It was a rough week for Team McManus but of course nothing as devastating as it was for Houston!
One of Ruth Anne's friends passed away suddenly. Tom was on a business trip to Las Vegas with a 3 hour time difference and I was heartbroken about the news coming out of Houston and how a dear friend of ours was affected by the devastating storm. I was so grateful for my two days of rest after a training week that required changing up my usual training plan because of equipment that wasn't available at the gym and because of Tom's trip. While in the scheme of things, I had nothing to complain about compared to what was happening in Texas, I was affected by the events happening in our lives. While I am healed in so many ways from the effects of paralytic polio and trauma, stress can increase fatigue and fuel my doubts about my capabilities!
When I woke up yesterday morning, my body craved another rest day. Tom got in at midnight on Friday.
We have the Bermuda Half Marathon to train for and we had 8.5 miles on tap!
I focused my morning meditation on affirmations about running unencumbered with ease and feeling lightness in my body. The weather was perfect running weather - cool and sunny. I focused on all I have to be so grateful for!
As summer draws to a close here in New England we can sleep in and not worry about needing to beat the heat of the day.
We did our core work, had our breakfast, loaded up our hydration and fueling supplies in our Camel Back backpacks that Ruth Anne and Tom are so gracious to carry and we set out for our long run.
Ruth Anne and I had planned out the route during our evening meditation on Friday. Two times around the big Reservoir in Cleveland Circle and three times around the small Reservoir on Route 9. Whatever left over mileage we had, we would finish on our street.
We focused on the joy of the run, the beauty of the day and how blessed we are for each other and the gift of running in our lives.
Ruth Anne and Tom have been looking for new running goals. While a Half Marathon is a challenge for me, and they are so wonderful to run at my pace, they both need a full marathon and be able to run at their pace. Tom still has visions of a BQ (Boston Marathon qualifier for my non running readers) especially now that he is 65 and Ruth Anne wants to fund raise for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention by participating in an endurance event. We talked about the research we had done together on line and decided that the Hartford Marathon 2018 seemed like a great goal for them.
As they were talking about their goals, I could feel myself drifting in my thoughts. "Well I won't run Bermuda in 2019 then because they will be too busy training for Hartford. Why did I decide to do a threepeat of the Bermuda Half Marathon anyway? My body can't do this anymore. Leave the endurance running up to them."
The tiny seed of feeling tired grew into an entire scenario of self doubts and of course my body followed my lead.
I knew I had to shake it off and remind myself that it's not about my pace - it's about crossing that finish line in January.
While I slogged through a few miles, when we hit mile 8, my energy shifted and I felt happy and inspired to go the distance.
I had found my second wind!
What a sense of accomplishment we had that, after a week of stress and heartache, we set new running goals for Tom and Ruth Anne that include fund raising for a cause near and dear to our hearts and deposited 8.5 miles in the Bank of Bermuda!
A lesson learned for running and life - somewhere deep inside of us, even when we are weary and feel as though life has given us too much to handle; when we feel as though we can't take another step we can always fire up that spark of whatever we need to go on when we hitch ourselves to the Divine and focus on something greater than ourselves!
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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