Braggin' About My Friend

very cool!

Awesome, way to go Myra!

And way to go, FreddyBeachPete for making it possible.

Answers to some of the posted questions:

1. The experience was FANTASTIC for me too. I have been her guide in a couple of Half Marathons (we met when she was doing her 3rd NYC marathon!) and I truly get as much (or probably more) out of it as she does. I literally am in tears when the gun goes off to start and when we cross the finish line as I think about just what she is doing. I ENCOURAGE ALL TO GIVE THIS SORT OF ACTIVITY A TRY - whether with blind athletes or with Special Olympics or the Achilles Track clubs, etc.
2. We swam side-by-side untethered. I was able to do breaststroke as fast as she could do crawl so I was able to keep us on course. She has a tendency to really drift to the right. In golf it would be called a "wicked slice" I think. So, I frequently had to grab her and pull her back on course. When she tired she rolled onto her back and grabbed my wetsuit zipper leash and swam this crazy one-armed back crawl that was reasonably effective actually.
3. We bike on a tandem that she recently bought - a nice Cannondale roadie. It has the turning radius of an 18-wheeler, is fast on the downhills and tough on the uphills but she is a great "Stoker" while she refers to me as the "Captain". No resting on a tandem though - you both have to stop pedaling at the same time or bad things happen and I never attempted to stand out of the saddle so lots of downshifting on hills.
4. Transitions are a little slow as we must walk rather than run but we were very precise about how we laid out our gear so that she had no problem getting into/out of her helmet/shoes/etc.
5. We run/walk side-by-side connected by small piece of surgical tubing with a loop on each end.

BTW, she also scuba dives, has twice white water rafted in the Grand Canyon, done innumerable long (100k+) bike rides like the 2x100k Ride To Conquer Cancer, achieved a BA, MA and PhD (all as a mature student while raising a family), has just completed a Canadian text for teachers of braille and in 2007/2008 did a Half Marathon in every province and every territory of Canada (13 in total of which 3 were in the Arctic) ) to raise money for our national library for the blind. I get tired just writing about the things she has done

Next up for her is a super-sprint tri this coming weekend - she never rests I gather.

Next up for me is a sprint tri in a couple of weeks after I recover

FBP

If you want an even LONGER race report, check out my blog entries at www.petermcdrunning.blogspot.com

GREAT JOB!!

WOW! Very inspirational. 

thanks everyone for such nice comments

DougRob - we met at the NYC marathon. She was there as part of the Achilles Track Club with a guide and I was there as part of Team Diabetes Canada (my brother, son and I are all diabetic). We bumped into each other in the Staten Island holding area, I noticed her jacket with a Canada flag on it, we got to chatting and I said I would love to experience being a guide some time. Six months later she tracked me down (I live in a small city so there are only a few with the same name as me), asked if I was still game and I ended up guiding her at 2 of the 13 Half Mary's that she did that year to celebrate her 65th birthday and to raise money for the CNIB Library. We remained in phone/email contact and then 9 months ago she asked if I would be her guide for a triathlon. I jumped at the chance.