Used wheelchair to travel...

Our panel, Late Life Running and Whole Life Running for the Virtual Boston Marathon Expo aired yesterday. Boston Marathon Champion 1973 and pioneer of women's running, Jacqueline Hansen took the screen shot and tagged me on Facebook:
Mary, nicely done! Your role on the Boston Expo panel was splendid. You were eloquent and inspiring! I'm so proud and pleased for you! You sure spoke with all your heart :)
💙💛

I am still in awe of how I went from an award winning social work career at the VA, to having been told to prepare to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair to the finish line of the 2009 Boston Marathon and beyond. I've met champions such as Jaqi, Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter and they embrace my story making me feel like a champion in my own right.

I emerged from contracting paralytic polio at the age of 5, enduring years of abuse at the hands of family members, becoming High School Valedictorian and going on to an award winning career in social work when I began to plan my retirement in 3 years with a vision of working at Bloomingdale's and being able to read trashy novels and take vacations with my husband who would then also plan to retire in short order.

But the Universe had other plans and I had no idea what they were when my life came to a screeching halt in December of 2006 with the diagnosis of Post Polio Syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease. I was told to quit my job, plan to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair needing all sorts of special equipment to accommodate to the rapid decline in functioning as I aged and to either move to a ranch or adapt our Cape house.

As I'd done throughout my life, I got still and asked for Divine Guidance.

This was the answer I received: {From Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility}

And then I felt a stirring in my second chakra (only then I didn’t know it was my second chakra – I thought it might have been something I ate). I went over to my laptop in the corner of the living room and I wrote this poem:

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.

I sobbed to write those words. I had never spoken about polio or the abuse I endured. I became curious. Why am I writing about winning a 10K race?

At the time, I had no idea that the poem was a foreshadowing of my 2009 Boston Marathon run!


Poems flowed out of me. As I wrote poems in which I imagined a powerful transformation and a future very different than the ones the doctors predicted for me and healed my past through the power of forgiveness and gratitude, I experienced healing in my body and in February of 2008 started to run.

I landed in the middle of a sport where champions and every day runners mingle and talk about running as a metaphor for life. I landed in the middle of a sport where someone like me was cheered instead of jeered despite finishing last at a race. I landed in the middle of a sport where resilience, strength, community, health, honor, respect and wellness are the themes that weave together the fabric of a very powerful community.

When once I used a wheelchair to travel, I am now a 2009 Boston Marathon finisher, inspirational speaker, runner girl,and poet. There's still time to see our panel on Friday 9/11 at 3pm by following this link.

To be inspired by my journey from a wheelchair to the finish line of the 2009 Boston Marathon and beyond be sure to visit my website at www.marymcmanus.com

My books are available on Amazon.

Good luck to all the virtual runners! As Meb said, "Run to win. That doesn't mean being in first place but in getting the best out of yourself."

From my heart to yours
In health and wellness
Mary