Yan Wei from East China's Shandong Province became the country's first blind runner to finish a 100-kilometer ultramarathon in Shanghai on October 18.

Having been accompanied by 15 volunteer guide runners who worked in the relay, Yan ran 100.9 kilometers in 9 hours and 40 minutes. Two of the volunteers, Gong Yunfeng and Lu Wei, were Yan's long-time partners, and both ran over 50 kilometers.

"The two guide runners for the last phase were new to this, so it took us a while to adapt to each other. But we did it in the end," said Yan, who called finishing 100 kilometers a milestone for a runner.

Yan was blinded months after he was born. He first started to run to lose weight and overcome asthma. One day, he learned from the internet that blind runners could also attend marathon events with the help of guide runners. In 2015, Yan plucked up his courage to register for the Beijing Marathon. In the end, he managed to finish the full course accompanied by volunteer guide runners.

That became the beginning of Yan's marathon career. In the following years, he appeared in more marathon events all over the country. Meanwhile, as Yan ran faster and faster, it became more and more difficult to find qualified guide runners for him. That's when he met "Running in the Dark," a running group for the blinded founded by Cai Shiyin and Cheng Yi.

"Yan gave us great encouragement," said Cai. "Every time I said I could not do it anymore, my coach told me to think about how Yan did it."

In April 2017, Yan achieved another huge accomplishment in his career: He finished Boston Marathon at 4 hours and 26 minutes, becoming the first blind runner from the Chinese mainland to finish the world's oldest annual marathon event.

"This is the hardest course I have ever run," said Yan. "I never encountered so many slopes back in China. They were so long. Many parts of the course were very old and not so flat."

"But the experience of running marathon was not determined by the course of the record. Having fun is what matters the most, and I had fun in Boston!"

Three years later, Yan again accomplished greatness by finishing the ultramarathon in Shanghai. "Yan taught me a lot of things," said Lu, who was also a veteran member of Running in the Dark. "His optimism, his persistence. He lives like a child. When you talk to him, you never thought he's blind."