PR

A PR is a Personal Record.  It is basically keeping track of your best run times.  I think I mentioned before that my times have never been monumental.  I am not a fast runner.  When I ran my first race, well, more than a 5K, I was there with a lot of friends.  There was a group that I had been training with back home, my "running family", including my sister and college roommate, who had trained and run a 10K 4 months before.  That first race was such a triumph for me, but in my group of friends I was LAST!  Seriously the last one done out of our whole group.  It was discouraging to a degree, just because I really had trained and thought I would finish a little faster.  BUT, I was determined not to worry about how fast I ran.  The fact that I was running, that I hadn't quit, that I had actually already signed up for another race, all those things were huge for me and I wasn't going to let my pace define me.  That first race was my fastest race to date, and it was only seconds shy of a 12 minute mile pace.

Today, I had a training run and I had a number in my head that I would like to keep pace.  While pushing Sugar 12 miles this past weekend, my pace was almost a minute faster than that first race, which was triumph enough for me, but I knew without the stroller I could be faster.  When I hit the half mile mark I was keeping a 10:17 pace (10minutes:17secs/mile).  That was pretty good, but I knew I could do better.  My training plan had me running 60 minutes today and I just wanted to finish 6 miles.  The week before I had run 4.7 miles in 50 minutes, which included pushing the stroller, so I wanted to beat that.

Today, I set a PR for the 10K because I completed 6.22 miles in 60 minutes.  That had me finishing a 10K in under and hour (just barely, but still under) at 59:53.  I literally jumped up and down and yelled, on a very busy road here in town, people probably thought I was crazy!  I don't care.  This was huge for me.  I'm no more of a runner, as I do NOT believe that speed makes you a runner, I believe your passion, your heart, and your commitment no matter the obstacle makes you a runner!  That PR for me, just told me that I am stronger and I can continue to improve, which is a victory for me.

Set your PR, challenge yourself, but you don't have to let the number on the screen define you or your running!  

Run ON!!!