Celebrating Ten Years of Running: "You didn't believe them did you?"

On our second loop around the Reservoir on a glorious Saturday morning run, an older woman passed us while we stopped for water. She was walking at a very fast pace. We met up at the path exiting the Reservoir.

"We couldn't catch up with you," I said.

"You were going at a great pace," Tom added.

"Really? You were trying to catch me?" She beamed.

"Yes we were!"

"I do this several times a week," she said.

"May I ask how young you are?"

"Yes. Of course. I am 75."

"May I ask how young you are?" she said with a smile.

"I'm almost 65 and Tom is 66."

"You look marvelous too."

"I had paralytic polio as a child. 11 years ago I was told to prepare to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair after they diagnosed me with Post-Polio Syndrome."

"You didn't believe them did you?" she said.

We talked about how it's "all mind over matter" and how you just have to believe in your own health and well being along with being dedicated to a work out program. She does water aerobics where a friend of hers lives and does weight workouts twice a week in addition to walking around the Reservoir a few times a week.

When "they" first told me to prepare to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair and that I "had" a progressive neuromuscular disease I was terrified. I read the book "Post Polio Syndrome" by Dr. Julie Silver, "an expert in the field." While at first I felt a certain sense of comfort that someone was naming what was happening to me and I wasn't alone in what I was experiencing, another part of me couldn't (and obviously wouldn't) believe what was happening to me. After fear, acceptance and anger, I got still and asked for Divine Guidance. That's when I began to shift to a belief that I would and could recover and live a more full and vibrant life than I ever had.

The response to my asking for Divine Guidance came in the form of poetry! I harnessed the power of my imagination through my divining rod for healing, my pen and I believed a future very different than the one the doctors and physical therapists predicted for me.

Ten years ago I traded in black tie shoes with a toe up leg brace:


for running shoes:


that helped me cross the finish line of the 2009 Boston Marathon and experience 10 years of running adventures.

When "they" told me I had a progressive neuromuscular disease and should prepare to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair...I didn't believe them!



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

My healing journey is going to be featured in David R. Hamilton's soon to be released book, "How The Mind Can Heal the Body."

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:


Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance (With a Foreword by Jacqueline Hansen):


Coming soon *** The Adventures of Runnergirl 1953 ****