Picking up from last time –
Oh my goodness, did we finally do it? We, finally in part 5 of this story, got to the race? Yee haw!
I went over to the Blindstart tent, got my t-shirt and my bib. They took a million pictures, which obviously I am always down for.
As we waited around, I started wondering when and who to ask about the blindfold. That’s when I overheard one of the coordinators looking for someone to guide an actually blind runner.
Oh no, if they’re having trouble finding guides for people who actually need them, that doesn’t make things look too promising for me. Of course I paid the money, got up early, and came all the way out here for the specific reason of trying this new experience. So, if I just go out there and run in the mud like it’s any other race, I may end up a bit cranky.
Thankfully, even though for a moment it seemed like there might be a problem finding guides, that fear disappeared almost the moment it began. There was a huge group of people running for Blindstart who were part of a smaller, more specific group (supporting a specific person). Now, why I say it was smaller than our whole Blindstart team, I mean barely smaller. The vast majority of the Blindstart team was made up of this (barely) smaller team.
That whole team was taking a group picture – leaving us with only a handful of other people around. That’s why it seemed we might be short. Once the group photo was over, there were more than enough people around who wanted to be guides.
I was paired with wife and husband team Joanna and Nick. They were so sweet, kind and all-around awesome.
Nick and I got bright orange vests with signs on the back of runner and guide.
As I was walking around with my blindfold, preparing to simulate being blind for a while, another runner came over and told me that she thought I was brave to be trying the blindfolded running. She said that last year it seemed like at least half the blindfolded runners gave up on the idea and ripped off their blindfolds midway through the race.
It never even dawned on me to think about doing that. I’m in it to finish this thing! Plus, it’s only 3 miles. Who can’t survive that?
(Usually when I end posts with sentences like that, it’s some sort of foreshadowing… Spoiler alert: Worry not. I never took the blindfold off while on the course.
(Though I will admit what I though would be a measly 5k (ish (slightly longer)) was tougher than I expected..)
We’ll pick up here next time!