Ever since I started running a few years ago, I have wanted to take part in the Limassol Marathon and I finally got the chance to run in 2019; here’s my story!
I grew up in beautiful Limassol but left the city and the island, to attend university in London. Whilst I was away studying I completely lost my sight over a period of a few years, and am now blind.
I have had to learn new ways of doing many of the things that I could easily do before but I’ve also had the opportunity to learn new skills and take up new hobbies and one of these, which has become increasingly important to me, is running.
I run with a sighted guide using a tether, a short length of rope, that we both hold whilst we run side-by-side whilst trying to keep our movements synchronised with one another. My guide will also give me verbal cues and descriptions about the route that we are taking.
I had planned to run the Limassol Marathon with my guide Caz but unfortunately in the lead up to the event she developed a stress fracture whilst training which meant that it would be too risky for her to run the entire 42.2km with me. We came up with a plan where Caz could potentially run half of the marathon with me but this would mean that we would need to find somebody else willing to guide me for the other half.
At this point, I wasn’t sure that I would still be able to take part, so I reached out to Costantinos, who is part of the Limassol Marathon crew to ask if they might be able to help me find a guide for the first half. The Limassol Marathon crew were really supportive and suggested that I post within their Facebook group asking if anyone registered for the event would be willing to run with me. I was really surprised and very thankful that not one but two great guys, Savvas and Claudio, came back to me and I organised to run with Claudio.
Claudio was flying in from his home in Romania, whilst Caz and I, were flying in from the UK. We arrived on the island, late on the Friday evening of the weekend of the marathon which meant that I only had one day in which to meet Claudio and do a very short 2km practice run with him. He was such a nice, friendly guy that I immediately felt relaxed and comfortable with him and excited that I would be able to complete the Limassol Marathon with him and Caz as my guide team!
Marathon day dawned and it was a beautiful sunny Cypriot day. It was so nice not having to wear warm layers and worry about shivering at the start, especially after the cold and wet months of training in the UK!
When I was growing up in Cyprus, I was still sighted and I continue to have visual memories of the streets and coastline. It was amazing to run the Limassol Marathon route along those same streets, visualising whereabouts I was on the course, whilst layering those memories with the many different sounds and aromas of the big day. The spectators along the course were a huge part of the soundtrack of the marathon for me and definitely helped to spur me and my guides, Claudio and Caz, on to the finish line!
The Limassol Marathon is a hidden gem and I would definitely recommend it to everyone as it is extremely well organised and Limassol itself is a beautiful city. I will definitely be running it again!
