Caption: Thomas Panek runs with his running guide, Blaze, a Labrador retriever, Thursday, July 23, 2020, in Central Park in New York. Panek, a blind runner with a wall full of ribbons from marathons he ran with a human guide, developed a canine running guide training program five years ago after he became president and CEO of Guiding Eyes for the Blind in suburban New York. 

WEST SAND LAKE, N.Y. — Social distancing rules can make exercising a challenge for a blind runner who needs a volunteer tethered as a guide. But Thomas Panek has no problem because his running guide, Blaze, is a Labrador retriever.

“I’m doing all the things a person would normally do, except I’m doing it with the help of a best friend who happens to be 77 pounds of love wrapped in soft yellow fur,” Panek said.

Panek, a blind runner with a wall full of ribbons from marathons he ran with a human guide, developed a canine running guide training program five years ago after he became president and CEO of Guiding Eyes for the Blind in suburban New York. Last year, he became the first blind finisher of the New York City Half Marathon to be guided entirely by dogs.