the road, my feet are like magnets; they find them,” he said, laughing.
“My biggest problem is I get so consumed with wanting to run well, and sometimes if I’m not running well it gets in my head and then I start pressing. And you can’t press.”
His best time is just over four hours.
Statistics are not kept on the number of marathon runners among the 1.3 million legally blind Americans. Mark Lucas, executive director of the United States Association of Blind Athletes, made an “educated guess” that it was fewer than 100.
The association has helped train blind athletes for more than 30 years and advocates for them to be allowed to compete with sighted people. The Paralympics record in the marathon for the class of runner who, like Gokey, is totally blind and is allowed to use up to four guides is 3 hours 3 minutes 48 seconds, set in 1988 by Rick Holborow of New Jersey.
“Having to run 26.2 miles as a blind person truly boggles my mind,” said Steven Karpas, director of marketing and race development for the Houston Marathon. “I have huge respect and admiration for Mr. Gokey.”
Gokey said spectators and runners often tell him the same.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Connie Almeida, one of his guides, said while training with Gokey a few days before the event. “I think he’s an inspiration to anybody, that you can get out there and do anything.”
One hazard in the often close quarters of a marathon is unwittingly getting in the way of others. Gokey remembers stepping on a woman’s foot a couple of times in the Sacramento Marathon a few years ago.
“She didn’t even look back but just said, ‘You blind or something?’ ”
He replied: “ ‘You know what? As a matter of fact. ...’
“My guide said it was great. When she finally looked back, she had that look like she just had stepped in something. Then she ran away.”
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