By all appearances, I should not be running Half Marathons at the age of almost 64 years old after the diagnosis 10 years of Post-Polio Syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease by Western Medicine Standards. As Anthony Raynor, Race Director for Bermuda Marathon Weekend said when he was at our house recently for lunch, "You sure know how to mess up people's credibility."
As Walt Disney once said, "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
During my meditations, I have been focusing on healing, confidence and hope knowing that I can go the distance on the road to my threepeat of the Bermuda Half Marathon 2018. Last week's training run was a tremendous confidence booster! I realize now my body had been fighting a virus all week long; to go out and get in the miles and complete my training plan without missing a beat was quite the accomplishment!
Waking up this morning and feeling well after a week of feeling under the weather due to stress, seeing beautiful blue skies, low humidity and sunshine was a gift. I expressed my gratitude during morning meditation. We did our core work, had our breakfast, packed up our hydration and fueling and out the front door we went. We were planning to just stay at the small reservoir and do 6 loops but halfway through, Ruth Anne and I needed to make a pit stop. We decided to finish with 3 loops, take a pit stop at home and then finish our run around the big reservoir at Cleveland Circle.
"What does my Nike+ say?" I asked Ruth Anne.
"3.00 miles."
"What? We had our water stop at 3 miles awhile ago. How is that possible?"
Tom checked his Garmin. "We're at 3.86 miles."
"Oh no," I groaned. "It didn't restart after I hit resuming workout after 3 miles."
We realized we'd have to go by his Garmin rather than my Nike+ for total distance.
Do you ever wonder about the conversations that happen during a Team McManus training run?
Sometimes we work out different issues we need to address or talk politics, music, sports or current events.
We enjoy being together and love the special time of being unplugged, out in nature, doing something so wonderful for mind, body and soul. What a thrill to have our sights set on Bermuda Marathon Weekend.
We do have one cardinal rule for conversation on our training runs. There is no talking about "what's for lunch" until we our halfway through the run.
Ruth Anne broke that rule today and all she could say well before we hit the 4 mile mark was how much she wanted wings for lunch today.
We talked about the pros and cons of having wings as part of a post long run meal.
"Did you guys ever want wings when you were training last year?" Ruth Anne asked.
"Did we ever. I don't know what it was but we would go to Pace's in the Seaport area after running Castle Island and South Boston and I had to have wings."
Well rules are made to be broken right and we started talking about foods we'd eat after our long runs last year.
After our pit stop we picked up the pace and ran down Eliot Street to the Cleveland Circle Reservoir.
What a beautiful day with geese, turtles, the sun glistening off of the Reservoir and Team McManus getting in our miles.
After a 1.6 mile loop it was time to calculate how much farther we needed to run to meet our 8 mile goal for the day.
Tom miscalculated how much extra we needed to do at the Reservoir and we hit the 8 mile mark before we were back at home.
Rather than use it as a cool down, I suggested we keep going.
As we do at the end of every training run as we approach the "finisher's chute" we imagine how we are going to feel in Bermuda.
We join hands and raise them high in triumphant jubilation.
At the end of today's run we deposited 8.2 miles in the Bank of Bermuda.
And do you know what we had with our salad and smoothies for lunch?
Buffalo and bbq wings - what else?
We feel incredibly accomplished and move forward on the road to Bermuda with hope, confidence, faith and optimism knowing that a threepeat of Bermuda (and Ruth Anne's first Bermuda Half Marathon) is well within our reach.
Go the distance with strength and courage!
~Mary
Be sure to visit my website by following this link.
My books are available on Amazon.
Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life
Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing Hope and Possibility that chronicles the first 7 years of my healing journey:
And my latest and greatest book - Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance (With a Foreword by Jacqueline Hansen):
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