Christina Is Running (Again)!: PR

Nope, not public relations. In the running world it means personal record....and YES...I set one Tuesday night. It was the Crime Prevention 5k. That race is special to me. Let me tell ya why.......we had just moved here 4 years ago. I had not been running much but was trying to get back into it. I didn't know anyone here, so I was all on my own. I signed up for this race because I knew how much motivation going to races provides. I didn't know a single person to run it with. I was at the office, downtown, had my clothes in hand, needing to change and get ready for the race, but scared to death. "I can't do this by myself, what if I can't run the whole way, what if I'm the last to cross the finish line, everyone is gonna know I'm not a 'runner'". All these thoughts were going through my head. I was just about to pack up my clothes and head home when I had a revelation....."I am too darn old to care about what anyone else thinks about me. This isn't high school!!! I'm gonna do this for me and if people wanna laugh...I'll give them something to laugh at!!!". So, I put on my running clothes, put my hair up in pigtails and thought "if they are laughing...I'll just assume they are laughing at the pigtails". So I ran the race, by myself. I did have to walk some...and it wasn't my best run. But I did it! And I wasn't the last to cross the finish line. And I stayed at that finish line and cheered every last single runner across. And I had a blast. Flash forward 4 years. Me and some of my best running buddies decided to do the race...and again the theme was 'if people wanna laugh.....then we'll give them something to laugh at and we are gonna have FUN!" So we put on our running clothes, put the hair in pigtails and we ran! And I set a personal record....29:14. My goal was to do under 30mins. And we had been under a heat advisory that day!!! It was HOT!!