I could never play sports as a child after contracting paralytic polio at the age of 5 but I ran the 2009 Boston Marathon at the age of 55! I remember the day my personal trainer took me outside to learn how to run in April of 2008. We did a lot of work indoors from February (when I declared that I wanted to run the Boston Marathon for Spaulding Rehab) to get me ready to run for the first time in my life. My heart rate went up to over 170 and I thought my heart would jump out of my chest on that very short first run/walk. But it didn't! While my mettle had been tested in life from a very early age; contracting paralytic polio at the age of 5 and enduring years of abuse at the hands of family members until my father died by suicide when I was 17, I lived in a survival mode fighting my way through and dissociated from my body in order to survive. When I took on training for the 2009 Boston Marathon, I learned how to live in my body. I learned how to live through discomfort and come out on the other side by transcending the pain rather than abandoning my body to get there.
I went from running for 1 minute and walking for 4 minutes to running 30 minutes at a time to running my first 5K in June. In July I ran the Marathon Sports 5 Miler and wanted to quit as the pack of runners took off in front of us leaving us far behind. Tom would not let me quit knowing that if I did not finish that race, I would not have discovered that I did have what it would take to run the Boston Marathon! I discovered that I was capable of so much more than I realized. I was celebrated for my courage and determination as everyone cheered me onto the finish line on a hot steamy July evening. I could not tell where tears ended and sweat began as, for the first time in my life, I was cheered rather than jeered in an athletic endeavor. I ran the Tufts 10K in October while building miles on the weekends with long runs. We ran the 2009 Hyannis Half Marathon which introduced me to running greats Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers and runner friends to last a lifetime.
I transformed from "Easy Out Alper" (the name I was given in gym class using my maiden name) to Runnergirl1953 as I crossed the finish line of the 2009 Boston Marathon:
After a serious knee injury in December of 2014, I had to regroup on my healing journey after running 9 races in 9 months with several PR's and no cross training. After being told I shouldn't run but if I did to cap my distance by the Western Medicine practitioners, I doubled down my healing efforts growing a new gastroc muscle, cartilage in my knee, dissolving bone spurs and reversing degenerative changes. I incorporated cross training. I went on to run 3 consecutive Bermuda Half Marathons.
We've faced a very tough challenge during these past 4 years. Our daughter suffers from severe psychiatric impairment. Despite our best intentions and working hard to try to help her recover, she continues to go down a path of self-destructive behaviors, refusing treatment and insisting on living life on her own terms consequences be damned. There are days when I feel as though I can't possibly endure another minute but ah that's where my experience as a marathoner kicks in. I know that I can go one mile at a time. I harness the power of my mind, my power of Faith and the power of the Love in my village to carry me through. I've learned that I can only run my own race with all of my strength and determination to be MY best self. It's hard to let go and yet I've come too far to allow any circumstances in my life to bring me down.
This quote came up in my Facebook memory this morning:
"Every time you meet a situation, though you think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the tortures of the damned,once you have met it and lived through it you find that forever after you are freer than you were before."
~Eleanor Roosevelt
While I'm not signed up for any races in the near future, I am working on my speed at the 5K distance. I am also running an ultramarathon off of the roads in my life with the challenge of our daughter's condition.
I'm running my life like I own it - because I do! Running taught me to know that no matter how tough a challenge I may face, I am tougher than any challenge. I was capable of so much more than I imagined after first receiving the diagnosis of Post-Polio Syndrome 12 years ago and was told to prepare to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. I have brought forth the treasure of who I was always meant to be out of the rubble of my past and I use that strength and soul power to manage whatever challenge life presents to me.
To your health and wellness
From my heart to yours
Mary
My healing journey using the power of visualization is featured in David R. Hamilton's book, "How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body-Anniversary Edition." It's available on Amazon.
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***
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