It's been a wonderful week of training for Bermuda Marathon Weekend. Last Saturday we deposited 11.5 miles in the Bank of Bermuda on a beautiful Autumn day here in New England as I wrote about in How Lucky Could We Get?
On Sunday we had a wonderful time at Boston Sports Club in Newton recovering from the run while continuing to build strength in the pool and on land.
Monday Team McManus rocked out another strength training session in our home gym.
On Tuesday I decided to try out another location for Boston Sports Clubs to do my cross training. As I walked along the decked out Boylston Street to the Prudential Center I felt the anticipation of Christmas and my birthday and our Bermuda Racecation. The Prudential Center was bustling with holiday cheer. I had a workout trying to find the Club within the Pru but my persistence paid off. It's a beautiful spacious Club with large windows overlooking Copley Square. I was energized by the person on the bike next to me training for a Tri, people pounding out the miles on the treadmill and those intensely focused in the weight room and on the stairmaster. I ended up doing 5.6 on the bike and .88 on the Arc Trainer for a total of 7.37 miles! (You double the distance for the Arc Trainer to get an equivalent number of miles). I did not push myself during the workout yet did a mile more than I'd done on any other cross training day during this training season.
Yesterday Team McManus had an Awe-Some early morning run!
As I began to write this blog post I realize that I've been focusing on the fact that this is the third year in a row I'm training for and running the Bermuda Half Marathon. I've been calling it Bermuda Half Marathon III or Bermuda Marathon Weekend III. While it is indeed a miracle and a blessing that I am training for another half marathon and I am forever grateful given where I was 11 years ago after the diagnosis of Post-Polio Syndrome and three years ago after a very serious knee injury, this is, in fact the first Bermuda Half Marathon that Tom, Ruth Anne and I will be running together!
It's a new beginning in our lives on and off the roads.
I've suffered and struggled through my physical, emotional and spiritual challenges in the wake of contracting paralytic polio at the age of 5 and then enduring 9 years of violence at the hands of family members. This year marked the 10th anniversary of when I left my almost 20 year award winning career at the VA to heal my life. Next month marks 3 years since I was told that I should return to the Post-Polio clinic for a re-evaluation and prepare for a total knee replacement in a few years - oh and of course to not run anymore or to limit my distance.
I've worked so hard practicing the meditations and wisdom offered by Dr. Joe Dispenza tapping into the Source of Divine Intelligence within me. I've been blessed to partner with a chiropractor healer since 2015, Dr. Ryan J. Means who now lives and practices in China but we still do long distance healing and to partner with Dr. Lizzie Sobel here in Boston to cue my body to release its natural ability to heal; restore my body to wholeness and well being.
Ruth Anne has been on her journey to heal the effects of trauma she endured in her life and to heal severe depression using medication, meditation, chiropractic care with Dr. Lizzie and wonderful supportive people in her village of helpers.
We began our training journey in May when it was initially a challenge for us to find our rhythm on and off the roads having no idea where all of this would lead. We trusted, we trained hard and we have 3 more long runs before taper time.
We've done an incredible job healing and going the distance together.
The weather prediction for Saturday is not as ideal as last week's weather but we have decided that unless it's raining, we are going to get our 12 miler in outdoors. We are psyching ourselves up keeping our eye on the prize ... Bermuda bling and enjoying the challenge and triumphs of this journey.
It's time to turn the page and begin a new chapter in our lives...bidding farewell to the past, embracing the present and look toward the future!
To going the distance with strength and courage
From my heart to yours,
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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