Running Blind

Every Saturday morning before the sun rises, Adam Smooke darts out of bed and drives to Memorial Park. Though it’s still dark outside, a group of like-minded runners wearing matching orange t-shirts gathers at mile marker zero on the park loop, no signs of lethargy in their quick steps. 

While they stretch and warm up, the athletes plan their morning’s route. Once they know where they are headed, volunteers like Adam grab a bungee cord and use it to attach their arm or waist to that of a visually impaired or blind runner. For the course of the workout, the two will move in lockstep, the guide using verbal cues and soft nudges to ensure the runner’s safety and success. 

The weekly ritual is organized through EyeCan Alliance, a nonprofit organization started in 2016 to help blind and visually impaired athletes across the country compete in athletic events including marathons and triathlons. Runners are currently gearing up for the 2025 Aramco Houston Half Marathon that takes place on Jan. 19, but the Saturday workouts happen year-round. 

“Every Saturday morning, like clockwork, we are there,” said Adam, a dentist who lives in Memorial. “Even in the heat or the middle of summer.” 

As dawn begins to turn to day on Saturday, Adam and other guides serve as the eyes for runners from across Houston who can’t see, helping them navigate around bumpy terrain, puddles, and crowds. 

Watching blind runners work hard to train and compete at the highest level motivates Adam to show up each week to offer his support. 

“They obviously need us, but we need them in a way too,” Adam said while jogging in Memorial Park on a recent Saturday morning. “Running is already in and of itself a great endeavor, and it’s so hard. To be able to run 13.1 miles blind, it’s just such an inspiration.” 

Madison Smooke (right) practices guiding Brandon Adame. 

Completing a half marathon blind was never what David Adame had in mind for his son Brandon, who lost the limited vision he was born with one day when he was 15 years old, at the time a student at Lamar High School. 

“Literally he went to bed Sunday evening and he was seeing some dark spots,” David said. “He woke up Monday morning and was in total darkness.” 

A sequence of events starting in middle school put Brandon on the path to compete internationally in paratriathlons, a triathlon for athletes with physical disabilities, and led the Adame family to create EyeCan Alliance to help others achieve similar goals. 

When Brandon was in middle school, he ran a couple of two-mile races with the help of a teacher who offered to be his guide. Then, during high school at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Austin, he ran on the school track team. 

“They did things like a standing long jump and a 400-meter run, competing against other blind schools in Louisiana and Arkansas,” said dad David. 

Brandon’s long-distance running career took off post high school when he was back home in Houston after graduating. His dad took him to the gym where he frequently played racquetball and his wife Marilyn took exercise classes. David put his son Brandon on a treadmill next to middle-aged women taking a treadmill class with instructor Mary Lowe. He set the treadmill to a roughly 10-minute mile pace and left to play racquetball. When he returned, Brandon was still running strong. 

Blind athlete Brandon Adame (left) runs competitively with the help of volunteer guides through nonprofit EyeCan Alliance such as Adam Smooke (right). Here, they train in Memorial Park. (Photo: lawellphoto.com)

The following week, the exercise instructor, Mary, came up with an idea. 

“She said, ‘why doesn’t the whole family go run the Houston Half Marathon, and I’ll guide Brandon,’” David recalled. 

“I liked to train people to have goals,” said Mary, who now lives in Beeville. “You’re at the gym every day, you should set a goal.” 

Mary had never guided a visually impaired runner, but Brandon taught her how to lead effectively. 

“We just started meeting at the park, and Brandon would run holding my shoulder,” Mary recalled. “Brandon would tell stories the whole time.” 

Brandon, who is now 42, completed his first half marathon the following year – in 2006 – running with his hand on Mary’s shoulder and his parents and sister Jacqueline also running at their own pace.

Over the past two decades, Brandon has grown increasingly competitive, racing in dozens of half marathons, triathlons, and Ironman events across Texas and even internationally, all with the help of different volunteer guides. Occasionally, David said he served as his son’s running guide, but eventually, Brandon became too fast. At one point, Brandon ranked 19th in the world among all blind and visually impaired paratriathlon participants, David said. All the while, David said he has been awed by his son’s athletic ability and the volunteers who have made his goals achievable. 

Louis Ditta guides Mikey Fields as they train together. (Photo: lawellphoto.com)

“All these people were putting time, energy, and effort in our son’s life and by extension our family’s life, so how are we gonna give back?” David said. “How is that going to work?”

Through a series of conversations in his household, David decided to launch EyeCan Alliance, which would create an organized group of guides to help athletes like his son. 

The organization has become an anchor for visually impaired people nationwide trying to find their athletic niche. David has formed relationships with other organizations with a similar mission, such as the Sailing Angels Foundation, which introduces sailing to children with special needs. He’s been able to pair blind athletes with the group that fits them best.

“If you want to go snow skiing, we can get you in the right spot for that,” David said. “If you want to do mountain climbing or trail running or endurance sports or sailing, we have people who do all those different kinds of things. The main thing is to find the thing an individual has an interest in and try to work from there.”

When new guides first begin volunteering with EyeCan, they are blindfolded, or put on blackout glasses, to get a taste of running blind while tethered to an experienced guide. 

Adam Smooke, William Greer, and J.J. Rodriguez sport their EyeCan Alliance tees at the 2024 Houston Aramco Half Marathon.

“That’s how they train you to become a guide,” Adam said. “You have to have empathy and understand where they are coming from.” That experience helps guides understand just how dependent the runner is on their support. New volunteers join the EyeCan Alliance through word of mouth – or because they’ve seen a pack of runners in orange t-shirts who look like they are having fun while working hard. 

That’s how native Houstonian Louis Ditta became a volunteer guide. The trust and estates lawyer has been running at Memorial Park for years. After seeing EyeCan runners several Saturday mornings, he decided to approach David about joining.  

“He looked like the one in charge, so I approached him and said I’d like to join,” Louis recalled. “He said ‘great, give me your number,’ and the next weekend I was out there. I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Serving as a guide is not always easy. When he first started, Louis had a couple of slips – while he was guiding a blind runner, the runner fell down, tripping over a curb or other obstacle he missed. 

“You really have to pay attention to what you’re doing,” Louis said. “You always have to be cognizant of other runners, changes in terrain, and things that come up that the runner can’t see. The goal is to have the runner not have to worry about any of that.” 

Over time, Louis and Adam say they have grown increasingly comfortable as guides and are looking forward to the upcoming half marathon. Both of them will be paired with runners from out of town who run at a similar pace. They won’t meet the person they will be tethered to until the day before the half marathon, when they’ll do a practice run. 

EyeCan has turned the half marathon into an entire weekend affair. Runners arrive in Houston from as far away as Florida or North Carolina on Thursday evening and gather for meals and other group activities to get to know one another on Friday and Saturday before Sunday morning’s race. David also finds families to host runners if they don’t have a place to stay for the weekend. 

“The whole premise is, if I’m out here doing this, how would I want my son to be treated?” David said. 

The organization ensures that the blind runners are paired with two guides who can run at their same pace. One person is tethered to the blind runner and the other assists with crowd control, grabbing water or anything else that comes up. 

BONDED BY RUNNING Top photo: Adam Smooke and his daughter Madison Smooke join Brandon Adame and dad David Adame for a Saturday morning training run. (Photo: lawellphoto.com)

When the Adame family looks back, they say it is hard to fathom just how much EyeCan Alliance has grown and just how many lives have been touched, all because different individuals – from Brandon’s middle school teacher to an exercise instructor at the gym – offered him a helping hand. 

Back then, when Brandon first started running, he was one of the only blind runners participating in the Houston Half. Now, blind runners flock to Houston from thousands of miles away, in large part because of the welcoming environment created by EyeCan. 

“It’s inspiring to see how people who maybe didn’t think that they could ever do something like the half marathon gain the confidence to do the training and complete it,” said Brandon’s mom Marilyn. 

In total, EyeCan Alliance has served about 100 blind athletes and includes a roster of around 300 people who have volunteered as guides in various athletic events over the years, David said. 

“When you set a goal, you attract people to you that will help you accomplish that goal,” said Brandon. “Once you accomplish that goal, you never know who you will inspire to then go do something greater than they thought they could ever do.” 

EyeCan has fostered new friendships and communities, too. Adam invited Brandon and family to his daughter’s bat mitzvah. And the group regularly gets together for dinners or other workouts during the week. 

“I’ve really enjoyed connecting with the athletes, even though they are all older than me,” said Madison, Adam’s 16-year-old daughter, who recently began running, too, and plans to serve as a guide for her first time during the Houston 5K. “Running with a group also motivates you to go faster.” 

The organization is a win-win. The guides are inspired by the people they serve, and the blind and visually impaired athletes get the support they need to accomplish a goal that would otherwise be impossible. 

“In our house, the real heroes are the guides,” David said. “The people like Dr. Smooke who give up time, energy and effort – sometimes leaving their warm, cozy bed early morning – so they can help some blind person accomplish something that they couldn’t do if it weren’t for them.”