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| Runners battle rainy weather conditions while running along U.S. 158 in Nags Head during the first OBX Marathon. (Chris Curry | The Virginian-Pilot) |
By Kristin Davis
The Virginian-Pilot
Steve Sedgwick is not an elite athlete. He has run 13.1 miles only once.
He plans to do it again Sunday, this time in the Gateway Bank Half Marathon on the Outer Banks. He won't be dressed like the other runners, though.
Sedgwick plans to sport a long-sleeved T-shirt that says "Blind Guy." That's because he is.
The vision problems started in childhood and got progressively worse through the years, said Sedgwick, a 49-year-old from Vienna. He had to stop driving in 2003. By 2005, he couldn't see to read or work anymore. These days he has only peripheral vision in his right eye.
Exercise, and lots of it, Sedgwick said doctors told him, would help stave off total blindness. He swam and lifted weights. But he needed a partner if he was going to run.
Sedgwick found one earlier this year in fellow Lions Club member J.P. Brehony. The pair began Saturday morning jogs shoulder-to-shoulder along a narrow bike path.
"He gets us across the roads," Sedgwick said. "He says, 'Steve, watch out, there's a bump in the road, there's a bicycle coming.' "
At first, the cyclists didn't appreciate two men taking up the whole width of the bike path. They said as much, too, until Brehony had the "Blind Guy" T-shirt made for Sedgwick. He got one for himself that said "I'm With Blind Guy."
"The women laugh. The men give us a little extra room," Sedgwick said.
"They've become very polite and very deferential," Brehony said.
It was Brehony's sister, Kathleen Brehony of Manteo, N.C., who introduced the idea of the Outer Banks Marathon.
There are 1,500 people registered for the marathon; 2,500 are signed up for the half marathon, said event administrator Amy Montgomery. Organizers expect several hundred more to register this weekend.
Marathon mile markers went up along the 26.2-mile route days ago. Towns are dressing up their streets in different colors. Businesses are welcoming runners on marquees for this second annual event.
The Outer Banks Marathon began last year as an off-
season event designed, in part, to introduce new people to the area and boost the local economy. The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, the event's title sponsor, estimates that the marathon generates $3 million for the business community. Two local non profits - the Dare Education Foundation and the Outer Banks Relief Foundation - also benefit.
Elite athletes will run for the prize purse. Some will qualify for the Olympics. A handful of folks will make the trek in their wheelchairs.
Sedgwick and Brehony, like always, plan to run as a pair.
They'll have a cheering section - their wives and a group from the Vienna Lions Club.
It will be Sedgwick's first visit to the Outer Banks. He hears the people are friendly.
"I hope to get something from them," Sedgwick said.
He hopes to give them something, too.
"Even though you have a disability," he said, "you can be out there."
Kristin Davis, (252) 441-1623, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com
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