Celebrating Ten Years of Running: I'm Now Off the Sidelines

Excerpt from "Running the Race", the first poem I penned after being diagnosed with Post-Polio Syndrome:
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.

I wrote that poem while I was using a wheelchair at times for mobility having been told to prepare to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair, using a leg brace and a cane to support mobility in the wake of childhood paralytic polio and violence at the hands of family members. Why then would I be writing a poem about running a race?

As Carl Jung said, "The unconscious prepares the way for the future," and my unconscious mind was expressing itself through my pen, my divining rod for healing. This poem foreshadowed my 2009 Boston Marathon and so many wonderful running adventures during these past 10 years.

After crossing the finish line of the 2018 Bermuda Half Marathon, I experienced a sense of completion and fullness in my running adventures for distance running. My body felt as though I needed to take a break after my 2nd consecutive Bermuda Half but I pushed the envelope after receiving an invitational entry from Race Director Anthony Raynor.

I am recovering well but know I need to take time off from racing given that I experienced hip, groin, and back issues as a result of the grueling training and pushing myself beyond my limits. It was worth it!

I get to be a spectator for awhile but unlike other times when I've been recovering on this amazing healing odyssey, I don't felt an itch and a drive to get back in the game. I no longer feel left out or feel that I am sidelined. I'm really excited to cheer on Tom and my friends as they run their races at their own paces which, at the moment, are much faster than mine.

I'm back to two runs a week and once the hip/groin pain completely resolve (the back issues are completely resolved) I'll begin to work on speed again.

Even though I will be a spectator at several upcoming races, I am off the sidelines - so filled with gratitude for all I have achieved and experienced and all I am yet to achieve and experience while relishing this time of recovery and healing.

I'm celebrating ten years of running and excited for what the next ten years will bring!

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

Proud to be a part of Friends of Blue Diamond Athletic Displays, Inc.

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):

Favorite Runner Quotes and The Power of Endurance

"There is something magical about running; after a certain distance, it transcends the body. Then a bit further, it transcends the mind. A bit further yet, and what you have before you, laid bare, is the soul." - Kristin Armstrong







This past week has been an intense and stressful week with transitions, changes and many demands all around. I reflected on the metaphor between running and life, and felt overwhelming gratitude that I am an endurance runner. The power of endurance has served me well this past week.

As an endurance runner, I know that I always have a little more in the tank than I think I do. I can always push myself knowing that there are less strenuous miles ahead. Next week with the Fourth of July holiday and a strenuous transition behind me, it is going to be a much easier week. I'm looking forward to sharing a cup of tea with a dear friend, going for a chiropractic adjustment to counter the stress I have been experiencing and my dear friend and healer, Dr. Ryan J. Means is going to be in Boston on leave from his job in China.

It would be easy to wish away the "stressful" miles and just get to next week but the tough miles in life or on the roads are the miles where our mettle is tested; the time when my strength, my fortitude and my very soul are refined like the gold in the crucible.

As Jacqueline Hansen wrote in the Foreword of my book, "Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance":

Eleanor Roosevelt once said “Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.”

I have found this to be true throughout my life. I have also found that I am attracted to strong women friends, who are strong willed, strong minded, with lots of endurance. At least once a day I must tell myself, “thank goodness I’m a marathoner.” I am guessing that Mary McManus tells herself the same thing. She is certainly someone who has left indelible footprints in my heart. I have rarely met anyone with so many life-threatening challenges who portrays such an onward thinking attitude.

In fact, another Eleanor Roosevelt quotation reminds me of Mary: “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

Tomorrow is Friday! These past 10 days or so have been a marathon in my life in their own right. With my favorite runner quotes, and my power of endurance, I see the finish line and easier miles on the horizon. I am so grateful for all the lessons and blessings of the challenges of these past 10 days and look forward to moving forward!

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):

Going thee Distance: Pre-Race Report: The Hazelwood 5K Run

With the Bermuda Half Marathon 2017 on the horizon, I was not planning on running another race.

Until Jacqueline Hansen posted this on Facebook:
Kudos to my colleague Geoffrey Smith for saving the historical Hazelwood Women's 5K in New Bedford, MA from extinction. As well, there will be a separate men's only race. Pretty unique.
Check out their website and FB page for more information.

I'd seen Geoff's post about the race on Facebook but dismissed the possibility of running the race because of my training for Bermuda but after seeing Jaqi's post, I was moved to email my friend and race director Geoff Smith to see if it was an all paces race. Geoff immediately responded that it was!

The Hazelwood Women's 5K is one of the longest-running women's road races in the country.

It is a celebration of women and their participation in running.

The timing is exquisite as yesterday marked 32 years since Joan Benoit Samuelson won Gold at the 1984 Olympics and as the Olympic Games in Rio had their opening ceremony.

Joan's Olympic Marathon run was, as Jaqi eloquently writes about in her book, "A Long Time Coming."


The sport of running, while a competitive one for the elite runners, also offers a level playing field for us mid and back of the pack runners where the elite runners want everyone to experience all that the sport has to offer.

On October 15th, I will be toeing the line taking my place in a women's only race. It is a way for me to honor the pioneers like Jaqi who fought for equality for women in sports dispelling such myths like if a woman runs a marathon her uterus will fall out.

During these next two weeks all eyes will be on Rio as the best of the best compete in the XXI Olympiad.

The road was paved for women like Shalene, Desiree and Amy to compete in the Marathon representing the very best that the US has to offer in distance running. On the men's side, Meb will be going for the Gold.

Running is about so much more than running and racing and winning although it is indeed a beautiful spectator sport. Running is about a lifestyle and about who we are and I am so excited to be running the Hazelwood 5K Run in October. Hope you can join me.

To your health and wellness,
Mary

My Running Chronicles: Call Me Crazy

"I've been called crazy for running another marathon tomorrow. But what's really crazy is limiting your potential." - Jess Lanzoni, marathoner and soon to be ultramarathoner

My dear friend Jess ran the LA Marathon in March, the Boston Marathon in April (with a PR) and yesterday ran the Providence Marathon with Dreamfar High School Marathon. She posted the above quote on her Facebook page.

This morning I woke up to my friend Christa's blog post, "This just in: Mark Twain encourages us to dream beyond the majority." Christa writes, "The best things I've done in life are the very things that people told me I was crazy to even consider, much less attempt."

When I announced to my team at the VA that I was going to quit my award winning social work career just 3 years shy of when I "could" retire to heal my life and follow my passion as a poet and writer, they called me crazy. In addition to being diagnosed with post polio syndrome, I had a breast cancer scare. From Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility:

When I returned home {from getting a clean bill of health from the mammogram} my daughter asked me, “Mom if that would have been cancer what would you have done?”

“Well that’s a no brainer, I would have immediately given my notice at the VA.”

“Are you waiting for another disaster to happen? Come on. Let’s choose your last day at the VA. How many weeks notice do you have to give?”

“Six,” I answered.

“Here it is – May 25th. I circled it on the calendar. Give your notice tomorrow.”

I could hardly sleep that night. I had an appointment with Allison {my physical therapist at Spaulding who had been encouraging me to leave my job} before work the next morning. She was the first person I told outside of my family about setting the date for leaving the VA. She was relieved and joyous about my decision. After returning to work from my appointment, I called my nurse manager to ask if I could meet with her. I walked into her office, closed the door and told her I was leaving.

“I was wondering why we didn’t see you in the lunch room anymore and why you haven’t been available to us,” she said. “Where are you going?”

I explained to her that in part the reason I wasn’t eating with staff was because of the care I had to take when I ate as prescribed by my speech and language therapist. I told her that I was using my lunch hour to launch my new business and finish my poetry book. I told her about the abnormal mammogram and that I knew I had to get out of the VA for my emotional and physical well-being. Her eyes filled with tears and she said she was very happy for me. Her happiness was short lived.

The next morning she called me on the phone telling me that I had to reconsider my decision. She told me that I couldn’t just leave without a plan before I was eligible for retirement. What would we do for health insurance?

I had thought about all of these things and was terrified but also knew I had no other choice but to take this leap of faith. She suggested I work part time. I knew that with the demands of the position and my Type A personality, there was no way that I would end up working up part time. I had to make a clean break. After our phone conversation she came upstairs to my office. She looked around and was aghast to see how sparse it was. Most of my personal belongings were moved out.
“You’ve been planning this for awhile, haven’t you?”

“You know the equipment never came so I took that as a sign.”

I brought out the letter Allison had written. I told her that I was just beginning to feel better physically and I needed to get out in order to maximize my rehab potential.


Shortly after coming out of a leg brace and after 6 months of working with a personal trainer after meeting my initial goals of being able to get up off of a low toilet seat unassisted and being able to pass the assessment, I told my trainer that I wanted to run the 2009 Boston Marathon never having run a day in my life. She could have easily told me I was crazy and needed to set a more attainable goal given my still rather deconditioned state and my medical history along with the recommendations of the rehab team that if you use it, you lose it but instead she sent me on my way to get my first pair of running shoes.



After a knee injury in December, I was going to hang up my running shoes. But how could I leave the sport that is my therapy, my medicine and despite how challenging it is for me to run, brings me so much joy and happiness ...

And on the two year anniversary of 4/15/13, as I stood on the Boston Marathon finish line, I knew I had to run another marathon. Dr. Ryan of Elevate Health Cambridge and I had a discussion about Why Set Limits. As he was also volunteering for One Boston Day, I told him that I have to run another marathon. He told me that he could see in my eyes that I could and would.

I can't be afraid that something will happen if I push myself too far.

I'm getting used to the wonderful sensation of feeling sore again as I do cross training to strengthen upper and lower body and core. I've decided that rather than doing rehab exercises in the pool, I am going to do strength training on land on Tuesdays. My current training plan is to build distance in my runs on Saturdays. Sundays is strength training. Mondays a 5k distance. Tuesdays strength training on land. Wednesday is lap swimming and eventually swapping out swimming for another run as I get stronger and my knee continues to heal. Thursday is massage and Friday is rest and recovery day.

So why do all of this? Why not just run a 5K and cap the distance at 5 miles which would be a much "safer" choice...because I can't. Because there is something deep in my soul that won't let me settle or play it safe. Because I know that I need to train for another endurance event.

So call me crazy for training for and running another marathon! I'll see you at the finish line.



Be blessed. Journey well. To all good things....

Welcome to my new blog

My first blog title was Welcome to a New World. I started blogging at the suggestion of two students from Boston University's PR lab in October of 2008. I smile as I read my early posts and realize I had no idea how to use social media and how to blog. I was posting about my greeting card business, New World Greeting Cards, original poetry for every occasion and training for the Boston Marathon. The title reflected my transition from life as a VA social worker to well a new world after the diagnosis of post polio syndrome.

I changed the title from Welcome to a New World to Healing, Hope and Possibility interestingly enough on the morning of April 15, 2013. My message was no longer about welcoming readers to my new world but sharing a message of healing, hope and possibility after a life changing diagnosis and living with the aftermath of trauma.

It's time once again for a change. Rather than sharing a message of healing, hope and possibility, I am living that message and want my blog title to reflect the living aspect of my journey. I decided to begin a new blog; a new starting line if you will.

On Saturday night I was blessed to be a guest on the Jordan Rich Show.

As we talked about my memoir, "Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility", I said that life is a marathon. Just when you think you can't take another step, there is always something left in the tank. You're stronger than you think you are.

As I was leaving my therapist's office at Sollievo Massage and Bodywork, on the Thursday before the weekend of the 2014 Boston Marathon, anticipating the weekend's events, Joseph said to me, "journey well".

I am learning how to go the distance on and off the roads and how to now journey well, managing the late effects of having contracted paralytic polio at the age of 5 and in the wake of severe childhood trauma. My intention for my blog is to share race reports, training runs, new experiences and the joy of new discoveries on my road to health and aging well; wisdom and soul lessons learned; poetry, people who inspire us, my next miles in the marathon of my life and anything that inspires me/moves me to share with you on the open road before me.

Welcome to my new blog!


"Wait, I have one more goal," Mary McManus told her personal trainer in February of 2008 shortly after coming out of her toe up leg brace. "I want to run the Boston Marathon for Spaulding Rehab Hospital." Mary traded in her polio shoes for running shoes and embarked on the journey of a lifetime. Mary McManus was at the height of her career as a VA social worker when she was told by her team at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital’s International Rehab Center for Polio in December of 2006 that she needed to quit her job if she had any hope of preventing the progression of post polio syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease. In “Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility” Mary takes you on her seven year healing odyssey as a survivor of paralytic polio and trauma from her diagnosis, to taking a leap of faith to leave her award winning career at the VA to heal her life and follow her passion as a poet and writer. You’ll experience her trials, tribulations and triumphs as she trains for and crosses the finish line of the 2009 Boston Marathon and discovers the opportunity for healing in the wake of new trauma: the suicide of her nephew in 2011, and the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. This is Mary's journey of coming home to her human form free from the influences of the ghastly ghostly invaders who had invaded her sacred earthly home. Her memoir includes journals and blog posts from her seven year healing odyssey. This is her journey of transformation and her message of healing, hope and possibility.

I donate 50% of royalty payments through on line sales at Amazon to The One Fund to help Boston Marathon survivors and their families. Copies are also available at Brookline Marathon Sports. $5 of each book sold at Marathon Sports is donated to The One Fund.