Countdown to Bermuda: Happy Hug a Runner Day!

November 20th is Globally Organized Hug A Runner Day or GO HARD. This is a day for ALL RUNNERS/WALKERS to celebrate their fitness ...

Celebrate their fitness - not their pace or their distance - but their fitness!

As I sit here reflecting on the meaning of Hug a Runner Day in my life, I am in awe that in December of 2006, after undergoing a battery of tests, it was determined that I was suffering from Post-Polio Syndrome. I was told to be prepared to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair, adapt our Cape home, quit my award winning almost 20 year career as a VA social worker and to accept the fact that, because I contracted paralytic polio, I was deteriorating at a rapid rate. There was no message of hope or healing or possibility. The Team did not factor in that I was also a survivor of severe childhood trauma that might have been part of the cause of my symptoms. My life force was dwindling and it was the dark night of my soul.

Fortunately, I got still and asked for Divine Guidance.

The answer came in the form of a poem, "Running the Race." Yes you read that right. Running the race even though I had never run a day in my life, was taunted and teased with "Easy Out Alper" in gym class and was sitting in a leg brace, using a cane and at times a wheelchair for mobility. It foreshadowed Team McManus' 2009 Boston Marathon run.





Since becoming a part of the sport of running, I have met incredible people. I've met champions and heroes; those who have won the Boston Marathon, set world records, and those who are everyday champions and heroes for overcoming so much in their lives to make it to the starting line. I have runner friends who have discovered the power of running in their lives and go out and preach from the pulpit of the church of the long run on how running can help with recovery from substance abuse and mental health challenges.

Running is my therapy, my village and my life.



We are a rather crazy lot but only another runner would understand why we get up in the dark, run in rain, cold, wind and snow; run in heat and humidity testing our mettle for the medal and often times testing our mettle to discover our true strength, grit and determination.



With just 52 days to go until Bermuda Marathon Race Weekend, Team McManus is very happy to celebrate Hug a Runner Day!

Running takes me on the most wonderful adventures.

I am so excited to reunite with so many wonderful runner friends in Bermuda and excited for new friends yet to be made.

After Bermuda, we return to what we affectionately call Camp Hyannis. We see our runner friends and running greats once a year during Hyannis Marathon, Half Marathon and 10K weekend.

There are runner friends in real life and those that I know only through social media who I look forward to meeting one day. Runner friends are the best as we follow each other's running adventures, celebrate triumphs and pick each other up when we are facing life's trials and tribulations. We inspire one another to be the best version of ourselves we can be.

I'm sending out this virtual hug to all my runner friends and runners around the Globe.

Happy Hug a Runner Day!

To going the distance with strength and courage
From my heart to yours,
Mary

Be sure to listen to my interview with Keith Cartwright, "From Polio Survivor to Boston Marathon Finisher" by following this link.

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):