I'm so happy that I switched up my training day for running from Mondays to Wednesdays so I could feel the energy and be a part of National Running Day.
The question posed ... why do you run ...
I run because I never thought I could run. I run for fun, for health, to be fierce, to crush what were once limits and leave them in the dust. I run to meet myself on the road and to leave the past behind. I run to transcend, to transform and to be the best possible version of me I can possibly be. I run to celebrate freedom and I run to heal.
I have had a tweaky IT band for what seems like forever. I knew there was a connection to this discomfort with trauma from the past. Today I got in touch with the experience of being hit with the belt buckle in just that spot to bring me to my knees. It was also the spot that got itchy when I was in an ankle to hip cast during the summer when I was 11 years old. My right knee would repeatedly buckle. Of course it did - after paralytic polio and being repeatedly raped - my right knee and leg was weak and compromised. This was before MRI's so the orthopedist took a guess that there was loose cartilage and thought that putting me in a cast for 6 weeks during the summer (so I wouldn't miss school) would solve the problem.
And then something remarkable happened! I remembered how it felt to be beaten and how, because of the polio, I couldn't run away. I had a run Forrest run moment.
I imagined my legs as two strong mountains with cascades of Divine energy as waterfalls flowing through them and I ran with incredible ease, strength and confidence feeling unencumbered by the events of my past.
I run in solitude and I run with the pack. I run to feel One with all that is and to savor the beauty and wonder of nature.
I feel joy, gratitude and happiness when I run, especially when I run faster than I have in a very long time.
Today as I approached the "Bill Rodgers Hill" as I like to call it - the hill that runs on Beacon Street from the Reservoir to Hammond Street and that was part of the Bill Rodgers 5K that I PR'ed last August - I had a choice to run around the Reservoir or to take the hill. I opted to take the Hill.
In my mind's eye, I see myself as an endurance runner training for the 2016 Newport Marathon. I want to work on both speed and endurance. I run from the inside out and don't look at my pace while I run but I so wanted to experience a sub 16 minute mile. I opened it up to see what I could do.
It was perfect running weather cool and cloudy.
I listened to my marathon training playlist and visualized running the Finish at the Fifty 5K which will be my first comeback race since last October. One month from today I'll be lacing up my running shoes and wearing a bib and running for bling finishing at the 50 yard line at Gillette. It's a dream come true for me to be running and racing again and the joy bubbled up inside of me.
I also imagined myself out on the Newport Marathon course feeling my feet on the asphalt knowing in every fiber of my Being I am going that magical distance of 26.2 miles again.
When I finished today's run, I had my best pace since my return to the roads and that included the monstah hill. I had negative splits of -0.30" and -0.25" finishing at a 15'40" pace! Yes and my average pace was 16'06" crushing my previous times.
What a wonderful day and what a wonderful way to celebrate National Running Day.
When we set our mind's eye on a goal, we train our bodies. Success breeds success although it does require patience, pacing and practice.
Yesterday Dr. Joe Dispenza, author of You Are The Placebo and featured in What the bleep do we know and What the bleep down the rabbit hole, posted this on Facebook:
I am so in love with this process enjoying every step of this journey. I am in love with my life and feel so blessed and grateful to experience this sense of well being that comes with running.
I run.... and will keep on running as long as there is breath in my body celebrating many more Happy National Running Days to come knowing in every fiber of my Being that the best is yet to be!
BE BLESSED! JOURNEY WELL! TO ALL GOOD THINGS.....
I chronicle the first 7 years of my healing journey after being diagnosed with post polio syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease as a survivor of childhood paralytic polio and 9 years of childhood domestic violence in Coming Home:A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility.
In Journey Well, the journey continues in the wake of my nephew's suicide on 3/4/11 and the events of 4/15/13. Through my journey of healing and transformation, we learn that no matter what life circumstances happen to us, we can always find a way to journey well.
50% of book proceeds from all of my books, available on Amazon are donated to the Massachusetts Resiliency Center to support 4/15/13 Boston Strong survivors and their families.
I am working on my new book, Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems which brings together my best poems of the last 8 years and will include my latest poems as I continue to feel the heal and move forward in my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment