Runner Insight

Hey all,

I’m late getting the post out today. Sorry about that. Usually we’re so good about having it ready ahead of time!

Just wanted to update you on some news. First off, some time this week we’ll be changing over our web hosting company, so there may be a day or two that we are offline…don’t really know when or for how long.

Second bit of news is I’ve got a new project in the works that involves fundraising and my running. In fact my running quite a distance…over one thousand miles!!! I’ll keep you posted as we finalize details on that, but it’s going to be fun! And a huge challenge! Maybe you’ll choose to join me! Keep watching this blog for the updates!

(…Are you curious? Have I succeeded in creating a little mystery? Let me know…comment below ….)

Anyway, talk soon!

How ’bout it?

-Vision Runner

Popularity: 21% [?]

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Go Mary! Go Mary!  Goooooo Team McManus!

Hey I just wanted to wish my friend Mary McManus and her family the best of luck running their first marathon…And the Boston Marathon, no less!

Mary is such an inspiration.  From her battle with polio as a 5 year old child to becoming a “super mom” and career woman, then coming face to face with the deterioration of her body from post polio syndrome as an adult in 2007 (only two years ago). To come back from that and then making the decision to run the 2009 Boston Marathon with her family to raise money for Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital!  (Here’s the video link to her story on YouTube.) Awesome! Her determination and faith in herself to overcome obstacles is amazing, and I applaud her spirit.

Mary, I know your marathon experience will be a great one no matter the outcome.  You will be changed forever by the entire process from start to finish and well beyond.

Thank you for all your positive comments and loving encouragement. They truly mean a lot to me.

Team Vision Runner is cheering for you!  In fact here’s a video I made for you! Enjoy…  

How ‘bout it?

-Vision Runner 

Popularity: 15% [?]

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As most of you know, I was struck with lower right back pain after a sneeze at the end of last year.  They diagnosed the lower right back pain as sciatica on December 30th. Since then I have been going to see my chiropractor Dr. Krieg.  It’s been just over 3 months now and I’m feeling really good and the lower right back pain is all gone. 

For a while there I wasn’t so sure how this was all going to work out.  Dr. K was aligning my upper cervical vertebrae when all my pain was lower right back pain creeping down into my right leg.  It didn’t really make a lot of sense to me, and the sciatica was intense and painful.  But I trusted that the doctor knew what he was doing, and he explained that if he didn’t start by getting my head and neck into alignment, nothing else would ever be quite right, and even if we fixed the lower right back pain for now, it could re-occur. 

Once I was past the worst of the lower right back pain and I got the go ahead to start running again several weeks ago, I was ecstatic to get out there and hit the pavement.  But as soon as I started running I found that my right calf muscle would get really tight and it caused the runs to be way less enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong, I was still glad to be able to get out there and run again once the chance of re-injury was past, pain or no pain. But the tight calf muscle hampered my enthusiasm somewhat.

Well it’s now been over a month since I’ve been able to run again, and each day that I run I can feel myself getting stronger and faster. And I haven’t had the lower right back pain come back.

But I must admit for a while I was wondering what he had done to me!  Was being in alignment messing up my running?  It sure felt that way my first few weeks. 

When I mentioned this to Dr. K, he told us a story about a guy he treated who was ranked in the top ten nationally in archery.  He had taken up archery later in life and had done very well, and was hoping to gain the title of National Champion, but could never place higher than about fourth place in the national events. 

After Dr. K started adjusting him, he found that he could not hit the broad side of a barn.  He asked “What the heck have you done to me?!”  Dr. Krieg told him that since he had been living out of alignment for so long, his body had compensated all these years for it, but now he was getting his body back into the alignment where he needed to be. It would take his body and his shooting some time to adjust to the new (proper) alignment.

Some time after that he was shooting better then he ever had. And the guy went on to win a national archery championship! Had he chosen to just live with his body out of alignment, he probably would have never realized his true potential.

With that story in mind, I realized that my body had to learn how to run again with the correct alignment, instead of the way it had been running (13.5 lbs heavy on the right side) for years and years.  So now that I’m running in alignment, I guess that means I’m on my way to realizing my true potential. Hey!  Maybe I’ll break my PB of 2:02 in the half marathon this year.

How ‘bout it?

-Vision Runner

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