Clarke Reynolds has been running marathons blind. Literally.
The 45-year-old from England inherited Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease with no cure that progressively shuts down the retina. He retains just 5% of normal vision — everything else is a blur, like trying to see through murky water. He lost use of his right eye as a child, and his left followed in his 30s. A doctor broke the news without ceremony. “They sat me down and said, ‘Mr. Reynolds, do you drive?'” he recalled. “I said yes, and they said, ‘Hand over your license, you’re going blind.’ And that’s how you were told.”
He kept running anyway. Reynolds finished the London Marathon with a guide by his side. Now he is pushing further — into territory no blind runner has entered before.
A World First at Brighton
On April 12, Reynolds — known online as Mr. Dot — will line up at the Brighton Marathon in England wearing a pair of Rayban Meta Wayfarer smart glasses linked to the Be My Eyes app. Hundreds of sighted volunteers around the world will take turns watching the course through his glasses in real time — seeing what he sees, from where he stands — and talking him through the full 26.2 miles.
“This is a world first,” Reynolds said in a statement released by the Fight for Sight charity. “I’ll be the first blind person running a full marathon while being supported by volunteers using Be My Eyes. This technology is so liberating!“
Volunteers will rotate in and out across the race, each joining via their phone or laptop. Fight for Sight says they will be pre-briefed before race day, so Reynolds is never talking to a stranger when he needs guidance. A trained guide runner will also run alongside him as a physical safety net throughout the course.
How the Technology Works
Be My Eyes, founded in 2015, started as a simple video-call service connecting blind users with sighted volunteers for small daily tasks. Over time it grew into a global network of millions. Pairing it with Meta’s smart glasses removes the need to hold a phone — the glasses broadcast a live first-person view hands-free. For a runner, that’s what makes this viable at all.
