WEST SAND LAKE, N.Y. – Social distancing rules can make exercising a challenge for a blind runner who needs a volunteer tethered as a guide.
But Thomas Panek has no problem because his running guide, Blaze, is a Labrador retriever.“I’m doing all the things a person would normally do, except I’m doing it with the help of a best friend who happens to be 77 pounds of love wrapped in soft yellow fur,” Panek said.Panek, a blind runner with a wall full of ribbons from marathons he ran with a human guide, developed a canine running guide training program five years ago after he became president and CEO of Guiding Eyes for the Blind in suburban New York.