Imagine!

People often ask me how I created myself as a runner at the age of 53 when a)I'd never run a day in my life and b) I was told I'd spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair after the diagnosis of Post Polio Syndrome 11 years ago.

It all began with a poem:
Running the Race
Early summer 1959 my kindergarten year
everyone around me filled with nervous fear
despite the Salk vaccine hope polio would disappear
the polio virus crept right up and knocked me in the rear.

Dancing all around the gym feeling free just like a bird
I dropped to the ground just like a stone and no one said a word.
The pain it was so searing-the diagnosis even worse
"It's polio" the doctor said...he was abrupt and terse.

Called one of the 'lucky ones' I had a 'mild case'
but with the other athletes I could never keep their pace.
Miss Holly physical therapist, curly hair and a warm, broad smile
it tempered the pain of being apart - to walk I'd take awhile.

I always wore those 'special' shoes the kids they poked and teased
With no support and much abuse with childhood I wasn't pleased.
But put nose to the grindstone and learned all that I could
I couldn't kick a ball but my grades were always good.

Years went by and no more thought to polio did I give
I accepted the limp and everything else and decided my life I would live.
But symptoms of weakness and muscle pain did grow
I kept a stoic face hoping no one else would know.

Life no longer was my own I struggled through each day
Suffered in silence, isolated from friends- trying to keep depression at bay.
And with the grace of glorious God my world it opened wide
I discovered there was a Post Polio team and they were on my side.

Using wheelchair to travel, set limits on what I could do,
resulted in joy to realize I could live life anew.
Celebrated my body- creaks, groans and need for a brace
While in my mind I focused on winning a 10K race.

Sought out paths for healing and my spirit flew free
for the first time in life, I could truly be me.
The chains are gone and possibilities abound
I'm a tree with my roots planted firmly in ground.

I'm now off the sidelines, no need to sit and whine
So much gratitude fills my heart and love and beauty shine.
After all these years I can join the loving human race
I exceed all expectations and now I set the pace.

I didn't have a plan to become a runner and certainly didn't plan on running the Boston Marathon, although I used to joke a lot after leg surgeries that I wouldn't be running the Boston Marathon - this year. Ha - be careful what you say out loud to the Universe!

It foreshadowed my 2009 Boston Marathon run.

Throughout training for Boston I wrote poems to fuel my journey releasing the past and focusing on feeling what it would be like to be at the starting line and crossing the finish line. I ran the race over and over and over again in my imagination. I focused on success and while I put in the miles, my mental game was vital to crossing that finish line.

Running 3 Bermuda Half Marathons in as many years required me to fire up my imagination and anticipate crossing that finish line with every long training run. When the going got rough in 2017, having had that store of future memories kept me motivated to go the distance.

It would be so easy to rest on my laurels of all I have accomplished in these past 11 years of my healing odyssey from the effects of paralytic polio and trauma but I can't stop the creation of me as an athlete.

During today's 5K I imagined myself running free and easy at a 12 minute/mile pace. I ignored how my body is still recovering from Bermuda and a muscle strain and hip/back/groin issue continue to heal. I saw and felt myself running 5K's as a mid packer thoroughly enjoying the race.

This morning during my meditation I had this wonderful image come to me about healing my right side.

Do any of you remember Wooly Willy?


It's a "magnetic personality" game where you use a magnet and pull the metal filings to create different disguises.

I had this image of having a magnet to pull the energy that was stuck in my right side up and over to my left side; the leg that was more seriously affected by the polio virus when I was 5 years old.

I had a great time outside for 3.14 miles enjoying the warm sunshine (well warm for February in Boston), hearing the birds sing and being among all the runners training for the Boston Marathon.

It was my time to imagine...to remember how I felt in my body as a ballerina before I contracted paralytic polio and endured years of violence at the hands of family members. It was a time to be with someone I met on line who is struggling with her healing from a neuromuscular condition and dedicate my run to her remembering back to when I was taking those first steps on my healing journey. It was my time to be grateful - so deeply grateful for how far I've come on my healing journey and to know there are no limits to the possibilities for healing in my life.

All I have to do is imagine feeling wonderful in mind, body and soul; focus on feeling grateful to my body for all it gives me and allows me to do, and work hard in my 5 days a week workouts.



To your health and wellness
From my heart to yours,
Mary

Proud to be a part of Friends of Blue Diamond Athletic Displays, Inc. Be sure to visit us at Booth 758 during Boston Marathon Weekend.

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):