Running

Runyan keeps eye on prize

TV: ESPN2 will televise the Boston Marathon from 11:55 a.m. to 3 p.m.

©Associated Press
April 21, 2003

WATERTOWN, Mass. -- On days like this, Marla Runyan doesn't mind being known as a blind runner.

On the course, Runyan insists on being treated like any athlete, though she is legally blind from a degenerative disease she's had since age 9.

But at the Perkins School for the Blind, Runyan is a natural inspiration for students.

"It isn't something I think about daily. It's who I am," she said at the school during a visit before today's Boston Marathon. "But, obviously, there's another side to my story. And it can be helpful to other people, which is great."

Runyan is the top female U.S. marathoner and the only American man or woman with a chance to contend this year. She finished fourth last year at the New York City Marathon, her first race at the distance, with the fifth-fastest time by an American woman.

She has competed in everything from the high jump to the heptathlon, at world championships, the Pan Am Games, the Olympics and the Paralympics. She set American records at 800 and 5,000 meters.

Runyan has Stargardt's, a macular disease that left her with 20/1,000 vision. Even wearing contact lenses, which improve her eyesight to 20/300 on one side (20/400 on the other), she cannot read the big E at the top of the eye chart.

Runyan can see 10-15 feet without trouble, so she sees potential obstacles such as potholes and trolley tracks in time to avoid stumbling over them when she runs. Same goes for competitors.

"The vision thing is not even a story, in my eyes," said her coach and husband, Matt Lonergan. "Anybody who knows anything about the sport doesn't pay attention to that. ... They know there's never been anybody who's done what Marla's done."

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