The truth can now be shared about what a challenge I experienced training for my 3rd Bermuda Half Marathon in as many years. I planned to take a break after my 2nd Bermuda Half Marathon in 2017. It was a rough race for me and I struggled from mile 10-13.1.
Yet I refused to quit and with the help of the Divine, an earth angel at mile 12, and my incredible partner in life and on the roads, Tom, I crossed that finish line.
But when the Race Director sought me out to find out what he can do to have you return to Bermuda and offers an invitational entry along with a great rate at the Fairmont Southampton Princess, the host hotel, Tom and I decided to go for it. When Ruth Anne came home to live us with in May after quite the journey with severe depression and PTSD, we decided to reunite Team McManus to go the distance.
I'm continuing to heal from the effects of paralytic polio and trauma rebuilding an infrastructure of neuromuscular conditions that had once been ravaged by paralytic polio followed by enduring years of child abuse. Yet I knew that with meditation, visualization, being greater than my physical body and making positive changes in my life, I would go the distance.
I experienced a lot of tightness in my right hip, groin and back area. As I put on more miles, the area got tighter and I had a muscle strain in my right hip area. I was so grateful for a long taper time this year and focused on mental preparation. I remembered how I ran the 2009 Boston Marathon with a left shoulder issue and a right groin muscle pull. I only had to go half as far in Bermuda.
My fears tried to tamper with me and I tempered them with Love from the Divine and feeling the love and blessings from our running village.
What joy to go the distance and cross the finish line as Team McManus:
Now it's time to experience the joy in recovery!
I am taking the time I planned to take after last January's race (and I'm so happy I went for the threepeat) to focus on my healing journey once more. For the first time in my healing journey I feel only joy and happiness that I have this opportunity to recover and to focus on transformation and transcending my past with renewed fervor and passion. I walk as if I can already run a 12 minute mile, dance in a Zumba class and spin in a spinning class. I am flexible and graceful as I was before polio and trauma took its toll. I feel deep joy to realize that I have this opportunity for creation to go beyond previous limits and set and achieve new goals for myself. I am so grateful and happy, so healthy and whole that I feel as if it's all already happened.
I am building strength and have the sore muscles to prove it with swimming twice a week, walking once a week for now until my right hip/groin/back issue completely resolves, strength training and using the bike at the gym. Once everything is more balanced and the pain from my muscle strain resolves, I am going to venture out into the unknown, uncharted territory of movement for me. I remind myself that:
and:
I am so excited for these next chapters in my healing journey! Thanks for following along.
To your health and well being
From my heart to yours,
Mary
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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