It’s a big weekend for runners in South Florida.
It is the Fit Team Palm Beaches Marathon weekend.
The Nashville Chapter of Achilles International flew in Saturday morning for the event proving to many that for some athletes, there’s more than meets the eye.
Theresa Khayyam and her guide William Harwood will be running a half marathon Sunday, their 3rd as a pair with Achilles International.
For Khayyam though, it’s her 16th half marathon which easily sounds impressive.
What surprises some even more is that she did all of them without her sight. Khayyam lost her vision after a viral infection a decade ago.
When it comes to running now, guides like Harwood become her eyes and her motivation.
“William motivates me too when I feel like I just want to walk, quit he says come on Theresa you can do it you can do it,” says Khayyam. Khayyam says she often asks Harwood to paint a picture of what they see during their run, “A lot of times I’ll ask him well what do you see to your right what do you see to your left and even if I don’t ask he’ll tell me about the scenery around me.”
The Achilles International team from Nashville traveled with 40 people including 17 athletes and 19 guides.
The group knows they turn heads at airports and at races, they say they don’t mind showing people that everyone is capable of doing anything they put their minds to.