Run, Crystal, RUN!!!

There’s two things I know for sure about myself.

One, I am competitive. It’s not necessarily winning a trophy, per say, it’s more the thought that I know I’m the best.

Two, I don’t like to have to work at being the best. I get extremely frustrated at things that I’m not inherently good at. It’s really hard for me to keep going with something that I can’t be the best at in the first couple tries. I probably should work on that discipline issue….

But in the meantime, working out and running is the perfect thing for me! I’ve always liked to run, and with my long gangly giraffe legs it comes naturally to me. It’s also something I can compete in without having to put a whole lot of discipline into.

I started back running after baby # 3 came along and my body decided it didn’t need to bounce back to it’s previous shape like it did with the first two babies. I refuse to not have an (almost) perfect body (I should probably work on that vanity issue too…) so I workout and I run.

I decided that I’m going to sign up and run in the Jingle Bell 5K Run here in Dickinson. I’ve got 6 weeks to get to my goal. I looked it up, and last years winning time was 18 something. Granted….that was a teenage boy that got that time! The highest times in my age group for women was around 25 minutes so, of course, my goal is around 24 minutes! My treadmill run yesterday was 3.5K in 20 minutes, so it shouldn’t be too big of a stretch to reach my goal, or even better!

However, all my running thus far has either been indoors on a treadmill or outside in mild warm weather. This race is December 3rd. I’m not sure what December is like around here, but I’m pretty sure it’s not pleasant considering it‘s only October and already in the 40‘s! So I’m going to be researching cold weather running gear and start running outside at night to get used to it. THAT I think will be my biggest challenge!

I’m looking forward to running in my first race though! I think it will be enough challenge to push myself right to that point before it gets frustrating. But I can still win!

Wish me luck!