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Running ‘blind’ by Linda Watt, jogscotland Bridge of Don I am a runner who has MS for quite a few years more than I care to remember. Due to my illness I lost my field of vision for a while. For somebody who is quite independent to have to rely on other people is pretty scary, so when I see people out running with a visual impairment or another disability, I take my hat off to them.
One day on the parkrun discussion group on Facebook, somebody mentioned it was World Sight Day on 10 October and they were encouraging people to help raise awareness. I had an idea that our jogscotland group could do a visually impaired (VI) run at Aberdeen Beach parkrun – we would pair up and one person would run blindfolded and the other person would act as the guide. So, I went back to my jogscotland group and suggested it, and lots of them volunteered to take part. I contacted Granite City Guided Runners, a group of VI runners and their guides, and they gave us advice on what we should be doing with tethers, high vis and so on (tethers are small straps – the VI runner holds one end and the guide holds the other). I got some old climbing rope, researched tethers online and made some myself, and some signs to go on people’s backs to tell other runners behind us that they were VI runner and guide.
stride jogscotland magazine
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Winter 2019
