I am so blessed to be able to share life and run with my husband Tom. We've been together for almost 40 years now. He was a runner before we had twins and then started running with me to train for the 2009 Boston Marathon. While I've had to take time off from running here and there, Tom has been keeping his pace and staying fit and healthy. He's getting faster as he is getting older and he is the perfect pacing partner for me to help take my running to the next level with speed and endurance.
I was doing my Wednesday runs alone. Then we needed to train for an evening race so I met him after work and we'd do our training run in the evening. But it's not my best time of day to work out as is true for many people.
We figured out what time we would need to get up and have time for meditation, a core work out and then a run leaving time for Tom to get ready for work. We are so blessed that he works at Boston College, a short 10 minute commute by car from where we live!
I woke up before my alarm and did a meditation until it was time to "get up" and meditate. We had a peaceful 15 minute meditation before doing our plank (and I sneaked in an extra 5 seconds since Tom didn't have his glasses on ... something he would pay me back for later .. said with a wink and a smile), 45 crunches and 2 sets of 30 clams.
I fueled with a half a banana and a piece of toast, set my Nike+ and out the door we went.
It was a gorgeous morning although it was almost 80 degrees. There was a lot of cloud cover but there were moments of seeing the sun glistening off of the Route 9 Reservoir.
There is a shift in my body since I know I am training for the Bermuda Half Marathon in January. I have fully embodied and embraced being a runner knowing that these shorter runs are used for speed.
There were two women who passed us and were running at a pretty fast pace. I got my mind in gear to overtake them. It felt amazing to push the envelope and let my mind and body work in harmony to take me where I wanted to go. I felt a fierceness in my body and Being. I felt invincible living in that moment running happy and running free.
I usually stop at 1 mile and take a water break but I wanted to finish our first lap maintaining momentum. I took another sprint as we neared the tree marking the end of our first lap.
The second lap felt better than the first and we found our pace and our stride together. We sent out intentions of peace, harmony, love and courage to the world.
A brief pause for water after the second lap.
I am healing the connections to my thermostat that can overheat or in cold weather leave me shivering cold. I dumped water on my head to cool everything down and it was time for our huge hill heading back on our run.
Tom asked me what we eat for breakfast...I said well I had toast and a banana and now I am eating a blueberry hill ... We laughed.
I ran up the hill and actually had a huge negative split for that last mile.
Remember I told you that I pushed Tom into an extra 5 seconds for our plank. Well I suggested we stop at the light at the top of the hill but since it was still red, Tom pushed me to cross over Route 9 despite my feeling that I needed to stop.
I kept pace with him and it was a moment filled with joy and magic!
See I have had this amazing shift in my mind from trying to keep up with him or asking him to slow down to my pace to seeing myself as a 12 minute/mile runner. I do checks with myself to make sure that my beliefs and my actions are working together. The founder of L Street Running Club and a dear friend of ours has the motto of maintain...maintain...maintain but my motto is retrain...retrain...retrain as I shift the image of myself from a survivor of paralytic polio and violence to a woman transformed "setting goals not limits," to quote Dave McGillvray, race director of the Boston Marathon and author of The Last Pick. My average pace for the run was 15:13 which was my pace on race day. It's all happening!
Today, I felt the magic of a morning run that set the tone for a beautiful day of rest, relaxation and creativity after racing on Friday and having 4 days of training for the Bermuda Half Marathon in the books. How blessed and grateful I feel to share this journey with Tom.
Cheers! To life! Love yourself well!
I chronicle the first 7 years of my healing journey after being diagnosed with post polio syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease as a survivor of childhood paralytic polio and 9 years of childhood domestic violence in Coming Home:A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility.
In Journey Well, the journey continues in the wake of my nephew's suicide on 3/4/11 and the events of 4/15/13. Through my journey of healing and transformation, we learn that no matter what life circumstances happen to us, we can always find a way to journey well.
I am writing "Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems," and "Going the Distance," chronicling my journey on the road to the Bermuda Half and the Newport Marathon 2016.
No comments:
Post a Comment