I am so deeply grateful that we were able to get our outdoor runs in every Saturday since May as we trained for Bermuda Marathon Weekend 2018. The forecast for yesterday was 57 degrees and rain...and then the temperatures in the forecast slowly plummeted. Yesterday morning it was 28 degrees and freezing rain. Thank goodness we have a gym membership at Boston Sports Club. One thing that is a challenge when doing a treadmill run at most gyms is the feeling of being indoors but at the Prudential Center Club, there are floor to ceiling glass windows. Team McManus found 3 treadmills in a row in front of the windows to get in our miles for Bermuda.
As the rain fell, we watched crystals form on the bare branches of the trees outside the window. We chatted about Christmas, my birthday and our most remarkable training season. We trained consistently from May to December with cross training and strength training when we didn't run. Our 12 mile training run gave us the boost of confidence we needed to know we can and will go the distance. Friday night we reviewed the course map in exquisite detail:
I updated my Facebook cover photo and we talked about how we'll feel when we arrive at this spot just a little over 5 miles into the Half at John Smith's Bay:
We had some quiet time and I listened to the sounds of people running on the treadmill. Tom and Ruth Anne said they'd go at my pace since we train together. I set the pace at 20-30 seconds faster than race day pace since it was only a 5 mile run. I could sense how much faster people were running around us and I became aware of how broken I felt after contracting paralytic polio.
Dr. Joe Dispenza often talks about the importance of coherence. Coherence can simply be defined as being unified as a whole. There is coherence within each of us as individuals and then creating coherence by being connected to the whole world and to the Source of all creation.
I experienced such clarity during this treadmill run. When I contracted paralytic polio at age 5, my body and mind became incoherent. I was initially paralyzed from the neck down. My mother, addicted to prescription pain medication glared at me while smoking a cigarette refusing to care for me. I was touched by grace and had a mystical experience that would sustain me through the horrors of my childhood and adolescence. Yet the break within me continued for decades and I was at a crossroads in my life 11 years ago when my my soul cried out for healing. I'd been diagnosed with Post Polio Syndrome a progressive neuromuscular disease.
Three years ago, after a very serious knee injury, I had another wake up call. I was led to the work of Dr. Joe through an earth angel chiropractor healer, Dr. Ryan J. Means. By doing the meditations, journaling and being aware of my thoughts, I am putting myself back together the way I was always meant to be creating a new me transformed by the experiences of my life.
While running on the treadmill, I started entertaining new thoughts about my running and my pace. I relaxed and allowed my mind and body to experience coherence. I felt my heart open and appreciate myself as a runner. I used the time on the treadmill to feel and imagine ease and speed, joy and gratitude for all my body CAN do. I realized that before I can run a 12 minute mile which has been a part of my intention for years, I need to feel whole and healed right now.
I reflected on all the healing I have done from the inside out and reminded myself that I can and will and am going the distance in my healing journey.
I reached back in my memory to before polio and trauma as I watched the wonder and miracle of the icicles forming on the bare tree branches...As long as I stay connected to Source I can generate the energy I need to heal everything and feel free and easy in my body. I reached back to when I was a ballerina - flexible, graceful, whole and healthy in my body and the apple of my teacher's eye. I AM whole and healthy. I felt a shift happen within me as I brought those subtle remnants of memories from contracting paralytic polio and then suffering violence at the hands of family members. I felt in rhythm with all of the runners in the room. It reminded me of this video about the synchronization of the metronomes:
Rather than pushing myself feeling that I was out of sync with runners, I felt my heart open and felt that I belong to myself, to the running community, and to the world.
19 days until Bermuda Marathon Weekend...what a wondrous and wonderful journey where once again I met myself on the roads - or as in yesterday's run - on the treadmill.
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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