Two weeks ago on October 28th the Marine Marathon took place in D.C., Michael Munn a 15 year old seventh grader at River Bend ran it. But his grade isn’t what makes him stands out, it is the fact that he is blind. Michael has been blind since birth but that hasn’t stopped him. Michael was born in China and lived there until he was adopted at 13. He has accomplished a lot including teaching himself braille, english, eight instruments and being the first orphan accepted into the Beijing School for the Blind.

If you couldn’t tell Michael loves to run and he is good at it. He really wants to be on our cross country team. But he currently isn’t allowed to be on the team because of his grade. Head cross country coach Charles (Dolph) Null hadn’t heard of Michael before and was interested, “I would want Michael to run for the team,” Null said

But even though Null wants him on the team he says it would be a challenge. “The school has no guide runners so the county would have to provide them,” Null said. Even with a guide it would still be hard to get him on the team.

To be on the team, the school and the Munn family would have to do a lot. “ You would, get a guide runner from the special needs center, and the principal, athletic director and I would all have to get involved and it would cost money too,” said Null.

Coach Null has personal experience with guide runners, “My sister is a guide runner for an autistic kid in New York,” said Null. But he doesn’t know if the rules in New York are the same as the rules here.

The guide runner doesn’t have to be an adult it can be a student. “I think a student might volunteer but they would have to be outside of the top seven runners,” said Ethan Celsa a freshman cross country runner.

But even with the challenges of being able to get on the team, there are many challenges he would have to face during a competition. “Recently a girl fell in a creek that went up to her neck,” said Null. Celsa agreed adding, “The courses are very narrow and rocky they can be difficult even if you do have vision.”