Not afraid to run blind

Yan Wei (left) runs with a volunteer guide in a marathon in Tai'an, Shandong province, in April. [Photo provided to China Daily]

He has completed 14 full marathons in two years and Yan Wei, a visually-impaired runner, just wants to keep going. Fang Aiqing reports.     

Yan Wei, a 30-year-old blind man from Gaomi, Shandong province, is thrilled. He has just covered the 42.2-kilometer distance in a marathon in Longkou, a coastal city in Shandong province, on Sunday, beating his personal record, with a new time of 3 hours, 15 minutes and 58 seconds.

While running, he heard the sound of sea as the race route hugged the coast.

He had two guides to help him－and Yan was tethered to him with a safety rope.

It was Yan's 14th full marathon.

Yan is also known as the first blind runner from the Chinese mainland to finish the Boston Marathon in the United States, the world's oldest annual marathon and one of the six major marathon events in the world.

Yan, who lost his sight when he was a few months old due to a tumor, started running two years ago, after learning that volunteers were available to assist visually-impaired runners at the 2015 Beijing Marathon.