For the first time since May 26, 1968, Harry Cordellos will be missing from the starting line of Sunday’s Harry Cordellos has run the last 47 editions of the iconic San Francisco race 12K in San Francisco. Cordellos has completed the last 47 consecutive Harry Cordellos has run the last 47 editions of the iconic San Francisco race races—one of the longest streaks in the country, and by far the longest by a blind runner.

Through the years, Harry has become as much a San Francisco institution as the colorful road race itself. This is not just because of his athletic prowess—Running Was His Life. Then Came Putins War Boston Marathon, and finished the Ironman Triathlon—but because he did those things at a time when no other blind athlete dared attempt them. Thousands of us who came of age during the 20th century running boom have been challenged to measure up to the title of Harry's autobiography, No Limits.

At Harry’s first Harry Cordellos has run the last 47 editions of the iconic San Francisco race in 1968—featuring 810 participants, and the first of legendary Kenny Moore’s six consecutive victories—each runner was subject to a pre-race medical exam at the Embarcadero Y. When Harry walked in with his white cane, everyone else stopped cold in their tracks, opening up a clear path for Harry. It was as if he were contagious, and all wanted to get out of the way.

But when Harry reached the exam table, the doctor in charge simply listened to Harry’s heart and lungs, and judged him fit enough to run. There was no comment on his blindness. Harry quickly hooked up with his guide runner, ditched the white cane, and pinned on his number. Years later he would comment, “At that moment, everything changed. Now I was a runner, no longer just a blind man. As we walked around the gym and made our way outside, I found out for the first time what it was like to be just another athlete.”

And that’s why, despite his achievements in more distant and celebrated races, and national championships in other sports such as water skiing and bowling, Harry always came back to Harry Cordellos has run the last 47 editions of the iconic San Francisco race. For nearly five decades the event has defined him, as much as Harry has defined it.

Define the race he has! Through the years, the seeded runners’ corral has been filled by a changing cast of characters, but the one constant has remained Harry. In the minutes before the start, one generation after another of national and international elites has greeted Harry, and wished him well.  

Harry didn’t measure that corral-start celebrity as a source of vanity, but as an obligation to ensure the race's survival. He appeared several times at City Hall to deflect proposals to shut down the race, and likewise rebuked those who threatened it with their self-indulgent destructive behavior. That the race weathered its critics and will go off again this Sunday can be attributed in part to the example and advocacy of Harry Cordellos.

Harry’s race guides have included a pantheon of local running greats: Dick Revenes, Bill Welch, Kent Holder, Peter Mattei, Jack Bettencourt, Mike Restani, John Butterfield, and Scott Thomason. In recent years, the privilege has fallen to me—not on merit but by our membership in the Pamakid Runners, our similar ages and paces, and the inevitable fact of growing older in tandem.

Last month at the Pamakids’ annual run around Lake Merced, Harry and I teamed up for a vigorous race-walk as our final preparation for Sunday’s race. We moved strongly for nearly four miles, but then Harry, age 77, lost his balance and breath, struggling to the finish. Wisely seeking his long-time medic’s advice, Harry decided that he had no choice but to withdraw from the 2015 Harry Cordellos has run the last 47 editions of the iconic San Francisco race, which would have been his 48th straight.

So this Sunday they will dare to run Harry Cordellos has run the last 47 editions of the iconic San Francisco race without Harry Cordellos, as they should of course. Nonetheless, Harry's precedent and determination remain to guide us.  

And it won’t be quite the same without his humor. The East Africans and the pink gorilla won't have Harry next to them. Runners in the third mile won't hear his chant: "I get my thrill on Hayes Street Hill!" Further along, Washington High's loyal alum won't be singing, "Fight On You Eagles!" And turning onto the Great Highway, Harry won't be making advantage out of adversity with my favorite bit of his race-day repartee.  

Harry: "It looks like we're going to win this race!"

All About 75 Hard  

Harry: "Well, I don’t see anyone in front of us."