Like a Boss!

My friend Melissa Gleaton posted this on Facebook yesterday. We met during Feaster Five training when Tom and I went up to Andover to run the course hosted by Merrimack Valley Striders members. Melissa also blogs about her journey at Learning to Walk Again. Talk about living life like a boss!



I am not training for any endurance event but I do feel the need to build my miles again. As a brief recap:
In December 2006, I was diagnosed with post polio syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease. My future looked grim but to quote Rhett Lewis of 7 News, I was not going to take post polio syndrome sitting down.

I ran the 2009 Boston Marathon as a mobility impaired runner:



I went back into outpatient therapy and wasn't sure I would ever be able to run again given the toll the Marathon took on my body. I returned to the roads but in September of 2011, ran what I thought was going to be my last run ever.

In September of this year, I returned to the roads and ran the Brookline Symphony Orchestra 5K Fun Run which you can read about in my post, A New Beginning.

I've been feeling this need to build miles again. I plan to run the 2014 Tufts 10K for Women but that's not until next October. There is something amazing that happens to me when I get out there and go literally for miles. And it's winter which used to take an incredible toll on me mind, body and Spirit.

My husband does his long runs at his pace on Saturday and then goes with me on Sunday for whatever distance I am up for. We also do a 5K during the week along with two aquatics classes at Spaulding Rehab.

He asked me what I felt like running for today's run. I told him I wanted to do the portion of the Boston Marathon route from a little farther out from Marathon Sports Brookline to Kenmore Square and back. Here is the link to the result from my Nike+ run.

I did 5.41 miles in 1:17:05 - a 14'14"/mile pace!

It was cold (30 degrees). It was hard with the rolling hills up and down Beacon Street.

But I felt amazing out there - and I did the longest and fastest run I had done since my return to the roads-like a boss!

Beneath the Surface from A Celebration of Life now available on Amazon

A landscape of scars
the map not the territory
of where a body has been
the well worn path of a weary traveler
seated on a rock
by water’s edge
contemplating Truth
and beauty

what do my eyes behold

the gnarly knots on the tree trunk
or the majesty of the mighty oak
roots deeply descending
branches outstretched to the heavens
giving me shade and pause
to remember to remember

the body is my casing
the real trophy’s deep inside
no surgeon’s scalpel
no hands raised to harm
can touch my magnificence
drinking in this majestic view

gentle breeze inviting me
no invoking me to cast off my anchor

no longer assailed
Spirit sails
soars
celebrating the joy of being.