March 8, is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate women’s achievements, raise awareness of discrimination, and take action towards gender equality. To celebrate, I joined friends and fellow runners in the first Women RUN Wynwood 5k in San Juan. This way we also celebrate my friend Ana’s birthday.

Today I realized two things, first, that the weather is quickly getting warmer. By the time the race started at almost 8, it already felt too hot to run. Second, that I should have started exercising my lower body months ago. My time improved so much since my last 5k.

This time, I completed the race in 34:55 minutes, according to my watch. That is two minutes and 28 seconds faster than my last race. I don’t know what the official timer say but It can’t be much more than that. Whatever it says, it can’t be too different.

I wasn’t expecting such a big improvement; I thought if anything it would be seconds, not minutes. While I’m exhausted, I’m still very proud of myself and everyone else who completed this race and helped support gender equality. Whether this was your first or 20th race, it just matters that you showed your support, and no matter your time, the important thing is to cross the finish line. 

*I found the race results; it says my time was 35:08 since the race started, but my chip time was 34:46.

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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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