Program pairs visually impaired or blind runners with guide volunteers

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/JOHN SYKES JR. - Blind runner Gustavo Manzanales of Little Rock, (left) who is a rehabilitation counselor with Arkansas Department of Human Services and Chris Baldwin of Little Rock use a tether while running together. Baldwin was Manzanales' volunteer guide.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/JOHN SYKES JR. - Blind runner Gustavo Manzanales of Little Rock, (left) who is a rehabilitation counselor with Arkansas Department of Human Services and Chris Baldwin of Little Rock use a tether while running together. Baldwin was Manzanales' volunteer guide.

What began in January in response to a common New Year’s resolution - to get healthier - quickly evolved into a way for those who are blind or visually impaired to widen their worlds.

Thus was born central Arkansas’ first running group for people who can’t see well enough to run alone.

“It was originally set up as a running clinic at the beginning of the year when there’s a lot of interest in people wanting to get in shape,” explains Susy Phillips, volunteer coordinator with World Services for the Blind in Little Rock. The original goal was to introduce the agency’s clients to the sport of walking and running. But the new running group and the races its members enter have become another way to enhance the mission of the private, nonprofit organization.

About a dozen volunteer guide runners have been practicing the sport weekly, Mondays and Wednesdays, with blind clients. They don’t confine their workouts to the relative safety of a track: They run and walk out in the world, on and beside streets often busy with rushhour traffic.

For those with no or limited sight, running is nothing short of a leap of faith.

“Most of them had never run before,” Phillips says of the nine blind or visually impaired clients who’ve participated. “One of them was already running but he always caned it, just using his cane very fast.”

But even he was hesitant to try a new method.

“He asked me, ‘Is this safe?’ and I assured him I wasn’t going to run him into a hole or a tree,” says Phillips, a former ultrarunner who still runs marathons.

“He got to flat-out run, and he had a great time,” Phillips says.

World Services for the Blind, founded in 1947, serves adults from all over the nation. Through programs ranging from four to 10 months, the organization works with up to 100 clients at a time, teaching everything from independent living skills to those needed in high-tech jobs like computer programming. Besides programming, a client could train to become a desktop support technician, information technology professional and Microsoft Office specialist. The World Services for the Blind, a certified Microsoft Academy, also assists with job placement, including through a partnership with the Internal Revenue Service.

“About 83 percent of our clients get jobs which pay on average about $32,000 a year,” Phillips says, adding that the organization strives to connect clients with their community.

Participating in footraces helps do that.

“In your daily life, how often do you actually encounter someone who’s blind?” Phillips asks. “When you do, people want to be helpful, but they don’t really know what to do.”

WEEKLY MILES

During some of the weekly meetings at the the nonprofit’s complex in Little Rock at 27th Street and Fair Park Boulevard, the new runners meet in the organization’s auditorium and learn about the best clothes to wear for running, the best foods to eat. They also hear tips for increasing speed and distance.

On other days, they run on several different 1 ½ -mile courses that include passing through part of the nearby University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Between meetings, the runners often work out on treadmills in the nonprofit’s personal conditioning room.

“It allows them to get in their weekly miles or to practice going faster or farther without a guide,” Phillips says.

On a recent afternoon as a light rain fell, volunteer guide Chris Baldwin, 40, of Little Rock, hit the pavement with his blind running partner Gustavo Manzanales, 28, of Little Rock, a rehabilitation counselor with the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

Manzanales was preparing for the Capital City Classic 10K, a 6.2-mile footrace in Two Rivers Park on April 5. According to its published results, he finished the 10K in 50:16.57, a pace of 8:06 minutes per mile. Baldwin finished with him, at 50:16.80.

Following behind them was Trinette Barnes, 42, of Glendora, Calif., who’s been visually impaired since birth. She was running alongside her volunteer guide Rebecca Morgan, 53. Barnes, who did the Little Rock Marathon’s 5K in early March, was also preparing to run in the City Classic. (Her finish time was 1:50:53.40, a pace of 17:53 per mile; Morgan finished with her, at 1:50:53.84.)

Barnes says she ran a little in high school but the Little Rock Marathon 5K was her first official race. Why does she enjoy the sport?

“It’s freedom,” she says. “You have your guide next to you but you can feel the wind against your cheek.”

Cody Greiser, 27, who has been blind his entire life, resides in Montana but is at World Services for the Blind while training for his job with the IRS. He says he likes running for the health benefits and has been a runner ever since he graduated from high school.

“I don’t want to go into my 40s and 50s and worry about being overweight and unhealthy,” he says. “And I like being outdoors and the activity, feeling my heart pounding.” Greiser also ran in the Little Rock Marathon 5K and the Junior League’s Downtown Dash.

WATCH OUT

For the volunteer guides, the biggest challenge is noticing the right details to share with their runners - broken sidewalks, curbs, holes in the road, obstacles like barricades or other objects.

“They have to keep their eyes on everything,” Barnes says. “I love it and have no trust issues.”

“Even though I have run her into a park bench and a pole,” one of her guides, Elaine Gimblet, 66, of North Little Rock interjects. (Gimblet is Phillips’ mother.)

“Having a runner fall down on you is just going to happen,” Baldwin says. “And when it does, you feel terrible about it. Not only do we need to watch where we put our feet but we have to watch where our runners also put theirs. But we just try to learn from our mistakes.”

Donning bright orange T-shirts with the World Services for the Blind logo emblazoned on the front and the words BLIND RUNNER or GUIDE RUNNER in all capital letters printed on the back, the group first participated in the Little Rock Marathon 5K. Some joined in the Downtown Dash, and others entered the Capital City Classic.

PARTNERS

Agreeing to take to crowded streets and put one foot in front of the other, at a much faster pace than usual, is an act of courage and requires a lot of faith from the clients.

“You tell them you want to take away their cane,” Phillips says, “and they’re thinking,‘This is how I protect myself from myself and you’re telling me you want to take it away from me and I’ve only known you for, like, 20 seconds?’”

The cane is replaced by a partnership: The runner and guide travel side by side, either connected by a short rope tether or, more often, with the runner holding the elbow or shoulder of the guide who tells them everything that’s underfoot, from broken sidewalks and looming curbs to potholes and other hazardous items that somehow wind up in the street - bottles, pens, foam cups.

And there are subtle signals the guide and runner share, such as the guide’s tucking one arm behind his back to signal they’re headed into a narrow space.

Neither role is immediately natural or comfortable.

“It’s funky for the runner, and it’s funky for the guide,” Phillips says .“The guide is wondering, ‘How much information do I give you?’

“You may find yourself saying things like, ‘There’s a vagrant on the sidewalk, we need to go around.’

“If you’re a guide, you’re responsible for where your runner puts their feet as well as where you put your own.”

The guides also help complete the experience for the runners, sharing tidbits like, “There’s a guy with a big green wig on over there” or “Here is a man men and his three kids cheering from the sidelines.”

“It makes the course three-dimensional for them,” Phillips says, adding that runners and guides seem to bond quickly.

“From the first day we paired up, they were all joined at the hip, and no one wanted to switch,” she says. “And they were teasing one another, placing bets on who was going to finish first.”

THE WEDGE

One technique that helps the blind and visually impaired in running involves extra partners: sighted runners position themselves a few feet ahead of the group, creating what they’ve termed a wedge.

Running ahead, the volunteers help to alert slower racers on the road that the visual-assistance team is coming through. Their wedge effectively moves people ahead out of the way so the group from World Services can continue in a straight line.

“At first, sometimes you might get a nasty look from the runners you’re asking to move aside,” she says. “But once we begin to pass them and they see our shirts, they cheer us on.

“It does take a lot of courage to go out there and do this,” Phillips says, “but it helps build their confidence. And it’s really awesome for them in that moment when they’re running across the finish line.”

ActiveStyle, Pages 23 on 04/21/2014

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