Blind runner to compete at St. George Marathon with help of Utah runners
by Arianne Brown ksl · KSL.comKEY TAKEAWAYS
- Adrian Broca, a blind marathon runner, will race his fourth St. George Marathon.
- Guides Nate Zarlengo and Sean Feeny will assist Broca during the marathon.
- Broca's goal is a 3:10 finish to improve his Boston Marathon qualifying time.
ST. GEORGE — For the past 25 years, Adrian Broca, 49, has been running marathons. Unlike most on the course, however, he has one thing that sets him apart: He is blind.
Broca, who is from California, will be running the St. George Marathon for the fourth time this weekend, with the help of two guides from Utah. But it isn't just keeping him on the course that his guides will have to be aware of; but keeping him on pace.
"He's an amazing athlete; he's just directionally challenged," said pacer and now friend, Nate Zarlengo, of Salt Lake City.
In fact, Broca's fastest marathon is 2:50, which he did in 2007 with the help of runners from Southern Utah University. He came back to run the St. George Marathon two more times, in 2008 and 2009, and did so largely in part, he said, to the positive experiences he has had.
Broca also said that he has long loved physical fitness, adding that running was something he turned to as a teenager when he started to lose his sight.
"I was a regular high school student looking forward to my senior year, and I was taking summer school and riding my bike, and one day, I realized that one of my eyes was blurry," he recalled.
Broca said that he didn't think much of it, and just thought it would self-correct. But when it didn't, he went to the doctor for answers.
"They did a bunch of tests and diagnosed me with what's called Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy," he said. "They told me that it wouldn't just take away the left eyesight, but the other one would be affected and I would be legally blind for the rest of my life."
Learning that news set Broca into a deep depression, and he thought that his "life was over," and he had thoughts of suicide.
"I thought that I was a burden to others," he said.
Around that time, his brother suggested he run cross-country with him, and that's when Broca said that he started to see some light in a future that was getting darker every day.
"No one could tell that I was blind and I could follow the other runners ahead of me and navigate the cross-country course," he said. "After a few weeks, the rest of my peripheral vision became foggy, and that's when I started struggling a bit. ... Instead of asking for help, I gave up and quit the team and decided not to pursue running anymore."
Broca found himself fully immersed in the world of being blind and "feeling sorry for himself," he said. That world, however, also introduced him to others in a similar situation.
"I went to the Braille Institute and learned about others who had it worse than I did and who were living independently, and that gave me courage," he said. "I eventually went back to college and got a business degree, and I also started running around my parents' neighborhood."
Broca figured that as long as he could get familiar with his surroundings, that he could gain the confidence to start running again. As he did, he got faster. He also had family members and friends who would run with him, who would guide him along the way on runs that were not familiar.
He soon wanted to run races, but was concerned that he would struggle with the many turns that are on shorter courses. Not long after, he heard a television broadcast of the Los Angeles Marathon, and that changed everything.
"There are fewer turns in a marathon, and I could follow people," he said.
His first marathon was in 2001, and he did it without a guide. It wasn't until several marathons later, including one where he wandered off course, when he learned that he could run the race with the assistance of a guide. He said that it has been "through the kindness of others" that he has been able to reach his goals, which include winning the physically impaired division in marathons and multiple Boston Marathon qualifications. He has also competed in triathlons, which is where he connected with Zarlengo, an accomplished triathlete, who will be pacing him at the St. George Marathon.
"I had already reached the goals that I wanted to in the Iron Man Sport," Zarlengo said. "I've been to the Iron Man World Championships ... and I've raced 19 Ironmans. I'm at a point where I just want to help people reach their goals."
Zarlengo first guided Broca during a full Ironman in Sacramento, California, and went on to guide him for two more triathlons as well as the California International Marathon.
"He doesn't just need any guide; he needs somebody that's actually really strong because he's pretty fast himself," Zarlengo said, adding that throughout each race, the two are tethered by a two-foot-long cord around their wrists. Zarlengo must also stay on Broca's right side because he, himself, has an impairment.
"I run on his right side because I'm deaf in my right ear," he said. "It's a little joke — the deaf leading the blind. .... It's his race 100%, and I'm there to support him in any way. It's one of the most fulfilling things I've done in this sport — even above crossing the line of the Iron Man World Championship."
Zarlengo will be guiding Broca the first half of the marathon, and 22-year-old Sean Feeny from Ogden will be bringing him home to the finish.
"I thought, 'Well, that's a unique experience, and it's a good opportunity to help somebody,'" Feeny said.
Broca said that he hopes to finish in a time of 3:10, to improve his Boston Marathon qualifying time. He also said that he hopes to show others what's possible.
"When I was transitioning from feeling sorry for myself to focusing on the process, I realized that we can be more disabled in life by having a negative attitude than by having a physical impairment," Broca said. "I've learned to see what people see as a disability as a gift that has pushed me to achieve in life.
"I didn't know if I'd be able to compete ever again, but it was the marathon that gave me that ability back."
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.