i think the answer is that she could see shapes and the outline of the track; mostly she watched the inside line.
it seems more impressive that she was able to train at that high of a level. how could she do her mileage??
i think the answer is that she could see shapes and the outline of the track; mostly she watched the inside line.
it seems more impressive that she was able to train at that high of a level. how could she do her mileage??
Well, her last name is RUNyan. That's not an accident.
nuttella wrote:
Well, her last name is RUNyan. That's not an accident.
i heard she also was a heptathlete(which includes hurdles which has to be hard for blind person) and a 6 foot high jumper.
here are mrla runyans personal best's
200- 24.56
800- 2:03.18
1500-4:02.95
mile 4:43 (indoors)
3k- 8:39.36
5k- 14:59.20
10k 31:46
15k 48:43
10 miles-53.57
20k-65:52
half marathon-71:19
marathon-2:27.10 at nyc marathon in 2002
100 hurdles 13.89
shot-11.24
high jump-1.77
long jump-5.69
javelin throw (old model)-35.12
heptathlon-5761
good versatility.
All you have to do is turn left! Running on a track is not that hard.
You can feel your way around jostling if you had to. She spent her whole life adjusting.
Goes to show how weak womans running in this country is.
HGH and lots and lots of EPO
Serious person wrote:
Wouldn't she have gotten spiked or been jostled etc/not know what was going on?
WTF is "legally blind"? Either you´re blind and you don´t see shit or you´re not.
ahum wrote:
WTF is "legally blind"? Either you´re blind and you don´t see shit or you´re not.
That is not true. Are you familiar with vision at all? Spectacles?
Legally blind probably means that she can register as being blind. I'm not familiar with the set up in the US but in Ireland for example if you are registered blind you get a free pass for public transport. There are also some tax credits if you have a guide dog and there's the possibility of getting grants for access to work for things such as screen readers or braille displays. You can be registered blind once you have a sight level where you can see at 6 metres what a person with normal sight can see at 60 metres. While obviously disabling in some respects 6/60 vision is very functional. This is reflected in the paralympics where there are separate categories for athletes who are totally blind compared to those who are visually impaired. Of course, there's controversy there too because if somebody can count fingers in one of their eyes they'll have to compete against somebody who has 6/60 vision. Obviously there are huge differences in terms of the support required for those two athletes to train. If you have 6/60 vision you are a lot more independent in training terms than if the limit of your vision is counting fingers in front of one eye. I'm not familiar with the athlete mentioned in this thread but I'd venture a guess that she was closer to 6/60 than being able to count fingers in one eye only.
Because she was pulled by that dog.
She has macular degeneration, which essentially means that the middle of her field of vision is gone. I believe that she has a heptathalete before her vision was (greatly) impacted.
Learn more:
Correct,
Marla was legally blind. With a special set of glasses she could even drive during the day (not allowed at night). This was the case in the mid 90's when I knew her. I don't know if her vision has become worse as she has aged. Bottom line, even though legally blind, she could see well enough to run on the road, track, etc., without constantly tripping or running into people. Not that it was an easy thing to do for her.
"In a nut shell, here is my answer; I see the ground beneath my feet, I see the other runners near me, moving bodies, colored uniforms, however, I don’t recognize faces until I see someone up close. I see the bright white lines that designate each lane of the track, but for races longer than 800 meters, you don’t need to stay in a particular lane. It’s a free for all. If I had to, as I did in high school and college, I can see well enough to stay in my lane and sprint to the finish without any hesitation...Today my visual acuity measures 20/400 in both eyes. There is no cure for Stargart’s and it is not correctable with glasses or contact lenses."
winnie wrote:
Correct,
Marla was legally blind. With a special set of glasses she could even drive during the day (not allowed at night). This was the case in the mid 90's when I knew her. I don't know if her vision has become worse as she has aged. Bottom line, even though legally blind, she could see well enough to run on the road, track, etc., without constantly tripping or running into people. Not that it was an easy thing to do for her.
I really wish that people who are legally blind didn't try to drive cars.