In Chapin, South Carolina, a special bond exists between a teacher and one of her students. A bond that started here on the blue high school track field, with a pair tube socks.
"At first it was a struggle. It was a big struggle," says teacher Lori Latham.
Mrs. Latham teaches biology and anatomy at Chapin High School. She also runs with senior Miller Ballard.
Latham says, "I told Miller that I had this crazy idea that we could run, and start training to run. And he said 'ok'."
The reason this is a unique situation is because Miller has Asperger's Syndrome. He's also visually impaired, only able to see a small amount of light. But Lori wanted make sure he knew that those disabilities didn't have to slow him down.
She says, "Miller is an awesome individual and I don't think he has that many opportunities to show people how great of a person he is, and what he can actually do. He can do a ot more that what anyone can possibly think he could do."
Lori Latham first got the idea of running with Miller while running a Spartan Race with her husband.
"I saw two males running, one was blind and the other one was his guide. And that just got me thinking that miller could run, and I thought it would be really cool if he could do obstacle course races, but we're gonna start off with running first," Lori says.
So she became Miller's running partner and guide, assisted by a pair tube socks, which the pair hold, on each end, to maintain a connection while running.
"I couldn't think of anything else better. And my husband just had these two random tube socks, a pair of tube socks, and i just tied them together and looked at them and thought huh, that might work," Lori remembers.
An interesting thing, is that Lori doesn't think she's doing anything out of the ordinary.
"I didn't see it as anything that was a huge deal," she says.
Now, we know teachers are constantly going out of their way to help students, even going into their own pockets to pay for supplies. But really, how often do you see a teacher taking such a special interest to enable a student to do something he would never get the chance to do otherwise?
At first, the training started out at a slow pace.
"We ran three laps and it took us a long time to run those three laps. It was less than a mile, I'd say 17-18 minutes," Lori recalls. She says Miller had no way to put running into context. He ran with extremely high knees, and ver timid as he got used to being "tethered" to someone via tube socks. But over time, the communication between these tandem runners improved, and Miller got faster and more comfortable.
"When I first started running I couldn't run very far. Now I can run at a speed on 4.0," Miller says, about his training speed on a treadmill.
And as it turns out, Miller isn't the only one that's been enriched by this experience.
Lori says, "It's kind of helped me to slow down a little bit, more so than I did, and enjoy actually running, rather than enjoying the end result of running."
And while Miller might be a young man of few words, it's clear that this bond goes much deeper than the classroom, and a pair of tube socks.
Lori tries to hold back tears as she talks about her relationship with Miller, "I feel like even though he doesn't necessarily tell me, I feel like he appreciates me. But I can see it in his face. I can see the joy in his eyes. And that's very rewarding as a teacher."
Recently, the pair even ran together in Miller's first 5k. They finished in just under 35 minutes. They now have their sights set on a 10k.