How many times had I been in this position? It must have been thousands as my coaches and I practiced and prepared for this kind of ambition over the last four years. My arms braced, my feet angled in the blocks, my head down in concentration, and the pads of my fingers pressing into the rough, almost crumbly surface of the race track. My mind and every muscle in my body waiting in tense anticipation to pounce, waiting for the hard crack of the starter’s gun. This is my favourite part. The smallest of spaces between the set-up and the story. The script readying to write itself in a sprinter’s scrawl across time as it unfurls beneath every carefully choreographed and clipped step. The year is 1992 – the year that changed history. Until then, the Paralympics had not been under the same organisational banner as the Olympics. Finally progress had stamped her approval, and for the first time, the Paralympic […]
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A Guide To Guide Running
So you’re thinking about becoming a guide runner, or maybe you’re just a little bit curious about how it all works, but don’t know where to start. Well you’re in the right place. Hi, I’m Meg, and I’ll be your runner, and your guide to guide running for the day. Guide running for a blind or low vision athlete can be nerve racking. After all, you don’t quite know how much is involved or what to expect, right? But I promise it isn’t as complicated as you may think. So take a deep breath, and relax. You’ve so got this – we’ve so got this! Now let’s get down to the majesty, brilliance, and brass tacks of guide running. What is it, and how do you go about it? Guide running is a collaboration between a sighted guide and a blind or low vision athlete. Sounds awesome, right? The good news is, not all the onus is on you as the […]
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Parkrun For One
Parkrun may have cost me a pyjama day on the lounge, and some serious toddler treat negotiations with Little so I did not have to actually parent. Hell, it will probably cost me an entire weekend, but the cognitive overload and exhaustion was oh so worth it. Guess who challenged her crazy self to a solo Parkrun with nothing but a sketchy mental map, a white mobility cane with a rover wheel adaption for ease of use, a buzzy thing known as a Mini Guide, and a Bow Tie Running Rope guide tether on her hip in case she made a friend along the way? Chosen for its flexibility, yet not too close not too far apart design, this Running Rope would give me and my fiction the freedom to synchronise our movement, but forgive us our just getting to know one another form. In fact, one of our inspirations behind this particular Running Rope was the Parkrun format with its […]
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An Exercise Mat For One
When it comes to exercise, in my experience some activities are more blind or low vision friendly than others. This is often for no other reason than they don’t involve other people. Let’s face it, other people add complexities to the equation. For example, it’s not as though I can spontaneously turn up to a run, exercise class, or an event. Oh no, it’s not that simple. There’s most likely people there I’ve never met. It doesn’t matter how comfortable I am with the run, class or event. I still have to overcome other people’s unconscious bias, anxieties, experience, and ignorance. And we haven’t even said hello, let alone laced up our shoes. So even when I do want to participate, often I don’t. This is because I have to go through the rigor of having to advocate, organise, educate, reassure, and sometimes even ask for permission. I then have to accommodate people’s intentions, fears, and curiosities. It really saps all […]
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