At the beginning of January, I signed up for my first 5k of the year, fourth since I joined Freddie’s Runners. The race was called 5 Kilómetros de Solidaridad, Centros Sor Isolina Ferre. I was a little nervous because it was at 6 AM and I regretted it a few times, wondering what I had been thinking, signing up for a race that early in the morning. I had to wake up at least at 4:30AM to get there in time without rushing. 

Last night, while I was already a little nervous about waking up really early on Sunday morning, I decided to really take a look at the route of the race. To my surprise/horror, I saw that part of the race included running up four floors of the parking lot. I didn’t understand how they expected people to run up those ramps that are designed for cars. I already didn’t think my timing would improve on that race, but when I saw that route, I was convinced I wouldn’t. 

This morning, I woke up on time, had a light breakfast, orange juice and oatmeal and made it to the race in time. As soon as I got to the race I saw a couple of other Freddie’s Runners, and got to talking to them immediately. It’s always a little bit of a relief seeing other people from your running group at the races. While I waited for the race to begin, I was able to do a little stretching and warming up. 

Once the race began, I set out on a slow run, as people started to disperse. I didn’t want to get tired too quickly, I still had 3 miles to go. I tried to keep my pace similar to my training, run half a mile, walk a few minutes, then run again until the next half mile. I was having fun, I ran into some more people in my group, saw kids from my high school working at the first oasis, just like I did at a few races when I was in high school.

I was really happy with how everything was going until I got near the mall and started thinking if it was better to run or walk up the ramps. My gut told me to run and get it over with, so I did and that’s when I realized those ramps aren’t that steep and it wasn’t that difficult. It was actually more difficult going down because you have to slow yourself down to keep from falling. 

Once I made it out of there I didn’t have a long way to go, I could hear the music from the finish line and I knew I was near. My watch marked 36 minutes and I wanted to make it across the finish line before the 38.44 minute mark, so I sped up. I don’t know what the official timer of the race says, but according to my watch, I finished in 38.03 minutes, 30 seconds faster than at my last race!

I’m very proud of myself, as well as everyone else who finished the race, especially my fellow Freddie’s Runners and all of those who were running the half marathon, El Mulo in Juncos today. 

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Published by mariacristinasanfeliu

I’m an aspiring writer still looking for exactly what I want to write about, with a lot of creativity, imagination and desire to write. I studied Writing and Rhetoric at Syracuse University where I explored many different sides of writing through my classes and extracurricular activities in order to narrow my search for an identity as a writer. I have written for Citrus TV Noticias and La Voz magazine, both of which gave me the chance to explore different mediums in which to write in. Through Citrus TV Noticias I also gained experience in translating from English to Spanish and vice versa, which is also something that I would be interested in working on since I am fluent in both of these languages. I was also an intern at Syracuse University Press where I got hands on experience in what goes into actually editing and publishing a book. Through out the last four years I have faced a lot of challenges, which helped chape the person I am today. After being in a tragic car accident, being in comma, having a Traumatic Brain Injury, and being in therapy for over a year, I am a new me, willing to face challenges and knowing how to deal with them. I want to write about my accident and life after it to help others, show them it can be done and help in any way I can.

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