For someone who was supposed to be in a wheelchair I run pretty fast!

As Tom and I added on our miles training for the Bermuda Half Marathon, I would often apologize for my pace. "If you were out here running alone, you'd be done in half the time," I'd tell him. This was especially true during our 10.5 miler in the rain. Tom reminds me how much he loves the time we spend together on our long runs and that I inspire him with my sheer will and determination.

As we get ready to run our 12.5 miles on Friday, I revisited my pace with Tom and he said, "For someone who was supposed to be in a wheelchair, you run pretty fast."

Well that certainly put things into perspective!

When I skype'd with Clarence "Stoker" Smith, Assistant Race Director for the Bermuda Marathon Weekend, he asked me my expected finish time. I told him under 4 hours for the half. His wife jumped up and down clapping her hands (no small feat for a 70+ woman) screaming, "Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Bless you. I'm comin' down to Front Street to cheer you on." He said that was an amazing projected time.

Most of the time I remember that I am a miracle; that after meeting Dr. Ryan J. Means, a healer, chiropractor and now dear friend, he reignited the flame of going the distance within me. He turned me onto the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza! Nine years ago I was in a leg brace, using a wheelchair at times for mobility and was told to prepare to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. Given the ravages that paralytic polio and trauma took on my body and what Western medicine knew about post polio syndrome, it was a reasonable assumption. God and I, however, had other plans.

It's been quite the healing odyssey with ups and downs and everything in between but now, at last, I have all the tools I need to go the distance; meditation, a kick ass cross training routine prescribed by my dear friend, healer and chiropractor Dr. Ryan Means, an amazing running and life partner with Tom and a village that cheers me on every mile of the way. As I post my runs on Nike+ no one has ever said to me, "well what was your pace." They all cheer me on inspired by what I have overcome knowing that for someone who was supposed to be in a wheelchair, I run pretty fast!