With Taiwan’s national flag draped over his shoulders, visually impaired Taiwanese athlete Hong Guo­zhan, accompanied by his sighted guide runners Zhou Linxin and Yang Zhongding, completed the Rimi Vilnius Marathon in Lithuania on September 10, 2023 with a time of four hours and 30 minutes. This was the fifth international race in Hong’s marathon career and his fifth international full marathon for Taiwan.

Before Hong Guozhan (center) left for Lithuania, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a ceremony to present him with a national flag.

Running the globe for Taiwan

“I definitely hope to set records, but the most important thing is the sports diplomacy aspect.” Hong, who began running marathons in 2015, has loved sports since he was a child. For him, running was always a way to blow off steam outside of class, but today it has another level of significance.

Hong lost his sight at age ten due to cataracts. But this has never stopped him exploring the world. From a young age he loved studying and he always had good grades as he progressed through the education system. He even was awarded a national scholarship by the Ministry of Education to go to the US to pursue a master’s degree in law. Although he decided to return to Taiwan early because of various factors including the lack of an accessible environment at the school, he did not become demoralized. Not long after getting back to Taiwan he passed the national civil service examination.

In the face of the obstacles thrown up by life, Hong has always told himself: “I can spend a day happy or I can spend it unhappy; either way it’s a day.” This attitude also enabled him to think differently about Taiwan’s international situation. “Taiwan’s situation in the international community is very similar to the situation of people who are visually impaired,” says Hong. If you are in a relatively disadvantaged position, but you are unwilling to leave your personal space to let others see your needs, then nobody will know what kind of help to provide.

Hong therefore decided to use his own abilities to help raise Taiwan’s international profile. To this end, he sought out help from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). In October of 2016 MOFA received a letter from a visually impaired individual saying that he was headed to Japan to take part in the Kanazawa Marathon, and he hoped they could give him a national flag to make a statement to the world. The writer of that letter was Hong Guozhan.

Since then, the flag that Hong received from Diego Chou, then director-general of MOFA’s Department of NGO International Affairs, has accompanied him on every overseas marathon.

About half of the course of the Rimi Vilnius Marathon was on cobbled streets. (courtesy of Yang Zhongding)

Hong Guozhan (third from left) and his companions wore clothing with Taiwan’s national flag and carried a flag with them in order to express thanks to Lithuania on Taiwan’s behalf. (courtesy of Yang Zhongding)

Gratitude for vaccines from Lithuania

Visually impaired people often need help from guide dogs, white canes, or other people in order to be able to find their way around. Likewise, marathon runners who have visual impairments always have a sighted guide runner at their side, who guides them using a tether—a short length of rope or fabric with looped ends that the two runners hold or slip over their wrists, and that serves as a link for communication between them. Running tethers for visually impaired people come in different lengths depending on the format of the competition. In marathons, for example, because the pace is relatively moderate, mostly “scout ropes” of 40 to 45 centimeters in length are used.

A qualified sighted guide acts as the eyes and helper of the visually impaired runner, and is a real “super nanny.” Besides calling out road conditions like uphill or downhill slopes and the general topography, when there are a lot of people nearby guides must inform other athletes that a blind person is coming through. They also must help their runners pick up supplies and assist them in getting through crowds. The pace that can be maintained by visually impaired runners also depends on their guides.

In his most recent race, Hong encountered cobbled streets, which can be challenging for visually impaired people. The cobblestones set into the ground are like “landmines” for blind runners, who must be extra careful with each step for fear that if they lose their focus for even a second, they could fall and be injured.

Nonetheless, though Hong considers this latestmarathon in Lithuania to be the most difficult inter­national race he has yet run in terms of road conditions, he still carried on running with all his might. The main reason was that he wanted to express his gratitude to Lithuania for being the first European country to donate vaccines to Taiwan during the Covid-19 pandemic. Hong relates: “Interacting in person with local people and competing in the marathon was my way of thanking them.”

Moreover, Hong was deeply touched by the behavior of the people of Lithuania. From the time of his arrival many Lithuanians took the initiative to strike up conversations with him and his companions. He says that besides offering cordial greetings, everyone also expressed their support for Taiwan, so that he ended up feeling certain that his decision to run in the marathon there was the right one.

On the day of the race, as Hong and his two guides took off alongside thousands of other contestants, from time to time he also heard people in the crowd calling out his Chinese name and urging him onward, which surprised and delighted the trio.

Hong Guozhan (in orange vest) along with his sighted guide runner completed the 2023 Vilnius Marathon in a time of four hours and 30 minutes. (courtesy of Yang Zhongding)

To keep their practice time up, Zhou Kunfang (left) and Hou Meihua (right) often go to run at the sports field at National Taiwan University as soon as they get off work.

Running tethers are an important means of communication between visually impaired runners and their sighted guides.

Light in a dark world

For strong marathoners, competing in the six World Marathon Majors is a milestone in their careers and also a goal with which to challenge themselves. In 2018 Hong became the first visually impaired athlete from Taiwan to complete the Boston Marathon, and this news inspired many people, including Zhou Kunfang, another visually impaired runner. It proved to be a turning point in Zhou’s decision to run all six World Marathon Majors.

Zhou, who lost his sight as an adult due to genetic factors, was in a dejected state as his reached his thirties. At age 32 he decided to start a new career, and although he encountered bumps in the road, ultimately he was able to successfully change his career path and become a masseur. As one consequence of this he happened to encounter the world of jogging, and in a running group he met his partner, Hou Meihua.

When Zhou first got into the sport of running, he was very competitive about his results. In pursuit of better times, he needed tougher training, for which he had to find suitable sighted guide runners to help improve his overall speed.

However, after he started going out with Hou, Zhou altered his previous habit of changing sighted guides depending on the conditions of the particular race, and switched over to having his partner as his fixed running companion.

If they were going to run together, however, they each needed to adjust their running patterns. Zhou states that because women tend to take smaller steps at a more rapid cadence, as a man he needed to adjust his running style to conform to his partner’s, as only in this way could the two stay in step with one another.

This couple with markedly different personalities, tied together by a running tether, has since appeared on the international stage. Prompted by Hong Guozhan’s completion of the Boston Marathon, the proactive Zhou proposed: “Let’s try and run the six World Marathon Majors.” Hou quickly agreed that together they would embark on this challenging ­endeavor.

Zhou Kunfang (above, right) has been accompanied by Hou Meihua (above, left) all the way through their six World Marathon Majors, from their first in Berlin (top) to their last in Tokyo (above and facing page). (courtesy of Hou Meihua)

The World Marathon Majors

Their first test was the 2019 Berlin Marathon, held in September. However, there was some difficulty in confirming whether they were qualified to enter this race, so that they only received confirmation two months before the contest. Thus the two were forced to accelerate the training that they had originally embarked on to prepare for the Chicago Marathon in October.

Fortunately, Hou had more experience in running full marathons than Zhou, who had previously not run more than ten kilometers. With her support he rapidly adapted to the full marathon distance within two months. Zhou admits: “At first I didn’t think I could run a full marathon.”

The couple was excited about running in an inter­national event, but they also had to deal with the learning curve of their relationship. “A lot of people say that independent travel is a relationship killer,” Zhou says, mentioning that they argued endlessly in the street of a foreign country about something as simple as which hotel to choose. “But it didn’t kill ours.” He believes that the reason is Hou Meihua’s personality, adding: “If not for her patience and tolerance, we might very well have broken up after Berlin.”

In the end the couple completed the Berlin Marathon in four hours and 57 minutes, and they followed up by running the Chicago Marathon in October and the New York City Marathon in November.

With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the pace of their participation in the majors slowed down, but they didn’t stop for long. In 2021 they went to the UK to complete the London Marathon and in 2022 they took part in the Boston Marathon, which they had originally intended to run in 2020. The final stop was the Tokyo Marathon, which they completed in March of 2023. When Zhou received the Six Star Medal from the majors organizers, indicating that he had completed all six World Marathon Majors, he was the first visually impaired runner in all Taiwan to have accomplished this feat.

Before losing his sight, Zhou never imagined he could be a runner, and even complete the six World Marathon Majors, which is every marathoner’s dream. Once someone asked him what the significance of running is. He replied: “I don’t know, but I feel happier when I run, and it has become something indispensable to me.”

Most people have the impression that visually impaired people need constant assistance, but in marathons there is no limit to their abilities. Each step they take symbolizes the unflagging vitality they show in pursuit of their dreams. Their situation is not unlike the predicament Taiwan faces in international affairs, in which we still energetically participate in as many activities as possible in order to enable the world to better understand us.