On Sunday I had the unique opportunity to be the first person to guide a visually impaired runner. He has run in several races solo, most recently a 20k as well as a number of shorter races. His training is managed on his own by sticking to familiar routes and going at times when there’s less traffic. When we started speaking a few months ago he was interested in trying new running routes, addressing his concern of feeling less safe running on the streets and to see if I was able to run a half marathon with him a couple months out. I was open immediately to getting together and giving him the experience of running with a sighted guide. I kept asking when he was going to run and encouraging us getting together, but the weeks passed, and we couldn’t make it work. Throughout this time we’ve been in contact almost daily, talking about training and what kind of mileage he should be putting in with just having completed a 20k and going in on a half marathon a few weeks after. I’d keep inquiring about his expectations of what he wanted from me on race day; from his recent race experiences he really had two major items he was looking for help on: avoiding cones on streets, as he hit more than a few in his recent race and avoiding contact with runners who may cut him off when they pass. Fairly basic wishes which meant I had to go in to race day with an open and observing mind.
It was hard to gather any meaningful information for the first couple miles of the race as we were part of a crowd and patiently waiting for runners to thin out as they fell in to pace. I had us mostly running outside the race course when there was the opportunity. Between mile 2 and 3 we had to be back in the course with the crowd but running with the pack at a pace that was right on goal with what we had discussed prior to the race. That’s when John, the visually impaired runner, said “I’m going to speed up and pass this runner in front of me.” He sped up and we moved around the runner easily. That’s when I became more aware of what was happening as runners came in to his line of sight about 10 feet in front of him, he’d back off. Even though there wasn’t any concern, from my perspective, of us running over that runner John would slow down. Up to that point my cues for guiding were verbal, “we’re turning left here, the curb is on your left, we have lots of space…” “let’s move over to the left we have lots of space over there…” Now it was time to try something new, I started easing John left and right by grabbing his elbow and pushing and pulling him one way or another with the goal of keeping his line of sight open to nothing but road. Immediately he picked up the pace, he seemed to relax and most of the next 7 miles were spent in silence gliding left and right working our way around slower runners, it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had running. He keeps track of his pace with an app on his phone, since he was aware of how fast he was going and it being his race – I just ran with him and enjoyed the ride.
John had a goal and expectation of 2 hours, he finished at 1:50. He shared after the race that he was hesitant to run with a guide.
The leadership lessons I learned were the following: 1 - when I work with anew to me people, I should expect to not get the full story, there is likely hesitation, fear to change, bad past experiences all there for me to overcome. 2 – jump in and trust my strengths when there isn’t more information. I believed in my experience running with other visually impaired and blind athletes, I believed that by being present and observing what was happening that there would be areas to improve the race experience for John. 3 – let John stay in the driver’s seat, as the race went on and he ran faster than his expected pace, I let it be. It wasn’t my race, it wasn’t my place to talk him in to backing down, even if he blew up with a couple miles to go, that’s his lesson to learn and one he wouldn’t learn through my coaching. 4 – I learned something about myself, there wasn’t a hill that John didn’t like – each hill he attacked all the way up. I’ve never run that way in a race but he was depending on me to be there, so I pushed up each hill with him. I learned that I can run hills that way and keep running strong after.
We have more races coming this year and I can't wait for what lessons those will bring me.
