Going the Distance: On Footstrikes and Freedom

These two quotes showed up on Facebook today inspiring me to reflect on the power of footstrikes - in running and in life.

As a survivor of paralytic polio and trauma, I've had difficulty putting my foot down with people. It was always a challenge for me to say yes to myself and no to another. I have trusted people and worked hard to see their goodness even when they were not allowing their goodness to be in the forefront. Recently, I carefully and as gracefully as I could disentangled myself from a working relationship and therapeutic relationship with my massage therapist of two years. There were many positive aspects to my working with him both in treatment and to help him build his business. In recent months it became apparent that it was no longer serving me to continue in the relationship. I was hoping I could go the distance with him on the road to my threepeat of running the Bermuda Half Marathon but everything changes and it was not meant to be.

What was important for me was that I had to free myself from the patterns of the past. It's never easy to change because the past and our reactions to the events of our past get hardwired into the very fiber of our being and body. But setting out on runs transforms the ways of the past and gives time and space to clear out the clutter mind, body and soul.

I love this quote from John L. Parker's "Once a Runner":


and this quote about running and freedom:


I discovered the healing and transformational power of running late in my life at the age of 53! As I recall the moment I declared that I was going to run the Boston Marathon, I had no idea the tremendous gifts that running would give to me.

From my memoir, "Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility":

At my six-month evaluation in February, I had dramatically improved in every area of the assessment. I had come out of my leg brace and I knew that I was on a healing path. Janine asked me what my next health and fitness goals were.
“Well I want to feel free in my body. I want to dance. I want to be able to walk outside and feel unencumbered when I take a walk.”

Janine wrote feverishly and we worked out a plan. She gathered up her belongings and had her hand on the door knob.

“Wait. I have one more goal.”

Janine stopped and turned around.

“I want to run the Boston Marathon for Spaulding Rehab Hospital. I know they have a Race for Rehab team and I want to do it next year.”

Janine was non-plussed. I don’t know what kept her from turning tail and getting as far away from me as she could. She came back into my house and put down her things. She said that the first thing I would need is a pair of running shoes. She told me that Marathon Sports on Beacon Street would be able to help me. She laid out a cursory training plan and said that we would begin indoors to build up my cardio endurance. As soon as the weather got a little warmer, we’d go outdoors and I would learn how to run.

What had I just done?

What had I just done indeed!

I entered a world where I learned how to put my foot down and where footstrikes lead to transformation and freedom!

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):

Celebrating Ten Years of Healing: The Gift of Running Part III

There's no such thing as a fake runner and it doesn't matter how far or how fast you run ... you're a runner. Great wisdom from two running greats!

Tom and I are watching Mind Over Marathon on YouTube. It's a two part documentary that chronicles 10 people who struggle with their mental health on the road to the London Marathon. From the very first run, and mind you none of these individuals had run before or were part of the running community, a few of the runners went back to join the slowest runner in the pack.

We runners are a very special breed and we do travel in packs looking out for each other, honoring the runner's code and celebrating the accomplishments and success of individual runners without judgment about the pace. PR's are celebrated regardless of the pace.

Here's one of my favorite moments from these past 10 years of my healing journey at the Bill Rodgers 5K Run for Prostate Cancer.



Tom can easily run a 9 minute mile but he stays with me, paces me, supports and encourages me and celebrates every mile with me.

I was trained and ready to take on my second CONSECUTIVE Bermuda Half Marathon this year. Every week I did a 5 day training cycle that included a 5K during the week and a long run on the weekends.

Race day was not exactly how I planned it yet it turned out to be quite the story.

I went out too fast, did not honor the conditions of the day and the road conditions were not ideal. I let the voices of the past put pressure on myself to finish in under four hours which was the time limit for the Half Marathon rather than enjoy the race as I had in 2016.



I knew the Race Director and I knew that the course and finish line would stay open until the Marathoners completed their race but sometimes the voices from the past are stronger than reasoning in the present.

I began experiencing some cramping and back spasms at mile 9. By mile 10 I was listing to to my left and Tom was worried I was injured. By mile 12 I couldn't straighten up. We stopped and I stretched and hydrated. A beautiful woman stopped and asked if I was okay; did I need water? anything? We reassured her I was fine and she went on her way to bring in a friend of hers who was a marathoner and struggling to get to the finish.

At about mile 12.5 she came running up to us. I had decided at that point to put my arm around Tom to support my hip. She said in a delightful British/Bermudian accent that she was going to help me to the finish as other runners had done for her in Chicago and Philadelphia.



As we approached the finish chute she stepped out of the way so that she would not be in our finisher's photo:


It's taken me awhile to embrace and celebrate myself as a runner no longer apologizing for my pace.

Just the fact that I'm running at all is a miracle and the fact that I continue to run and train and strive for my optimal level of health and fitness is a miracle.



It's a miracle that 10 years ago I did not let a diagnosis define or defy me. It's a miracle I found my way to Dr. Ryan J. Means, a healer chiropractor who helped me recover from that serious knee injury in December of 2014, turned me onto the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza and reminded me to set goals not limits. It was a miracle that I found the courage to start and not quit before the miracle happened!

To be continued....

To going the distance with strength and courage,
~Mary


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):


Mary McManus, MSW knew challenges since she was five years old beginning with contracting polio followed by enduring nine years of violence at the hands of family members. Those early challenges prepared her for taking on the challenge of the diagnosis of post polio syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease in December 2006 when she was at the height of her award winning career as a social worker at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Asking for Divine Guidance as she had throughout her trials and tribulations, she discovered the gift of poetry in her soul. Her first poem, “Running the Race,” foreshadowed her 2009 Boston Marathon run. “Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance,” chronicles Mary’s journey as a survivor of paralytic polio and trauma, as a runner and a woman who refused to quit. Eight years after her diagnosis, she was finally led to two healers, a chiropractor and a muscular therapist, who helped her reclaim her life and go the distance, a woman transformed who embodies the power of endurance.

Going the Distance: Running is my Therapy

After a serious knee injury in December 2014, my non-runner friends and many in the Western medicine tradition (and even the massage therapist I was working with at the time) did not understand my passion and single mindedness to return to running no matter what.

I came to the sport of running later in life - at the age of 53 - after years of loathing my body and decades of neglect and dissociation as a result of paralytic polio and trauma.

Once I put the intention out there to bring into manifestation all that I had been yearning for and writing about in my poems, The Universe delivered my beloved friend, healer and chiropractor Dr. Ryan Means who turned me onto the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza and, even though he lives in China, he has left healing memories on mind, body and soul.

I've been able to sustain and build on my 5 day training cycle. I enjoyed my off season of recovery after running the Bermuda Half Marathon and the Hyannis 10K in January and February and am now amping up my training for the Bermuda Half Marathon next January.

We deposited 7.5 sweet miles in the Bank of Bermuda as we like to call it last Saturday and yesterday went out for a 5K tempo run after strength training on Sunday.

There's been a lot of family stress happening with our daughter's journey with mental illness.

We warmed up and then, as John "The Penguin" Bingham said, I let my feet process all of my feelings while talking and running with my life and running partner, Tom.

We did negative splits all the way and poured sweat leaving all of our troubles on the path around the Reservoir leaving everything up to the Divine. We offered up the Serenity Prayer while we ran and by the end of 3.11 miles we were ready to begin our day - refreshed, energized and with hearts filled with gratitude for this gift of running in our lives.



I am so blessed and grateful to have found my way to Dr. Ryan who, from the very beginning of my treatments with him, let me know that I could and would go the distance again, returning to the roads where I get heaping doses of the best medicine in the world!

To your health and wellness,
Mary

Going the Distance: The satisfaction of a tempo run in the morning

Yesterday morning I had to run solo because my life and running partner Tom was at a conference and had to leave early. It can be hard to get motivated for a run alone but I knew I wasn't going to think twice about it.

I did my core work, my clams, stretched, had a piece of toast and banana and out the door I went.

I wasn't going to focus on pace; just run from the inside out. I didn't even have a route in mind. I also forgot about the 15 degree rule and definitely over dressed for this beautiful Spring morning run but no matter I went on my way.

I had a "come to Jesus" meeting with God as I allowed all my thoughts and feelings about a recent stressful situation in my life pour out of me. I did not judge my thoughts or feelings, I let them flow and I allowed the beauty of the Reservoir, the birds singing, the sun glistening off of the water and the beautiful blue sky receive all that I had pent up inside of me. I didn't even think about the fact that everything changes and this would pass through or allow Tara Brach's mantra of "attend and befriend." I knew I needed to allow everything to surface for examination and exploration.

I started out doing a race walking pace and as I allowed the stew of my thoughts and feelings to cook, I found myself running very much in a Run Forrest Run kind of way. I wasn't running away from anything though; I was running toward myself to reclaim my life from this stressful situation.



My 2nd split was a 15:35 minute/mile pace. I haven't seen that pace since I was training for the Harvard Pilgrim 5K last summer. I felt One with all that is and let the sweat pour off of me cleansing everything in its wake.

I did a few hills and my overall pace was 16:03 which for me is quite impressive especially as I am just getting back into training. I know that the cross training on the arc trainer and the bike rather than doing a 2nd day of static strength training has definitely helped my running but more than that, I allowed my body to do what it needed to do to manage what I needed to manage through the run.

After the run I had this feeling of deep satisfaction. The time on the Nike+ was awesome yes but there was a sense that I'd gone out and confronted everything I needed to confront and transformed everything that was hurting inside of me.



It's such a blessing to still have the gift of running in my life especially after a knee injury in December 2014 that everyone said would permanently sideline me. But now I go the distance with gusto!

To your health and wellness!
Mary