A Few Steps Toward His Goal : L.A. Watts Games: After the Braille Olympics, Hermilo Jimenez simply wanted to run in a mainstream race.

Shortly after the start of the boys’ 1,600-meter race, Hermilo Jimenez might have been disappointed to see the other 21 runners well in front of him.

He might have been--if he could see them. Jimenez is legally blind.

One of about 200 participants from area high schools to compete in the track and field events of the 25th L.A. Watts Summer Games on Saturday at Cromwell Field on the USC campus, Jimenez’s goals are more modest than most.

“I like to participate,” he said, “not to win.”

Jimenez, 19, was disappointed that he didn’t finish the race. He pulled out on the third turn of the second of the four laps.

“I felt tired,” he said. “I wasn’t ready.”

This, after all, was his first competitive race. Jimenez, who lives in Montebello, started training only about a month ago, which, he acknowledged, “was too late.”

It all started for Jimenez in May, when he was a first-time competitor in the standing long jump and the high jump in the Braille Special Olympics, held by the Braille Institute in Los Angeles.

His finishes: first in the long jump, third in the high jump.

Jimenez said he was surprised to have such success so early, and that encouraged him to reach for more--specifically, to run in a mainstream race against some of the top high school runners in the area.

Jimenez said he is “90%” blind. He said he can see well enough to make out lane lines on a track or the bar on the high jump.

He was treated no differently than any of the other runners Saturday. And the other runners didn’t seem to notice he was blind. Jimenez’s older brother, Norverto, 25, helped him find his way to the registration table and the starting line, where Hermilo stood a step behind the other runners, waiting for the gun.

He made his way once around the 400-meter track in respectable time, about 1 minute 19 seconds. It was his first competitive lap. He would not complete another.

Was he disappointed? Yes.

Discouraged? No.

“I like to run,” he said. “It’s good for me to stay in shape.”

Jimenez said he has no plans to stop competing in mainstream athletic events.

His goal is to run in the Los Angeles Marathon.

“I don’t know when,” he said. “I need to practice more. But I will do it someday.”