Celebrating My Race-iversary! The Corrib Pub Run

Thank goodness for Facebook memories that remind us of special occasions in our lives that otherwise might get past us! Today marks the 9 year anniversary of my first road race ever! I had laced up my first pair of running shoes in March of 2008 after declaring that I, Mary McManus, a woman who had been recently diagnosed with Post-Polio Syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease was going to train for and run the 2009 Boston Marathon. Marathon Sports in Brookline's very own Spencer Aston, aka the running guru fitted me for my first pair of running shoes.

From "Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility":

“What are you in now?” Spencer Aston asked me when I walked into Marathon Sports in March of 2008.

“Well, truth be told, I’m in ‘polio shoes.’ I borrowed these running shoes from my daughter. Let me give you the twitter version of my story.”

I told Spencer about my history of paralytic polio, my ‘remarkable recovery’ as was Spaulding’s tag line when I was a patient and how I was planning to run the Boston Marathon. He took so much time and care doing a gait assessment and working with me to find the perfect running shoes. We figured out that I needed an insert at my heel to ensure comfort.

I was up to 40 minutes of continuous running when Race Day 6/1/2008 dawned. I had no idea what to expect from the race or my body. I only knew that running felt so right for me even though it was a struggle and I had a very long way to go before I'd be Boston Marathon ready.

Here I am before the race:


This was my first experience with learning what the running community is all about. Strangers become fast friends as introductions are made and stories exchanged. People that I met for the first time were so excited for me and with me about my journey.

I smile and marvel at what a novice I was at the time. All I knew was that I was going to put one foot in front of the other and not stop until I crossed the finish line.

I was swept up by the support from the crowds. How amazing to go from having memories of being a survivor of paralytic polio, lugging a heavy leg brace, trying to keep up with my classmates, teased and taunted with the nickname "Easy Out Alper" (my maiden name) to experiencing the outpouring of cheers not jeers from the spectators along the route. Tom yelled out to the crowd that I was a survivor of paralytic polio and this was my first race. The high-fives and way to go's took my breath away.

It was a sense of freedom I had never known before in my life. Given the heat of the day we had the option to run through the sprinklers that spectators made for us with their garden hoses. It was a challenging course for me with the big uphill near the finish line but my personal trainer had started me on hill training early since after all, I was going to run the Boston Marathon!

Here I am after the race:


There was no bling. I wouldn't receive my first race medal until after I conquered my first Half Marathon race in Hyannis in February of 2009. But it didn't matter because I came out of a wheelchair and a leg brace having been told that I "had" Post-Polio Syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease and should prepare to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair.

Despite the usual ups and downs that are part of every runner's journey, I continue to run long, strong and healthy!

And to quote Forrest Gump on this, my race-iversary:


Medal display created by Blue Diamond Athletic Displays.

To going the distance with strength and courage!
~Mary

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):

Going the Distance: Loving Life One Mile at a Time

We bought a beautiful medal display from Blue Diamond Athletic Display that says "Loving Life One Mile at a Time":



We had all of our bling hanging on it and loved the reminder to love life on and off the roads one mile at a time; living and being in the present moment and enjoying the journey.

One day on Facebook I saw their post with this medal display:



I just HAD to have it.

Forrest Gump has been an integral part of my healing journey.

I had never run a day in my life before I vowed to run the 2009 Boston Marathon.

I couldn't access memory of running free in my body because I contracted paralytic polio at the age of 5. I could elicit memories of ballet class but running free was a stretch for me.

So I'd watch this scene from Forrest Gump over and over and over again allowing the phenomenon of mirror neurons to fire up the feeling of running in my mind:



We were going to wait to hang and use our 2nd medal display but one early morning I heard the jingle jangle of bling and came downstairs to see both medal displays adorning our living room.

There's plenty of room on both of them for lots more bling.

Yes I know I am going to be 62 years old but I know in every fiber of my Being that I have got a lot of races left in me. The first medal to adorn our new display will be from the Bermuda Half Marathon in January.



Last weekend we ran 7.5 miles - the longest run I've had since I ran the 2009 Boston Marathon!

With every week I embrace the joy and rigors of my new training schedule. I love going the distance and I have such confidence in my body's ability to train now. 7.5 miles was an incredible milestone for me...I am loving life and running one mile at a time. And from that day on, whenever I go somewhere - I am running!!!

Today it's a tempo run and hill repeats....to be continued ...

My Running Chronicles: "From that day on if I was going somewhere, I was running!"

After writing the poem, "Running the Race," I knew that I wanted and needed to run ....

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.

but I was in a short leg brace, using a wheelchair at times for mobility and was told by a Western medicine rehabilitation doctor that I faced an uncertain future; one which at best would stabilize the symptoms where they were in February of 2007 when I wrote this poem; at worse, I would need to adapt our Cape house and be prepared for a life in a wheelchair.

I had other ideas as expressed in that first poem and in the poems that came flowing out of me imagining myself as healthy, whole, running free with the wind....

I decided to watch the Run Forrest Run scene from Forrest Gump over and over and over again:


It sure helped to inspire me to get running. I ran the 2009 Boston Marathon and then took a break from running. I started running again in June 2010 and had a great run of races and PR's and feeling at the top of my game. March 2011 with my nephew's suicide, I ran right off of my healing path.

I returned to the roads after 4/15/13 ... I had a great run of 9 races in 9 months with two PR's but was an injury waiting to happen without cross training and without listening to my body from the inside out.

It wasn't until I came to the work of Dr. Ryan J. Means, a healer chiropractor that I was able to get traction on my healing journey from the effects of paralytic polio and trauma.

This morning Tom and I did our plank, crunches and clams and our morning meditation. In my meditation I observed the anxiety and discomfort and terror I felt growing up. I used to project those feelings onto some present day issue but this morning I was able to put those feelings right where they belonged: in the past. I breathed. I felt Tom's breathing next to me and felt the joy - the absolute joy of being alive and having survived paralytic polio and 9 years of violence and terror. I stated my gratitudes and affirmations.

We headed out for our run and it was a very Forrest Gump type of run. I'd been writing in my training journal: long range goal of a 12:00 minute mile with an intermediate goal of a 14:00 minute mile for speed work.

There was a person walking at a very fast pace far in front of us. I sped up my pace to try to pass him. Tom checked my pace - 12:32 ... he sped up and got away but not before I felt the thrill of running fast again! I felt free, determined, courageous and unlimited in what I am capable of doing. I felt invincible. My overall pace and time was 43 seconds off of my 5K PR one year ago yesterday with an average pace of 14:26 including a huge hill at the end of our run.

The other day my wonderful friends at Blue Diamond Athletic Displays posted a display for Triathletes. I tagged one of my dear FB friends, Nicole and she posted this picture of a medal display her nephew made for her:


And then my friends at Blue Diamond Athletic Displays posted this:



A must have for our 2nd display!

And I plan on filling it to the brim with our medals...because from this day on...if I am going somewhere...I am running!



I chronicle the first 7 years of my healing journey after being diagnosed with post polio syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease as a survivor of childhood paralytic polio and 9 years of childhood domestic violence in Coming Home:A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility.


In Journey Well, the journey continues in the wake of my nephew's suicide on 3/4/11 and the events of 4/15/13. Through my journey of healing and transformation, we learn that no matter what life circumstances happen to us, we can always find a way to journey well.


"Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems," my latest collection of inspirational poetry is now available soon on Amazon

My Running Chronicles: Born to Run - Run Free - Wilma Rudolph and Me

From Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility:

"Do you know who Wilma Rudolph is?" my personal trainer asked me as I struggled through an early run training for the 2009 Boston Marathon.

"No," I said. "I never heard of her."

"Well Google her when you get home. I want you to read her story," she told me in no uncertain terms.

From Wikipedia:

"Wilma Glodean Rudolph (June 23, 1940 – November 12, 1994) was an American athlete and an Olympic champion. Rudolph was considered the fastest woman in the world in the 1960s and competed in two Olympic Games, in 1956 and in 1960.

In the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympic Games. A track and field champion, she elevated women's track to a major presence in the United States. As a member of the black community, she is also regarded as a civil rights and women's rights pioneer. Along with other 1960 Olympic athletes such as Cassius Clay, who later became Muhammad Ali, Rudolph became an international star due to the first international
television coverage of the Olympics that year. The powerful sprinter emerged from the 1960 Rome Olympics as "The Tornado, the fastest woman on earth".

Why did my trainer refer me to Wilma Rudolph for inspiration? Because when Wilma was four years old she contracted paralytic polio. Her mother was told she would never walk again. Then she was told she would never walk without a leg brace. With the fierceness of a mother's love and surrounded by a loving, supportive family, Wilma Rudolph came out of her leg brace. She was on the high school basketball team and ran track as something to do in the off-season.

While I did not have the love and support of my mother during my recovery from paralytic polio and had the added challenge of family violence from the age of 8 until the age of 17, I had my Spirit and I had earth angels who would support me throughout my life. Miss Holly, my physical therapist, offered me the tender love and support that a mother would offer to her own child. Miss Dupres was my French Teacher who nourished me in junior high and high school. After graduating high school, and following my father's suicide on August 1, 1971, she invited me into Manhattan to meet her for lunch before I began my freshman year at Boston University. She gave me a sewing kit. She told me that no matter what life may rend apart, I would always be able to put it back together again.

After being diagnosed with post polio syndrome, Allison Lamarre Poole came into my life. She helped me to believe that I could and would get stronger. She had enough faith for both of us until I could believe that I could heal and was not destined for a future in a wheelchair. Then I met Janine. She could have walked away from me when I told her I wanted to run the 2009 Boston Marathon shortly after coming out of my leg brace and never having run a day in my life. But, like Wilma Rudolph's mother, she believed that I could move beyond the late effects of paralytic polio and achieve the dream that was in my heart. It took a village to help me cross the finish line of the 2009 Boston Marathon and it takes a village to support me getting back on the roads.

"No matter what accomplishments you make somebody always helps you." ~Wilma Rudolph

I can feel in every fiber of my Being that I was born to run and to run free. I wasn't afforded the luxury or the opportunity as a child to run free as paralytic polio followed by violence prevented my body from making a full recovery from polio as Wilma Rudolph was able to do ... UNTIL NOW!

There were several factors that prevented my body from complete healing. Until now I did not believe that complete healing was possible for me, but I am reading "You Are The Placebo", watched, "What The Bleep Do We Know..." and "What the Bleep:Down the Rabbit Hole."

I BELIEVE!

I held onto my identity as a survivor of polio and violence but now I see myself as completely healed, healthy, whole. Instead of seeing myself as a mobility impaired runner, I see myself as an endurance runner. I focus on what I DO want rather than focus on what is. I keep a healing journal with affirmations. I meditate and go down the rabbit hole of pure consciousness to allow my body to do whatever it needs to do to heal. Every time I notice a change that's occurred such as steady hands or no head tremors, pain releasing from my leg, I imprint those memories and celebrate the changes.

Did I mention that I BELIEVE?!



Wilma Rudolph experienced complete healing after paralytic polio and went on to become an Olympic Champion with intention and attention and the power of belief along with daily massage and rehab exercises by her mother and family members.

Another factor that prevented my body from completely healing was fear.

One of the things that terrorized and terrified me was that the violence started three years after I'd been paralyzed. I was weak and deconditioned and no matter how wonderful my physical therapist and physiatrist were, we were all swimming upstream against the current of healing because of daily assaults.

But now - there are no assaults and the fear is gone because I realize I can run. I can outrun them just like Forrest Gump did when he outran the bullies.



I was born to run - and I am now able to run free -- just like Wilma Rudolph - and just like me!

Cheers! To Life!

I chronicle the first 7 years of my healing journey after being diagnosed with post polio syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease as a survivor of childhood paralytic polio and 9 years of childhood domestic violence in Coming Home:A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility.


I am working on my new book, Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems which brings together my best poems of the last 8 years and will include my latest poems as I continue to feel the heal and move forward in my life.

My Running Chronicles: Happy National Running Day!

I'm so happy that I switched up my training day for running from Mondays to Wednesdays so I could feel the energy and be a part of National Running Day.

The question posed ... why do you run ...

I run because I never thought I could run. I run for fun, for health, to be fierce, to crush what were once limits and leave them in the dust. I run to meet myself on the road and to leave the past behind. I run to transcend, to transform and to be the best possible version of me I can possibly be. I run to celebrate freedom and I run to heal.

I have had a tweaky IT band for what seems like forever. I knew there was a connection to this discomfort with trauma from the past. Today I got in touch with the experience of being hit with the belt buckle in just that spot to bring me to my knees. It was also the spot that got itchy when I was in an ankle to hip cast during the summer when I was 11 years old. My right knee would repeatedly buckle. Of course it did - after paralytic polio and being repeatedly raped - my right knee and leg was weak and compromised. This was before MRI's so the orthopedist took a guess that there was loose cartilage and thought that putting me in a cast for 6 weeks during the summer (so I wouldn't miss school) would solve the problem.

And then something remarkable happened! I remembered how it felt to be beaten and how, because of the polio, I couldn't run away. I had a run Forrest run moment.



I imagined my legs as two strong mountains with cascades of Divine energy as waterfalls flowing through them and I ran with incredible ease, strength and confidence feeling unencumbered by the events of my past.

I run in solitude and I run with the pack. I run to feel One with all that is and to savor the beauty and wonder of nature.

I feel joy, gratitude and happiness when I run, especially when I run faster than I have in a very long time.

Today as I approached the "Bill Rodgers Hill" as I like to call it - the hill that runs on Beacon Street from the Reservoir to Hammond Street and that was part of the Bill Rodgers 5K that I PR'ed last August - I had a choice to run around the Reservoir or to take the hill. I opted to take the Hill.

In my mind's eye, I see myself as an endurance runner training for the 2016 Newport Marathon. I want to work on both speed and endurance. I run from the inside out and don't look at my pace while I run but I so wanted to experience a sub 16 minute mile. I opened it up to see what I could do.

It was perfect running weather cool and cloudy.

I listened to my marathon training playlist and visualized running the Finish at the Fifty 5K which will be my first comeback race since last October. One month from today I'll be lacing up my running shoes and wearing a bib and running for bling finishing at the 50 yard line at Gillette. It's a dream come true for me to be running and racing again and the joy bubbled up inside of me.

I also imagined myself out on the Newport Marathon course feeling my feet on the asphalt knowing in every fiber of my Being I am going that magical distance of 26.2 miles again.

When I finished today's run, I had my best pace since my return to the roads and that included the monstah hill. I had negative splits of -0.30" and -0.25" finishing at a 15'40" pace! Yes and my average pace was 16'06" crushing my previous times.

What a wonderful day and what a wonderful way to celebrate National Running Day.

When we set our mind's eye on a goal, we train our bodies. Success breeds success although it does require patience, pacing and practice.

Yesterday Dr. Joe Dispenza, author of You Are The Placebo and featured in What the bleep do we know and What the bleep down the rabbit hole, posted this on Facebook:


I am so in love with this process enjoying every step of this journey. I am in love with my life and feel so blessed and grateful to experience this sense of well being that comes with running.

I run.... and will keep on running as long as there is breath in my body celebrating many more Happy National Running Days to come knowing in every fiber of my Being that the best is yet to be!

BE BLESSED! JOURNEY WELL! TO ALL GOOD THINGS.....

I chronicle the first 7 years of my healing journey after being diagnosed with post polio syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease as a survivor of childhood paralytic polio and 9 years of childhood domestic violence in Coming Home:A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility.


In Journey Well, the journey continues in the wake of my nephew's suicide on 3/4/11 and the events of 4/15/13. Through my journey of healing and transformation, we learn that no matter what life circumstances happen to us, we can always find a way to journey well.


50% of book proceeds from all of my books, available on Amazon are donated to the Massachusetts Resiliency Center to support 4/15/13 Boston Strong survivors and their families.

I am working on my new book, Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems which brings together my best poems of the last 8 years and will include my latest poems as I continue to feel the heal and move forward in my life.