She was really nice to me, very lovely to chat with. We talked for a short bit and I mentioned a friend of mine that has a "low rider" service dog during our chat. Never gonna look at my friend's service dog the same after hearing her called that
I really appreciate people who are willing to share info so I can pass on what I learn to friends that might need it. Also so I can be more aware of adjustments I can make to not be a hindrance to someone else.
I mean, let's be honest: if one is perpetually online it's also difficult to not at least know of someone.
Oh I could see the effort being done to mitigate any issues. It was mostly unaware people causing problems.
Loling at the comment but knowing her that is 100 percent something she would say.
(Heads up bit of a rant incoming. Everyone in here has been fantastic and was fantastic when I ran into you this past weekend. And like I say below most athletes are fantastic. Its that tiny very real fraction that cause issues.)
Like we try to stick to the left side because usually intentionally or not there’s more room to the far left of the course. But we occasionally have people veer into what we’re using as our lane of traffic being oblivious to the warnings (let it be known that while I got off of Ball hill without injuries I was screaming ‘Wheelchair on your left please stay to your right’ the entire way down and it worked there. Not so much on Pixar Pier where I had a near collision with a runner in all but the 5k. One of them I nearly hit twice because she did it a second time later in the 10k.)
We technically have a brake. A small lever that can trim our speed. But once you hit a certain level of incline and speed it’s not going to do much. So we need the room. And 90 percent of people give us the room.
It's the remaining percent that makes any remotely steep downhill incline for 'back of the pack' chairs absolutely terrifying. Because I know my physics. My fellow wheels know our physics. But occasionally we get people who either have their music on too loud and come into our lane of traffic. Or people think they who have never sat in our wheelchair and don't know what our brake is like or how we turn or any number of things I have to consider when navigating the course and think they can beat us out.
Which no. No you don't.
I still don't know how I got this good of a castle photo. Because going into the passageway I realized if someone stopped for a jump photo or for any reason at all both of us and possibly someone else depending on how I might have to turn to try and make an attempt at avoiding crashing. There was no way to come out of that kind of that potential what if without at least me and almost definitely the other athlete being injured no matter what I did.
Thankfully it didn't happen but that was a real fear coming up to a part of the course I had been looking forward to for months. Just because I can't trust that one out of 10 people who behave out of pocket to not do something that endangers the both of us.
And let me be clear even on a small incline like the castle. There's at least a non zero chance if I hit someone we are both coming out with some of injuries. I don't like it but I can only do so much when dealing with other people.
One more thing I know I talked earlier with someone about things that do and don't bother me as a racer as far as being used as inspiration. Calling out encouragement isn't a problem. That being said unfortunately there is a thing that crosses a line. And look I can't stop people. We're in public but I can't emphasize how awkward this is for us.
Please don't just take a photo of a wheelchair or other wheels athlete without asking us first. Especially if we make eye contact with you and I don't know who you are off the top of my head.
(Like to be clear if one of y'all had come up to me. Lead with being DisBoards and you know my username. And want a photo because of that reason. That's okay. That's not a random complete stranger taking my photo. I might not know all of y'all well but I at least have a frame of reference
Also if someone wants reference for another disabled athlete potentially. Also that would be okay for me.
Or hell maybe you run a race and want a reference for that. That's also okay.
Or hey maybe this was about the shirt I was wearing.
Point is I know there can be valid reasons to want my photo from another random runner. But we need
context. Please give us some context. Or even if you have no context so we can maybe explain the problem going on).
There is an unfortuante additional issue of people using us as inspo without understanding our stories and the difficulties we face as disabled athletes. Or in some cases shutting us out of conversations we need to be in. So if I see someone doing that without context it tends to make me think it falls under inspo and not under a variety of reason that it could be.
I get people take other photos all of the times at the races. And I get I can't stop everyone. I get people still will probably do it even if I say no. And hell I might say yes if the last thing I need at the moment I need to do focus on trying to explain why there is more baggage with our photos. Hell I didn't say it to one of the girls I had no context taking photos because I was too focused on manuevering to get into a good position because I knew the tram tunnel was coming up. And I needed to focus on my safety. Not what I saw another runner doing as were going through a tight spot backstage.
That being said if they exist and anyone knows who has the photos. Please pass it on. If its going to happen. If its going to be weird might as well try to get them I suppose.