Run Bermuda! Run Happy! Woohoo - What a Ride! Sore = Strong! It's Supposed to Hurt!

Team McManus wakes up with moans and groans expressing how sore we feel! This is how it's going to be until after we run the Bermuda Half Marathon and then the 40th Hyannis Marathon Weekend 10K in February.

Saturday we were caught in a deluge at the end of our run. We wake up at 6am Monday through Wednesday to get in our strength training, runs and for me, cross training time in the gym.

We take ice baths to recover now that we are up to 7 miles in our long run training runs.



I'll be 64 years old in December so one may ask - why are you doing this? Why go through the pain and the rigors of training for a half marathon followed a month later by a 10K as I did in 2016?

I truthfully can't imagine my life any other way!

Yes I've had over 25 surgeries and am a survivor of paralytic polio and trauma that manifested as the diagnosis of Post-Polio Syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease by Western medicine standards in December of 2006! Why continue to challenge myself and push myself when it would be a lot easier to sleep in, have coffee and brunch on Saturdays and Sundays (that are dedicated to long runs and cross training at the gym)and kick back and take it easy?

Because I've worked so hard to achieve and experience the gift of the miracle of healing in my life:


After so many years of being physically deconditioned and feeling so defeated in mind, body and soul as a result of so much trauma, it's invigorating and enlivening to experience the soreness and the strength happening in my body. Oh and did I mention too that I love to sweat?!

The more I do...the more I challenge myself ... the more I am sending messages to my body to continue to heal.

I am also sending out a message to the world - of what is possible despite appearances to the contrary and to letting my light shine.

Despite living through some of the most horrific conditions anyone should have to endure, I continue to go the distance with strength and courage enjoying the ride knowing it's supposed to hurt and embracing the pain and the journey! What am I going to "save this body" for anyway? Life is not meant to be a journey to the grave....it's meant to be a daring and wonderful adventure or nothing at all!



Go 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):

My Running Chronicles: 13.1 - Because I'm Only Half Crazy

8.5 miles today! Crazy right?



It was windy, raw and rainy.

This was the first run for running tights and my Boston Marathon jacket, hats and gloves.

It wasn't a day that invited you to be outside and run 8.5 miles on the road to the Bermuda Half Marathon in just a few months but Team McManus has a training plan and we stick to it no matter what. There was a report of a possible hurricane coming up the coast and if the weather was too bad, we would have either waited until tomorrow or gone to WaveHealth to get in our miles with an elliptical, bike and/or treadmill. While it wasn't pleasant, the weather was not going to deter us from getting in our miles.

Last year I won a t shirt at the Cape Cod Marathon weekend.



I told Tom I felt a little silly wearing it because after all, I wouldn't ever be running another half marathon and in fact only held it up in front of me:



After my ice bath and hot shower after my 8.5 mile run I am wearing it!

So why? Why am I doing this? I'm 62 years old and could easily have settled for running 5 and 10k's. Why go the distance?

One of my runner friend's posted this on Facebook the other day:


I thought about Prefontaine's quotes:


I don't ever want to be afraid of my body or of challenging my body again. I have runner affirmations now and have affirmations about recovery from long runs and cross training.

My gift lies not in running fast but it is in being able to set a goal and with fierce determination being totally undeterred, meeting that goal.

I love feeling sore, tired, cold, empty, hungry, full and totally satisfied with myself after achieving each rung on the ladder of success to my first half marathon since 2009. And I love experiencing how resilient my body is as I put it through the paces of training for a half.

Today was a hard run with the weather conditions and I debated whether or not I wanted to get into an ice bath. I harnessed the power of my mind during the run and then to muster the courage to take an ice bath despite feeling chilled after the run. I knew I needed it for recovery to flush the lactic acid out of my muscles and to also bring healing with Epsom Salts.

Every long run, every strength training session gathers and garners momentum in my healing journey. I am saying YES to my body. Yes you can do this. Yes you are healthy, strong, vibrant and whole and my body responds with building new connections and getting stronger healing all that went before.

So if I really stop to think about what I'm doing - it is crazy. But it's also epic and exhilarating and exciting and reminds me that I am fully alive, fearless, setting goals not limits. And after all I'm not running a full marathon - only 13.1 because I'm only half crazy.