For marathon runner Vic Vereshack, a finish is a win.

Mr. Vereshack, 67, is legally blind. On Saturday, he proved he still has miles to go before he's finished.

Mr. Vereshack, of Springdale Borough, completed the 5K Run for Sight hosted by the Lions Clubs of Monroeville and Pitcairn. The race and a 2.4-mile fun walk benefitted Blind and Vision Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh.

"I don't usually run 5Ks," he said. "I ran for the cause. Maybe somebody will see this and it will motivate them to keep going."

He ran Saturday's race with friend and former co-worker Barbara Graham, but in most races, he confronts the course alone, staying to his left to compensate for his impairment.

Ms. Graham, 49, who had successful breast cancer surgery in May, finished the 5K in 28 minutes, 31 seconds. Mr. Vereshack was right behind her with a time of 28 minutes, 59 seconds.

Anything under 30 minutes is a good time, Ms. Graham said. "He runs a very controlled race," she said of Mr. Vereshack. "He's used to running the 26 miles. He's going to teach me how to pace myself." This was her second 5K.

"If you have to run the race with an old guy, you have to run at his pace," Mr. Vereshack quipped before the event.

The two met when Mr. Vereshack was training for a new job at Blind and Vision Rehabilitation Services. He had to retire from the U.S. Postal Service as a letter carrier in 1991 after a virus infected his retina, leaving him legally blind. Ms. Graham, coordinator of employment support services at the rehabilitation services for the past nine years, helped Mr. Vereshack train for a new job.

After training, he got a job through the rehabilitation services as a silk screener in Oakland, making more than 8,000 portable highway signs for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation every year until he retired in 2000.

Since 1981, Mr. Vereshack has completed 35 marathons, including six Boston Marathons. In April, when he crossed the finish line in Boston in four hours and 43 minutes, he qualified for next year's event. The Boston Marathon is the only one in which participants must complete a previous 26-mile race to qualify.

Because of his disability, Mr. Vereshack must navigate a long course "very carefully. I try to be aware of everything around me." His right eye has better vision than his left, so he starts each race on the left-hand side of the street. "If I stay on the left-hand side of the street, I don't have to worry too much," he said.

"I haven't run into any problems because I run at a pretty slow pace," he explained. "I try to be aware of my surroundings and use my common sense." The challenge, for him, is to finish the course. "Time doesn't matter," he said.

"I'll really start getting serious about running fast in March for Boston," Mr. Vereshack said. He trains by himself by running at the Springdale Junior-Senior High School track, a half-mile stroll from his home. He runs about six miles each day, which takes him about an hour.

Navigating through a small section of his former 10-mile postal route is part of his daily routine now. When Mr. Vereshack first began dealing with his disability, he said, his spirits were down a little, but he counted his blessings and kept on going.

"I didn't lose my total sight," he noted. "You just adapt to things. I never thought about not running."

Running had been a part of his life since the 1970s, when he took up the sport to drop a few pounds. Running kept his spirits up, he said.

"As they say in the Boston Marathon, impossible is nothing," he said. "Finishing is winning and quitting is not an option."

Blind and Vision Rehabilitation Services is a 99-year-old program operating under its current name after the merger of the Pittsburgh Blind Association and the Greater Pittsburgh Guild for the Blind.

The nonprofit agency provides services for people who are blind, deaf and blind, or vision impaired. Programs include personal adjustment to blindness, computer access, a low-vision clinic and employment and vocational services. For more information, call 412-368-4400 or visit www.BlindVR.org.

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