Meet Keryl Rustin — a 74-year-old woman who is blind and who just competed in her second National Senior Games 5K run. 

The resident of Kearneysville, West Virginia, also ran the 2022 5K unassisted and unnoticed — but this year, things were different.

On the rainy morning of July 9, Rustin ran the annual 5K for the second time in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — this time with a local running guide. 

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Rustin placed 15th in her age group by finishing the race in just 45 minutes. 

Although it was a new challenge, Rustin said she was up for the fight. 

Rustin decided to run her first National Senior Games race last year, after spending the last couple of years running races and training with her seven-year-old granddaughter, Gabbi.

"She was the one who would go out with me early in the morning … if there wasn’t any school. And she would run with me and give me cues," she said in comments shared with Fox News Digital by the National Senior Games.

Cues such as pointing out a change in pavement or a curve in the road were important for Rustin to know ahead of time — noting her granddaughter essentially taught her how to run blind.

Since her start of training in 2020, Rustin has run roughly 15 races. 

She ran her first National Senior Games 5K in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2022. 

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Rustin had planned on using a direction app to help guide her through the route, but the app malfunctioned before the race — leaving her no choice but to run it completely by herself.

"It was very challenging, to say the least," she said to National Senior Games. 

Rustin said she finished the race by listening to the sounds of the other runners’ footsteps and voices as they yelled directions at her. 

"It was really challenging because I knocked down all of the cones," she recalled. 

This year, however, Rustin came back better prepared with a local Pittsburgh runner named Kenneth Lee. 

Lee is an avid runner and even ran parts of the 5K route when he was in high school — noting he knew the area very well. 

Rustin said the two met through mutual friends. But they did not meet in person until the day before the race. 

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Lee, who had never guided a visually impaired person before, said Rustin ran like a champion. 

"She’s got good balance … She knows how to listen and guide herself in a way," he said. 

Rustin said having Lee with her throughout the race was a nice addition. The two of them finished the race in roughly 45 minutes. 

"He never complained about anything as far as having any apprehension about running with a blind person," she said. 

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Rustin even sped up and crossed the finish line before Lee — with the runner noting he was a "very conscientious and caring" person. 

When asked if Rustin would be continuing her running career, she instantly responded, "Yes."

"I’m definitely not stopping … This is just the beginning," she said. 

National Senior Games is an organization that hosts annual games to promote living a healthy lifestyle no matter the person's age. 

In 2022, the organization hosted 21 different sports and over 12,000 athletes to the two week-long games, according to the National Senior Games Association, which is based in Clearwater, Florida.

Mary Jo Kopechne, 28 years old and a respected political operative, was found dead in the overturned car of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., in a tidal pond near Chappaquiddick Island on this day in history, July 19, 1969. 

Known as the "Chappaquiddick incident," the drowning death of Kopechne and the chain of events before and after the tragedy became a national scandal for the young senator from Massachusetts — and "derailed Ted Kennedy’s presidential ambitions for good," noted the History Channel. 

What actually happened that night is unclear, for a multitude of reasons. 

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What is known is that Kennedy left a party late on the evening of July 18 with Kopechne, drove his car off Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, escaped from his car — and returned to his hotel. 

He did not report the incident until later in the morning of July 19, after his car (and Kopechne's body) had been discovered. 

In a 12-minute long televised speech that the gave on July 25, Kennedy attempted to explain what had happened earlier that week.

Kennedy claimed that he attempted to free Kopechne from the car multiple times before giving up due to exhaustion — and that he did not call the police as he was mildly concussed and in a state of shock.

The senator said the gathering was "a cook-out I had encouraged and help sponsor for a devoted group of [Robert] Kennedy campaign secretaries." 

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"Mary Jo was one of the most devoted members of the staff of Sen. Robert Kennedy. She worked for him for four years and was broken up over his death," said Ted Kennedy.

"For this reason, and because she was such a gentle, kind and idealistic person, all of us tried to help her feel that she still had a home with the Kennedy family."

Kennedy denied the "widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct that have been leveled at my behavior and hers regarding that evening," and said that he was not "driving under the influence of liquor." 

Said Kennedy, "I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately."

In the speech, Kennedy explained that rather than calling the police, he "walked back to the cottage where the party was being held and requested the help of two friends, my cousin, Joseph Gargan and Phil Markham, and directed them to return immediately to the scene with me — this was sometime after midnight — in order to undertake a new effort to dive down and locate Miss Kopechne."

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"Their strenuous efforts, undertaken at some risk to their own lives, also proved futile," he said.

Kennedy further acknowledged that there were calls for his resignation from the Senate.

He was first elected to the Senate in a special election in 1962, serving the remainder of his brother's term after John F. Kennedy was elected president. 

Ted Kennedy was subsequently reelected to a full six-year term in 1964, according to the Senate website. 

"And so I ask you tonight, the people of Massachusetts, to think this through with me. In facing this decision, I seek your advice and opinion," he said. 

"In making it, I seek your prayers — for this is a decision that I will have finally to make on my own."

Kennedy did not resign. 

He went on to represent the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the Senate until his death in 2009 at age 77. 

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He served no time in jail: He pleaded guilty to leaving scene of an accident and received a suspended two-month jail sentence, multiple sources reported. 

No autopsy was performed on Kopechne. 

It has been debated that perhaps she might have been rescued had the accident been reported earlier. 

In an August 1969 interview with TIME Magazine, Mary Jo Kopechne's parents expressed frustration at how their daughter's death was handled. 

"There are two sides here," Mrs. Kopechne told the magazine. 

"Mr. Kopechne and I on this side and the Kennedy name on the other. Everybody is on that side."

And while Mr. and Mrs. Kopechne told the publication they accepted Kennedy's excuse of "shock" as the reason he did not immediately go to the police, they were less accepting of the actions of his friends. 

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"I cannot understand Mr. Gargan and Mr. Markham," said Mrs. Kopechne. "They weren't in shock. Why didn't they get help? That's where my questions start."

The 2018 film "Chappaquiddick" earned rave reviews for its retelling of the long-discussed and debated story. 

In the film, actor Jason Clarke played Kennedy, while actress Kate Mara played Kopechne. 

"Chappaquiddick reminds us that without the Kennedy name and influence, the man who drove a car off a bridge, swam to shore and left a young woman to die, and then went into hiding and defense mode, should have gone to jail for a long time," said reviewer Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times.