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 ****

Going the Distance: 7 Sweet Sweaty Miles at Jamaica Pond and Channeling Only Health

It still seems surreal that I am training for the Bermuda Half Marathon again! My body is feeling those sore muscles again and I remind myself this is part of the joy of the journey.

But I had this strange thing that happened once before on my left foot where it hurts on the pinky toe pad and then it turns black and blue and gets swollen. I use MICE - movement, ice, compression and elevation.

Now I suppose one could be concerned about what's going on, stay off of it and certainly not run 7 miles:


During this morning's meditation I wondered, what if we were programmed to only channel health? What if we saw everything that was happening in our bodies as a function of health and healing rather than worrying if we were injured or perhaps had a blood clot.

Last year my beloved healer and chiropractor, Dr. Ryan suggested I read Candace Pert's book, 'Everything you need to know to feel Go(o)d.' She talks about how our perception of what is happening in our bodies affects what messages we send to our bodies and we can turn healing on or off based on our thoughts and feelings.

At the end of the book, Candace writes, "Trust. Breathe. Let go. God is in control."

In her Epilogue, she reflects on fear.

"The root of fear, I concluded, is more about being alone, feeling unconnected to others and not realizing that we're all one. As my long-term massage therapist Adam Helfer poetically put it, 'If you're connected to the divine, you'll always feel fine.' Adam had also told me he thought the best universal advice to 'feel good' is to remain in the present moment as much is possible.'

And that's what I did on my 7 mile training run today.

Fortunately the weather was much cooler than it had been during the past several days. There was cloud cover and while it was warm and humid, it was not oppressive.

Tom and I went to our magical and happy place, Jamaica Pond where we remember training for the 2009 Boston Marathon, feeling the presence of Bill Rodgers who used to train around Jamaica Pond for his Boston Marathon and where mysticism and beauty abound. It has inspired many of my poems through the years and today inspired Tom and me to relish our time together.



After our run we went to the KooKoo Cafe in Brookline Village to refuel and then home for an ice bath with Epsom Salts:


The swelling has gone down on my foot and the pain is gone!

I don't know why my body needs to do this little thing with my left foot but I interpret it as needing to release and heal something. My left side was the side most affected by the polio virus.

I channeled only health and now have 7 sweet and sweaty miles in the Bank of Bermuda as we like to call it while we train for the Bermuda Half Marathon in January.

To your health and wellness!
Mary

Bermuda Marathon Weekend: When Success is the Only Option

Despite taper madness and pre-race jitters I knew that success was my only option going into the Bermuda Half Marathon. Team McManus trained well and we trained hard. I trained with intention and focus undeterred by doubts, fears and the beliefs from my past.

This morning on Facebook Denise, who lives in Kentucky and was our plane mate from Boston to Bermuda along with her husband Ken, posted this on Facebook:
This couple sat with us on the plane to Boston, then I discovered our bib numbers were sequential, then we ran into them Friday night. Mary McManus has overcome so much to be at this starting line. I was determined to find her and wish her well the morning of the race, she had been in my thoughts and prayers the night before. I'm so glad I found them and that they are now in my world.



Thank you Denise! I did overcome so much to get to that starting line and was so blessed to go mile for mile with my running and life partner Tom.

I defied the odds of what my knee MRI showed and defied the advice of the doctor, the physical therapists and even my former massage therapist. I defied the diagnosis of post polio syndrome and the effects that paralytic polio and violence took on my body.

And what glorious sweet rewards as I focused on success being my only option.

I was blessed to experience a race course where each panoramic vista was more breathtaking than the one before.

We reconnected with old friends on the Island and made new friends.

There was magic, mysticism, synchronicity and so much joy.

On Wednesday I did strength training and began to increase reps and time for holding plank.

I believed with my entire Being that success was my only option and now I believe that success for complete healing is mine.

Every finish line is a starting line ....

When Someone Believes in Us

After contracting paralytic polio, even though my parents were incapable of supporting me beyond the bare bones basic needs until I came out of my leg brace, I was blessed with a physical therapist, Miss Holly and a physiatrist, Dr. Eugene Moskowitz who believed in me. They worked with me mind, body and Spirit to help me recover from paralysis and learn how to walk again. I was traumatized and didn't quite know which end was up but they held the belief for me until I could see for myself that I had the strength, courage and resilience to walk again.

When I was 10 years old, Dr. Moskowitz suggested I go to a swimming camp. My father found Badger Day Camp (which is still in existence today) and there I met Joseph Stetz. He is on the far left - tall, dark and handsome with the most soulful brown eyes you would ever want to see.




He was training to be an Olympian but decided to become a physician instead but as my swimming counselor who had the heart of an Olympian, he invited me to swim the butterfly in the Badger Swimming Olympics. I told him that it wasn't possible. I had polio and had just come out of a leg brace. He told me that only 2 other campers had the courage to compete in the butterfly and that I would be guaranteed a place on the medal stand. I shared with him all of my fears and although he was only 21 years old, he was a wise soul. He coached me one on one teaching me how to jump off of the starting block and do my turns. He told me my time didn't matter. All that mattered was that I went out and swam my hardest and did my best. I had the courage to do something that none of the other campers would do. All I had to do was finish. I proudly took my place on the medal stand.

After being diagnosed with post polio syndrome in December of 2006, a part of me was terrified of what the future held yet another part of me believed I could turn my life around and heal. In October of 2007, I hired a personal trainer after being discharged from outpatient care at Spaulding Rehab Hospital. She initially held the belief for me that I could get stronger and continue to heal and emerge from the beliefs I held in my body from paralytic polio and violence. I remember asking her if she believed I could actually get better and she said:


When I told her, in February of 2008, after achieving my initial goal of getting up off of a low toilet seat that I wanted to run the Boston Marathon, she believed in me and my what would seem like a crazy belief that I could run a marathon despite never having run a day in my life.

After my knee injury in December, I started to doubt my ability to heal and recover. I was ready to hang up my running shoes. The therapists I was working with reinforced the belief that running wasn't good for me; that I'd overdone it and didn't have a wholehearted belief that I could heal without surgery and return to running. They sided with the part of me that was tired and believed I had nothing to prove. I saw the 30 day core challenge on Facebook and realized that I needed to strengthen my core, my quads and my hip flexors and developed a strength training program for myself.

And then Dr. Ryan came into my life. As we stood at my book launch party of Journey Well, I saw the passion in his eyes. I went to his website, Elevate Health Cambridge, and he quoted Thomas Edison:

“The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease. " ~ Thomas A. Edison

He believes that he works with his patients to promote the body's natural ability to heal.

He made recommendations for Theraband Stability Trainers, how to up level my core strength training and began taping my knee, my gastroc muscle which on MRI showed atrophy from polio and IT band. I experienced chiropractic care for the first time in my life. The adjustments to my spine and my hips are allowing me to release the tension and postures I held in response to paralytic polio and violence. He is patient with me as I learn how to let go and allow the adjustments to happen.

It's not only what Dr. Ryan does but how he does it and the messages he sends to me that I have unlimited capabilities even at 61 years old. He inspires me to do my personal best every time I approach a workout be it in the pool, on the roads or my strength training workouts. I challenge myself. I have ditched the philosophy of detach from outcomes and allow whatever is meant to be to be and instead I commit to outcomes. I know it's going to be hard and yet I can allow myself to feel free and easy in my body while working hard. It's not about how many times you get knocked down; it's about how many times you get back up and it's always got to be one more than the number of times you've been knocked down. I can feel my gastroc muscle firing up and that is going to provide a shock absorber for my knee joint.

On April 5 I wrote a blog post, "Why Set Limits: Only Take Yes for an Answer."

I do have something to prove - to myself over and over and over again ... to be the best possible version of me I can be. To set goals not limits. To live with even more than hope - a sense of conviction; to live with more than possibility - having the knowledge that I can and am creating my own reality.... and so I see 26.2 on the horizon for me again. I don't know when but I know that the fire in my belly is lit after standing on the Boston Marathon finish line Wednesday. I'm a runner and I am a marathoner.

And while I have to believe in myself, the journey in this marathon of life is made so much sweeter and easier when we have someone who truly deep down inside believes in us with all of their heart.

Journey well!

My latest book, "Journey Well" is now available on Amazon along with all of my inspirational books. 50% of book proceeds are donated to the Massachusetts Resiliency Center, a safe, welcoming space for survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing to heal and stay in touch with one another; a virtual hub for a widely dispersed community whose lives have been impacted by the tragic events of April 15th and the events that followed.

When terror struck the world's oldest and most beloved marathon on April 15, 2013, it was a defining moment in Mary McManus’ life and the lives of all those in Boston and around the world. It was her wake up call to return to the sport and community that have been medicine and a lifeline for her throughout her marathon of healing the late effects of paralytic polio and experiencing 9 years of domestic violence as a child and adolescent. Mary captures the essence of Boston Strong through her experience of the 2014 Boston Marathon and as she profiles the people who are Boston Stronger. Through her blog posts, poems and journal entries woven together with excerpts from her memoir, “Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility,” you will experience, through one woman’s journey of transformation and healing, that no matter what happens to us, we can all learn to journey well.