Blind man to run cross-country to raise awareness for blind athletes

PHOENIX — Imagine running roughly 3,300 miles from Los Angeles to Boston in about 60 days.

Now imagine doing it blind.

“I’m just literally doing what I think I’m supposed to do,” Jason Romero said.

The 46-year-old from Denver is participating in a cross-country run over the next couple of months, but there’s just one thing: he has a degenerative eye condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa that has rendered him legally blind.

“My eyes can pick up contrast really well so if I’m on a black top and there’s a white line, I can see that well, so I follow that white line and I hope that there’s no holes or anything like that,” he said.

He is running through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts to raise awareness for the US Association of Blind Athletes.

The athlete reached Arizona on Thursday.

Romero said he hopes to finish in Boston by the end of May. He is aiming to run abount 50 miles per day, but said he understands physical stamina and weather are potential obstacles.

“If people can see that a blind guy is running across America, frankly, my blindness is somebody else’s depression or OCD, or ADD or their dog died, whatever adversity they’re facing,” he said.

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