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Music booms through a steel door and echoes down a long, cavernous hallway as folks shuffle into a grey industrial building in midtown Toronto on a recent freezing night.

It's dark and there are no arrows or signs pointing the way to the slick, high-tech space for WattsUp Cycling, an endurance training facility for novice and diehard athletes.

So for this group, it's almost literally a case of the blind leading the blind, with the sighted people extending an arm to the visually impaired men and women who have come to sweat, spin and often cuss their way to a higher level of fitness.

They are part of the Blind Guys Tri Team, a groundbreaking group of 30 Canadians, aged 16 to 66, with varying stages of vision loss who will take part this summer in the third annual Joe's Team Triathlon, a fundraiser for cancer research at Princess Margaret Hospital.

While people with vision loss have competed individually in countless sports, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind says the Blind Guys Tri is the first team of vision-impaired athletes and non-athletes to train and compete together.

Seated on rows of mounted tandem bikes in front of a giant television screen that monitors pace and time are Delano Brown (blind after being stabbed in the eye with a pencil), Elizabeth Hurman (who has retinitis pigmentosa and 5 per cent vision), and Brian McLean (same disease, 7 per cent vision).

They are are matching their cycling tempo to their "guides," the same volunteers who will lead them through a 750-metre swim on Lake Joseph, a five-kilometre run, and a 20-kilometre bike ride. They will be tethered together with their guides in the water, and sharing a bike on the road.

"The hardest part for me - no question - is the swimming," huffs 52-year-old Ms. Hurman, sweat dripping off her chin as she and her partner negotiate a steep hill simulated from video footage of the 2001 Tour de France. "I've never learned how to do a single stroke - and a mermaid I am not," she says with a laugh. "I'm a sinker."

Mr. Brown, who is 37 and has recently run two half-marathons, likewise describes the pool sessions as "the toughest workout I've ever done." But he signed up for the July 11 event because cancer is a good cause ("I've lost my mom and stepmother to cancer"). It's also an opportunity for Mr. Brown, who lives in socially assisted housing in downtown Toronto, to give back to others in need - a sentiment echoed by many of the other racers.

The CNIB credits the formation of the Blind Guys Tri primarily to three men - Joe Finley (who was diagnosed with cancer of the nasopharynx in the summer of 2004, and founded the Joe's Team Triathlon in 2007), Newfoundland singer-songwriter Terry Kelly (an Order of Canada recipient and one of three blind people in the world to have run a mile in less than five minutes), and Tim Tremain, Mr. Kelly's guide.

After Mr. Kelly - who is the Blind Guys team captain - completed Joe's Team Triathlon last summer - the three men sat down ("over a thousand beers," Mr. Finley quips) and hatched the plan to solicit interest among other visually impaired people.

Mr. Finley is not sure where the magic number 30 came from, but he figures that in his hops haze it seemed like a "workable number" at the time.

With help from the CNIB (and word of mouth), the spots filled up almost instantaneously. Demand is so strong among Mr. Finley's friends to be guides that he's had to turn scores of people away.

This past Monday night, Mr. Finley trained with "the blind guys" after spending most of the day at Princess Margaret Hospital undergoing chemotherapy. Exhausted and weak from the treatment, the 57-year-old was nevertheless upbeat about the approaching charity race, its 400-odd participants, and especially the vision-impaired crew.

"Can you imagine 30 blind guys and how fantastic it's going to be?" Mr. Finley says. "Blind people often get shunted off into these various things - sporting events and activities they have to do on their own. Our vision is that they'd take part in it just like everyone else. So they will finally have the opportunity to challenge themselves and show everyone what they are.

"When I cross the finish line, it's the most amazing feeling. I figure if I can bottle this feeling, and sprinkle it around some, then Joe's Team will be a success." (To date, the charity event has raised $1.2-million for the hospital).

Does he think, however, that the Blind Guys title is a tad politically incorrect? Maybe, he shrugs.

"My son used to teach sailing on Lake Joe and he taught many blind people from the [nearby] CNIB camp. One day, one of the fellows - who is blind and a paraplegic - flips into the boat and tells Mike, 'You know what I'm tired of people saying? I'm tired of them saying I'm visually impaired. I'm a blind guy. That's what I am.' And that thought stayed with me," Mr. Finley recounts.

Last September, the Blind Guys Tri, which has members from eight provinces, assembled for its first training session at the CNIB camp. Each participant was paired with a guide and given a rigorous training regimen, nutrition guidelines and - for many - their first experience in a wetsuit.

"Of the 30, many are totally new beginners in all three sports, including many like Elizabeth who are learning to swim for the first time," explains Mr. McLean, 45, who has completed nine marathons and founded Achilles Canada, a non-profit organization that helps people with various disabilities get involved in the sport of running.

"But the great thing about the team is that the more veteran athletes can help the ones more novice. It's all about building fitness, morale, and doing something to aid a cause that has impacted each and every one of us."

Mr. Finley says the biggest hurdle so far has been rounding up 30 tandem bikes and finding a way to transport them to Lake Joe from various locations across Canada. "You wouldn't believe how rare they are when you need a whole bunch. But we finally have that sorted out. It's all going to work."

Near the end of the 45-minute cycle, Ms. Hurdman is beet red and drenched in sweat. And she's flying high as a kite. "I've had a riot with my guides. And a total panic running with other people. Am I a dud in the pool? Sure. But if I sink, I'll crawl along the bottom if I have to."

Then she glances over at Mr. Brown, who has removed his signature dark sunglasses and is doing the final few ticks on the bike with his eyes closed. A huge grin on his face.