should i create a system restore point before running CCleaner? i have a real wide yellow streak down my back

Entirely your choice, won't do any harm, at least until you build up confidence in the program. You may end up with rather alot of restore points eating up disk space if you run it regularly though.

If you run the registry cleaner portion of CCleaner, then it is always a good idea to create a backup - which a Restore Point does. If you only want to back up the registry, ERUNT is very much quicker, without taking up much space.