Cherry Creek Sneak Welcomes Blind Runners

Live interview by Ashton Altieri on 7:40 am broadcast

The separate start for the blind athletes in this year's Cherry Creek Sneak 5k is truly a milestone in my life. My hope is to further the development of sports for the visually impaired and blind athletes.

I had an unexpected live interview on the Sunday morning broadcast with Ashton Altieri. The interview left no time for a warm up with my blind athlete, Kerry Kuck. That was a little nerve wracking since I had never guided Kerry before.

Kerry prefers his method of guiding and following, which is more like "towing" in adventure racing. Since he is totally blind and usually runs with his guide dog, he has become used to feeling the tension of the tether for balance.

He wanted to run sub 8:00 pace, really hoping for 7:30 pace. I thought, "no problem." I did not take into account the effort of being 110 pound woman and towing a man who weighs about 145 pounds. Let's say it adds about a minute per mile, that is according to Kerry and his experience with other guides. He did run a sub 8:00 pace, we averaged 7:45 miles.  I told him that I should have trained with a 20 pound weight vest to get him in the lower 7:00 range for the race. Towing is very different than side by side running. Here is a short clip of the start of the race.  - Deb