Houston native blind since birth had half marathon in his sights

In a universe free of bitter tragedy, Robert Peck would start Sunday's Aramco Half Marathon at 6:45 a.m. alongside other athletes with disabilities. With a sighted guide at his side, he would glide along car-free Houston streets to show with his legs that his sightless eyes could not hold him back.

At 22, recently living on his own, he'd already proved he had the gumption to compete in endurance sports despite congenital blindness.

He had skateboarded, studied computer science and won a chili cook-off. Most recently, he ran and cycled and caught the racing bug, training all fall for what would have been his first attempt at 13.1 miles alongside about 27,000 other racers.

Peck, a gangly Houston native with a toothy smile, was among a few dozen athletes with disabilities who found volunteer guides through Catapult - a Houston nonprofit started in 2015 to assist the growing number of athletes participating in sports despite obstacles like impaired vision and prosthetic limbs. Sports serve as a way to express their strength and independence.

Last year, Catapult helped persuade the Chevron Houston Marathon to launch a visually impaired division. Top women's honors went to Lisa Thompson, a blind 48-year-old Houston resident who kept up a steady 8-minute-mile pace to finish the full marathon in three and a half hours.

This year, 13 blind or impaired runners registered for the full and half marathons, along with 25 handcycle and wheelchair racers, according to marathon spokeswoman Vicky Oddi. The Houston races have welcomed wheelchair participants since 1983.

Peck was one of the first athletes to train with Catapult co-founder Chris McClendon, an investment banker by day. Together, they finished the Sylvan Beach Duathlon in La Porte last June in just over two hours, with Peck taking first place among athletes with disabilities. They rode a tandem racing bike for the 15-mile cycling portion.

"In that sport, you're lucky to get a grumble out of someone: 'On your left,' " McClendon said. Not so with Robert.

"Excuse us, coming through," he would chirp. "Have a great race. God bless you!"

McClendon admires his disabled teammates.

"They're brave," he said. "They're stepping out of their comfort zone to do something they never thought was possible."

'He did it all'

Robert's family wasn't surprised by his zeal for endurance sports. As a kid, he loved riding his bike, his mother said.

On the Sunnyside-area cul-de-sac where he grew up, he taught himself to skateboard.

"You wouldn't think my brother was blind," sister Telisha Peck recalled this week. "He did it all."

He played the drums. He joined Sterling High School's drama club. When he tried to join a choir, someone said he wasn't a natural singer. But "no" wasn't in Robert's vocabulary, family and friends said. He just kept trying until he got better. Then he joined his church choir, too.

"There was no activity that he wasn't in," said his mother, Mattie Peck.

Family members said Robert came out of his shell in high school. He blossomed into an ebullient extrovert, someone who would walk toward strangers' voices to meet someone new. He was quick to tell friends he loved them.

"He was an adult, but he had this childlike innocence about him," his sister said. "We see people and judge people, but he saw their heart."

Robert was a regular at the Lighthouse of Houston, a 77-year-old center for the blind where he sang in another choir.

He met McClendon when Catapult's founders visited the Lighthouse in September 2015. Fifteen people signed up and trained for last year's Houston Marathon 5K race, including Robert.

That was his first race. He was hooked. He moved on to a 10K, finished the Houston Livestock Show's Rodeo Run and spent the last few months training several times a week for this weekend's half-marathon.

Despite it all, McClendon harbored suspicions that Robert didn't actually like running.

"I think he enjoyed the time that he got to spend with whoever was guiding him," he said.

Robert took a big step last year and decided it was time to leave his family home. With his parents' reluctant blessing, he moved in with a vision-impaired roommate who could still distinguish shadows.

The roommate's mother would check in on them at their northeast Houston home and take them to the grocery store.

Unforgiving sprawl

On New Year's Day, he and his roommate walked to the store to get something for the electronic gadgets Robert loved tinkering with. He'd configured a smartphone so he could send text messages, take pictures and record videos, like the video serenade he sent his girlfriend that weekend.

Robert and his roommate were trying to cross Tidwell near Shadydale Elementary School at about 12:30 p.m. when his roommate thought he spotted a vehicle approaching, according to Houston police. He grabbed Robert's shoulder and tried to pull him back to safety on the grassy median.

Houston's sprawl and car culture are unforgiving even to sighted pedestrians, who get mowed down with shocking frequency. Houston police sounded the alarm last year after 71 pedestrians died by Halloween, a 31 percent spike compared to 2015.

One day a year, when the marathon comes to town, runners rule. But on New Year's Day, Peck was a blind pedestrian in an automobile's world.

His family didn't worry about Robert crossing streets because - like many blind people - he had exceptional hearing. Not only could he hear cars coming, but he also could identify their manufacturers by the way their motors sounded.

Despite his keen ears, despite his roommate's tug, Robert could not escape the vehicle that hit him.

The driver left the scene after hitting Robert, police said, and has yet to be caught. They don't know the vehicle's make or model, since the primary witness is visually impaired. Anyone with information can contact HPD's Hit and Run Unit at 713-247-4065 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

Collapsed at home

Robert must have stood up and dusted himself off, shaking off adversity like he would every day. The pair walked back home. Robert went to the bathroom, turned on the shower and collapsed. His roommate found him unconscious.

Paramedics rushed Robert to LBJ Hospital, where his mother joined him before he was transferred to Ben Taub Hospital. Surgeons operated twice to stem a brain bleed, but Robert never regained consciousness.

An array of medical devices kept his body alive as a parade of visitors came to say goodbye: his extended family, the church choir, blind friends and his Catapult teammates.

McClendon placed the Sylvan Beach Duathlon medal in Robert's still hand as it lay on a sterile hospital pillow.

'He saw with his heart'

Samuel Lopez, the volunteer who would have guided Robert in the half marathon, will run alone in his honor, carrying Robert's blue-and-silver running shoes.

After doctors said Robert would never wake up, the Peck family agreed to have life support removed Jan. 5. He was pronounced dead at 8:45 a.m. the same day, according to the medical examiner's office. His family held a funeral the following Saturday morning.

Telisha Peck said his heart, liver, kidneys and other organs are being donated to people in need of transplants.

"Whoever gets his heart is going to be a lucky person," she said. "That was the best part about him. He saw people with his heart, and he loved people with his heart.

"I would have given my eyes to have his heart."