It's a lofty goal: 13-point-one miles of pavement pounding. Marsha Martin turns 60 this month. But forget the cake, she'll run a half-marathon to celebrate.
That's impressive in itself. But add this to the challenge: She can't see a thing.
"You're blind. Your whole life. Um hum. Since birth. Yep. And you run!!"
Blind since birth. But her lack of sight seems to fuel her spirit. She's biked century rides, water skied, snow skied, even jumped from an airplane.
"You know I've had injuries like stitches and some broken bones and that, and they get healed and so I'm thinking. Oh, no big deal."
The next goal: the Two Cities Marathon in November.
She works side by side with trainer Ben Canzano, and relies on her hearing to stay on track.
"If I'm with somebody I listen to their footsteps or if they've got the energy or the voice to talk we talk. I don't talk as much cause I'm trying to breathe."
"Her hearing is so acute where she pays more attention to her auditory stimulus that she can hear a car before I can hear it coming from behind us. She can even tell me oh that car needs a tune up."
Marsha says she's never been one to sit or walk for that matter. Taking on another challenge she says is "just me being me."
"I just wanted to start a new decade with a new challenge I guess. As if blindness isn't a challenge enough I guess. But maybe I'm bored with it. I don't know."
Boredom? Not likely. It's more a spirit of adventure, and determination to prove that anyone, at any age, can do anything.
Marsha has done so many amazing things. She also served six years in the Peace Corps in the country of Ecuador.
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