Runner Insight

^ Click Arrow Above To Listen

I received an e-mail from my friend Karen about my blog post “Kung Fu Running” from a couple of weeks ago.  She was telling me that she could relate to my explanation of how I punch and swing at shadows and lights that startle me when they cross my visual path.

She said: 

Her comments reminded me of walking home from work in the morning.  When I get off work, sometimes it’s still dark out.  As I walk home, the sky will start to get lighter, and I will often see shapes alongside the path.  Greeting them as I pass with a friendly “Good Morning” or “Hello”, their silence indicates the presence of a nice, but relatively introverted bush.  Feeling silly, I laugh at myself for mistaking it for a person and continue on my way home. 

Now there is one bush in particular, that every morning when I pass it, I am compelled to say hello to it.  Realizing early on that it was just a bush, somehow I still can’t pass it without acknowledging it with an enthusiastic early morning greeting.

It makes me smile, and I’m sure the shrubbery gets a chuckle out of it, too….

How ‘bout it?

-Vision Runner

__________________________________________

Popularity: 1% [?]

^Click Arrow Above To Listen

This time of the year poses some definite challenges for me as a blind runner.  One of them is the change in the lighting outside. As the sun is at a different angle, there are more shadows and well, just odd lighting that is hard for me to visually interpret sometimes. 

To someone with normal eyesight, the seasonal lighting change is not a big deal; it’s just a matter of fact. It’s what triggers the changing colors of the leaves and sometimes our moods for people with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). 

But for me it’s when I do a lot of kung fu running.  What is kung fu running?  

As I’m running along, out of nowhere, a shadow wanders across my visual horizon.  It might be a tree limb blowing in the wind, or a passing car casting a shadow or reflection of light off a mirror or some other shiny surface. 

What ever it is, it will cause me to suddenly throw up my hands in an attempt to protect myself from dangerous shadows!  It may look to the casual observer like I’m being attacked by invisible bees, or that I have some kind of nervous twitch, or perhaps like I’m ready to fight. I’m a little curious as to what people passing by must think of this bizarre behavior.   

Hard as I may try, it’s hard to quell the urge to protect myself from all manner of lurking shadows out to waylay me on my journey. I thought that running with the white cane would cure me of this need to shadow box, but yet it prevails. Even when I have my white cane out and in front of me, and I am confident nothing is there, I still find myself occasionally flailing about because an errant spark of light or shadow has crossed my visual path.

And it’s not just the speed of movement when I’m running that causes it. I even find myself throwing the occasional karate chop while walking. I nearly always hold onto T’s arm as we walk, so I won’t wander off the trail. She is always really good about telling me when there is something I need to be aware of, like a mud puddle or dog or whatever. So on our walk one day when I suddenly jumped and self-defensively threw a quick defensive chop into the air, T said, “He was only about 3 years old, I think you could have taken him.” 

Hey!     His shadow was HUGE!

Until my vision improves, I guess I’ll have to live with the occasional flailing of arms and awkward martial arts impression.  Luckily I can’t see how goofy it looks.

How ‘bout it, Grasshopper? 

-Vision Runner

Popularity: 4% [?]