USD Magazine Fall 2016

CLASS  NOTES O

[ i n t r e p i d ] UNSTOPPABLE Jason Romero’s remarkable journey

ally become completely blind. Nonetheless, after graduating from college, Romero went to law school at the University of Colorado at Boulder. It was then that he ran his first marathon. After passing the bar, he was in private practice for five years before putting his undergradu- ate business degree to work: He spent 10 years at General Electric and two more as a vice president at Western Union. He also kept active: He ran the Bos- ton Marathon twice and com- pleted three Ironman triathlons — a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run — before turning to longer runs. He set world records for the 100-mile, 24-hour, 48-hour and 72-hour runs for visually impaired athletes, all while his vision slowly leaked away. By the fall of 2014, he had become legally blind, could no

by John Rosengren

n May 23, 2016, when Jason Romero ‘92 (BBA) climbed the steps of

At USD, he sat in the front row but could not see the blackboard. So he spent long nights in the library using a bright lamp and magnifier to study —ultimately graduating magna cum laude. Romero had run track and captained the varsity football and wrestling teams in high school. He played rugby at USD, which did not require 20/20 vision. “When you have a big guy chasing you, you just run as fast as you can,” he says. The doctor who had diag- nosed his eye condition told the 14-year-old Romero, “You will never become a doctor or law- yer,” and that he would eventu-

City Hall in New York City, he completed a 60-day odyssey that began 3,080 miles earlier on the Santa Monica Pier. He became the first blind man to run across the United States. It wasn’t easy, but Romero is on a first-name basis with adversity. Raised by a single mother, he was the first gener- ation of his family to get a col- lege education. That in itself was a challenge because he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye condition, at the age of 14.

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USD MAGAZINE