Blind man completes Tough Mudder, vows to run Boston Marathon

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) -- A New Hampshire man swinging on a trapeze 25 feet in the air, ringing a bell, is going viral! This act is a feat only one out of 10 who took on this challenge managed to do. But this New Hampshire man had a challenge of his own going into this: he's blind.

His next goal will bring him right here to Boston to finish the marathon. Randy Pearce of Nashua is full of humor, mixed with heart.

"When I give talks I say, 'Hey, everybody in this room whose never had a challenge raise your hand.' And I've never seen a hand yet," he said, jokingly.

He's never been one to shy away from a challenge.

"I love challenge, I love turning obstacles into opportunity," he said.

At age 22, a neurological disease took his sight.

"I was frustrated and angry and all the reactions you'd expect because loss is hard," he told FOX25.

The disease soon landed him in a wheelchair.

"It's like how much do you have to rebound from, how much do you have to climb up from?" he asked. "And the answer is however much is there to be climbed."

Determined to walk again, he did. Then he ran. And now, he is climbing.

"When you can't walk, you learn what a gift it is to celebrate walking, climbing, running, whatever it is," he said.

He's climbed all 48 mountains in New Hampshire and a new video of him at California's Tough Mudder competition is going viral. If you watch the video, you can see him swinging 25 feet in the air, and ringing a bell from a trapeze.

"My fingers just grazed that bell but it started ringing and tipping and the crowd went crazy!" he said.

Now his next goal is to run the Boston Marathon. He ran the shorter race in 2013, the day before the bombings and says he promised himself he would run the marathon one day.

He's completed three marathons in his life, all within the last year, but it's his dream to cross the finish line here in Boston.

"Henry Ford was probably right. Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're probably right, you have to start by believing," he said.

Cox Media Group