Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Check out the training videos

On the side of the page is the link to some Vision 5K video on You Tube.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Training Session

Hi
I didn’t get my blog out yesterday because the training plus my soccer game after that wore me out! But I do want to talk about the training we did yesterday. We learned lots of new tips like:
- you can count out distances in time or whatever unit is more comfortable to you
- communication helps
- give warning before a turn
- make sure that there isn’t too much tension on the tether so that you can freely move your arms when running
All of these tips will help me for the race.

The feeling when you have the blindfold on is different. It doesn’t feel like you shouldn’t be running - I didn't feel like I couldn't do it with the blindfold. It also feels like you have to prove to anyone who doesn’t believe that people who are blind are capable of anything that they truly are. But the horrible thing about that feeling is that you shouldn’t have to prove anything. People shouldn’t judge others based on one thing. And it shouldn’t be on something they have no control over. A person can’t change that they are blind but they can show others that it doesn’t change whom they are or what they can do.

I wrote Thank You cards and a Thank You email to the people that contributed already.
Bye
Rachel

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Our First Run Together

hi,
today my mom and i went running. We started out walking, no blindfold, with a tether. Then we put the blindfold on me and walked again. it was an odd feeling and completely different to me. we started to jog. We really weren't going very fast. At times i wanted to take the blindfold off because i felt uncomfortable not knowing where i was going. I didn't remove the blindfold because to anyone who is blind taking the blindfold off isn't an option. There isn't a blindfold to them. I had never thought about what it is like to truly not look at where you are going. This is a challenge that is totally new to me.

I started writing thank you notes to people who have donated. my mom is making me do these now so i can keep up with them. when the vision 5K is done i'll have plenty of bat mitzvah thank you cards to write too!

keep you posted on our next runs...

tips:
bandanas work as pretty good blindfolds
an elastic headband worked as a tether
try the tether on both hands so you know which is better for you, once you find out, don't keep switching back and forth
for the guide learn to estimate how many steps it will take for certain distances so you can count off for the blindfolded runner

thanks
rachel