The marathon of a blind runner

"It feels like I am holding tight on hope and do not need to be afraid anymore when someone is leading me to run."  — He Yajun

He Yajun, a man with visual impairment, finished the first half of the marathon with volunteer runners' company for the first time in his life on Oct. 19, 2014. He ran 21.0975 kilometers (13.1093 miles) in 2 hours 27 minutes.

He Yajun does some exercises on the sports field a day before the marathon competition, Oct. 18, 2014. (Qianlong/Li He)

He Yajun signed up for the marathon competition in September this year through the help of Hongdandan Visual Impairment Service Center in Beijing. After that He met his company runner Shi Yu and they trained together a couple of times. On Oct. 19, he finally finished the half marathon successfully. On his way back, he was so excited that he said he wanted to finish the whole marathon next year.

He was born in Neijiang, Sichuan in 1980. He lost his eyesight when he was 10 years old after a long-time fever. He was depressed for several years after he lost eyesight. Once he even swallowed a whole bottle of hypnotics to attempt a suicide. His family eventually convinced him to learn massage. He came to Beijing to learn massage skills in 2003 when he met many friends with similar background with him. Since then, he started to build his confidence. "I will never forget about the day of Sept. 28 when I came to Beijing. Only after then I finally started to feel like I am a useful person again."

He now runs two massage parlors in Beijing, and is about to open a restaurant with friends. Though he is a boss now, he still keeps doing massages for customers himself. He says that people with visual impairment should keep improving themselves and be mentally strong, only in that way can they win over the recognition from society. And he feels very happy that more and more attentions have been paid to people with visual impairment now.

He met his wife in 2008. His parents-in-law were strongly against their marriage because He was blind. But he kept trying and finally moved his wife's parents. They got married in 2012 and had two cute sons later. Speaking of his massage parlors, He was very excited. He said:" I can cook for myself, can go outside and work. I even decorated my parlors myself. You see this light? I can't see, but I put it together myself. I can do everything."