The hay is in the barn. We trained for 5 days every week from May until December. We capped out our long run at 12 miles. We trained through heat, humidity, cold, rain and freezing cold. Team McManus is Bermuda ready!
It's time now to focus on the mental game as we count down the days to our Bermudaful vacation that includes a 13.1 mile run known as the Bermuda Marathon Weekend Half Marathon.
As we ring out 2017 and ring in a New Year, I've been meditating and journaling on what I want to leave in 2017 and what I am going to take into 2018.
I've been doing the work of meditation guided by Dr. Joe Dispenza. I have a powerful intention for healing along with a profound sense of gratitude for the healing I have already experienced and continue to experience in my life. I am more aware of how the past influences of paralytic polio and trauma affect how I feel in my body and how I feel in my body then affects my thoughts and feelings. By being keenly aware of how I felt in response to polio and trauma, I can now shift my beliefs, my thoughts and my feelings. I have all the wonderful feelings of being alive, thriving, enjoying my workouts and runs, knowing the power of my body's ability to heal and partnering with the Divine Mind to heal all that went before. It's all rather glorious and miraculous.
Dr. Joe talks about rehearsing something so many times that it feels as though it has already happened. Team McManus has rehearsed running the Bermuda Half Marathon with every training run; especially how it feels to come into the finish and cross the finish line with hands held high.
We go mile by mile on the map:
and on our copy of the map I've written out our fueling and hydration plan.
Since it is New Year's Eve, I am going to take a look back at the reunion of Team McManus through the year.
Ruth Anne came home in early May after 3 years of struggling with severe depression and PTSD. Tom and I were already registered for the Joseph Aselton 5K race in Hyannis and it was our first race since we ran Boston in 2009. After a few training runs together we were back in sync!
It was a magical race. Ruth Anne told us that she was auditioning for going to Bermuda with us.
And then it was time to begin building those miles.
We adopted the motto, "Hakuna Matata" - no worries. We were going to go the distance on the road to Bermuda.
We received signs that we were on the right path as we had when we trained for Boston first with a quarter and a penny followed by finding a dime.
We'd post videos from Bermuda Marathon Weekend 2016 and soak up the love and cheers from our running village lending us support and cheers as we added on the miles:
This was our selfie after a sweet, sweat fest and then soaking 7 miles:
And then the excitement mounted as we approached double digits.
Our 10 miler was in the pouring rain!
We knew we were Team McManus tough after that run!
We'd find out how tough with a hot hot hot double digit run the following week.
We had perfect weather for our 11.5 mile training run as I wrote about in "How Lucky Can You Get".
We experienced such love on our 12 mile run into downtown Boston and back during and after the run from our running village.
We had a snowy six mile run and the following week we were mighty winter warriors on Heartbreak Hill for 7 miles in 17 degree weather!
We were so proud of our outdoor running streak until last week when ice and plummeting temperatures forced us inside.
When we trained for Bermuda Half Marathon 2017, Tom and I had many indoor training runs and we did not have a solid 12 miler as we did this year.
It's now time to usher in a New Year and embrace our taper time.
We've worked hard and now it's time to celebrate all that we have overcome in 2017.
Two weeks from today we get to take our victory lap!
To going the distance with strength and courage!
From my heart to yours,
Mary
Be sure to listen to my interview with Keith Cartwright by following this link.
Proud to be a part of Friends of Blue Diamond Athletic Displays, Inc.
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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