This morning, I ran the 5K Parkrun at Rickmansworth. I was really excited because I missed last week’s run. Instead, I was competing in the North West London League cross-country race at Greenford. That race was tough because the course was muddy and full of hills. Rickmansworth, on the other hand, is an off-road course with smoother paths, which I prefer. I was eager to get back to running here and hoped for a great time.

My goal for today was to beat my personal best of 21 minutes and 8 seconds. I felt ready and determined to push myself. When the run started, I set off, but I quickly realised I was going a little slower than I wanted. There were a lot of runners ahead of me, and I got stuck in some heavy traffic. It was frustrating because I knew I needed a fast start to hit my goal.

Today, I took part in a school race at Westbrook Hay School. I was entered into the Year 3 and Year 4 race, which was a 1.6km run. I felt really excited because, most of the time, I run in Under 11 races with older Year 5 and Year 6 girls. This was a great chance for me to race against my own age group and see how well I could do. I felt confident, and I really wanted to win. I had trained hard and knew I could run fast, so I was ready to give it my best shot.

The race started around a football pitch before heading into tougher sections. I got off to a great start and quickly moved towards the front. However, the signs on the course were not very clear, and I suddenly found myself in the lead but completely confused about where to go. Without realising, I had taken the wrong turn! I had to slow down, find the right path, and then push hard again to regain my speed. Even with that mistake, I managed to keep my lead and finished in first place with a big gap between me and the other runners. My final time was 06:25, and I had an age grade percentage of 81.09%. My pace was 4:04 per kilometre, which was slower than what I know I can run, but that was because I had taken the wrong route and had to correct myself.

Today, I took part in a race called the Battersea Spring Run Festival. It was a tough race because there were lots of adults running alongside me. The race started inside the Battersea Park Millennium Arena stadium. We had to run out of the stadium, complete the race around the park, and then finish back inside the stadium. It was exciting but also challenging because I was running against older and taller competitors.

As I was running, I realised I was in second place for the girls. The girl in front of me was 11 years old, which made her three years older than me. She was also much taller, which made it harder to catch up. I kept pushing myself and tried to run as fast as I could. My pace was 4:07 per kilometre, and the total distance ended up being 2.6km, even though the race was meant to be 3km. I gave it everything I had and did my best to keep a strong pace throughout the run.

Today, I ran in the North West London League cross-country fixture in Greenford. I had raced on this course before, so I knew what to expect. It was a grass course and was supposed to be 2km long. I remembered from last year that it was incredibly muddy, which made it tough to run. Because of this, I wasn’t feeling too excited about the race, but I was ready to give it my best effort.

At the start, the first 100 to 200 metres were exactly as I expected—very muddy. My spikes sank into the ground, and it was difficult to get a good grip. But I stayed focused, kept pushing forward, and managed to get off to a fairly good start. I settled somewhere in the middle of the pack, trying to keep a steady pace. However, at one point, another runner accidentally pushed me, and I lost a few places. It was frustrating, but I quickly picked myself up, shook it off, and got back to racing.