Completing the 26.2-mile New York City Marathon is a feat that anyone would be proud to accomplish. But a blind person just competing in the NYC Marathon sounds absolutely impossible. Don’t tell that to Simon Wheatcroft, who will be the first blind person to compete in the 47th running of the cherished race on Sunday. He will attempt to run in the marathon with the help of a device that will guide him through New York City.
Last year 51,394 people finished the 2017 NYC Marathon and Simon hopes to be one of the accomplished runners who make it through the grueling race. Simon, who has a degenerative eye disease and was registered blind at 17, will be utilizing a device to avoid any obstacles. The WearWorks company created a device called Wayband that Simon helped develop. The device consists of an armband that uses GPS and sends small vibrations to inform Simon to veer left or right while he’s running. There is another device that he wears on his chest that has a sensor which informs Simon if there are runners in front of him.
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Wheatcroft admitted that developing the technology had some brutal speed bumps along the way and caused him to have several scary accidents. “When you can’t see where you’re running you have to assume the environment is constant,” he told ITV. “That has seen me running into burnt out cars that have been left in the middle of the pavement and injuring myself quite badly.”
Simon isn’t just looking to run the NYC Marathon with the Wayband, he wants it to assist other blind and visually-impaired individuals. “I’m not doing these things just so I can be the first to do this and the first to do that, what I’m interested in is making sure this technology exists to help everybody.”
Simon revealed that he is “excited, nervous and a little scared” for the big marathon and admitted that he will be full of tears when he crosses the finish line. Good luck to Simon and all of the runners in Sunday’s NYC Marathon.
[NYDN]