Blind student runs down challenges

So, Jamie Weedman had never embarked on a race like the Rodes City Run before last Saturday morning. No doubt he was not the only one for whom that was true among the thousands of people who flooded the streets of downtown Louisville for the second leg of the Triple Crown of Running.

But this particular young man’s decision to brave the 10-kilometer distance and the bustling crowds for the first time in his 22 years has attracted a lot more interest from the local media. He has granted interview requests from such outlets as WHAS-840, WAVE-3, WLKY-32 and FOX-41, and he has begun to hear people call him “an inspiration.”

Weedman, who is blind, certainly didn’t seek any of this attention. “I just want to run,” he said.

But he has accepted it gracefully, understanding what many of us might assume about him despite what all of us now see him doing.

He only asks that we believe our own eyes.

“Blind people are just as capable as anybody else,” said Weedman, a Louisville resident and Jefferson Community College sophomore. “If anyone sees me running, that’s the message I want to put out there.”

He’s making that point loud and clear - without saying a word.

Running alongside guide Dave Gassman as each clutched a lanyard with his inside hand, Weedman successfully navigated the City Run’s congested course on Saturday and completed the race in a brisk 50:37. He placed 1,000th overall, cracking the top 20 percent of the 5,089 people who finished.

But that was only the beginning for the ambitious Weedman, who intends to run in the Papa John’s 10 Miler on April 15 and the Kentucky Derby Festival’s miniMarathon on April 29. Five miles had been the farthest he had ever run in a race before the City Run. Now he wants to tackle a 10-miler, which would match his longest training run, and a 13.1-miler.

“It will be a challenge, but I think I can do it,” he said. “If I can do 10, I can do 13. It’s just three miles more.”

Keep in mind that Weedman has a solid running background. Born in Paducah, Ky., with an eye disorder known as retinopathy of prematurity, he was adopted by Louisville residents Maury Weedman, a former runner, and Pauletta Feldman shortly after his first birthday. With his parents’ support, he started running competitively as a high school student at the Kentucky School for the Blind and wanted to continue running after he graduated in 2004.

That summer, Robin Frazier, the development director for Visually Impaired Preschool Services, asked Gassman if he would be Weedman’s guide in the Texas Roadhouse Stampede for VIPS in August. Gassman, a miniMarathon veteran who had started running about 10 years earlier to improve his health, agreed.

Since then, Weedman and Gassman, now 49, have run together in more than 20 races.

“It’s been a good friendship and a good partnership,” said Weedman, who, like Gassman, is a member of the Iroquois Hill Runners. “I’ve made a lot of friends, and I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Gassman, who said he lost a job around the time he met Weedman, has been inspired by him.

“Meeting Jamie and seeing his positive attitude towards life and can-do attitude in general has helped me remember to keep things in perspective and realize what is important in life,” he said.

And, like many other people have come to do, Gassman believes in Weedman. So he’s been encouraging his running mate to take a shot at the miniMarathon.

“I didn’t think I was ready last year, but I think I’m ready now,” Weedman said. “Why not give it a try and see how I do?”

Indeed, why not?