Today I ran in the North West London League cross-country race at Trent Park in Cockfosters. I really like this course because I did well here last year and it’s where my club usually trains. Because I know the area so well, I felt confident and excited before the race started. It felt nice racing somewhere familiar.
Before the race, my dad and I talked about a different strategy to try. The plan was to let the boys in front take the lead and deal with the wind, while I stayed just behind them for the first kilometre. Then, after about 1 km, I would increase my pace and try to overtake them. This was very different from how I usually race, so I wasn’t completely sure about it, but I agreed to give it a go.
When the race started, I settled into third place, which felt very strange for me. I let the boy in front move ahead and allowed second place to pull away slightly too. I stayed calm and told myself that I would catch them later. I believed that once I reached the kilometre mark, I would be able to speed up and chase them down.
However, when I reached the first kilometre and tried to increase my pace, it just wasn’t there. I tried really hard, but my legs felt tired and heavy. I couldn’t find the extra speed I was expecting. I started to feel exhausted, which was frustrating because I wanted to push on but couldn’t.
I kept pushing as hard as I could until the finish and ended up coming third. I was very disappointed because the boy in first place finished far ahead of me. Normally, I can finish within five seconds of him or sometimes even beat him, so such a big gap at the end was very unusual for me and hard to accept.
Even though this was probably my worst performance so far, I think there are still positives to take from it. I’m glad I tried a different strategy because now I know that sitting back and waiting does not work for me. My best strategy is a simple one: get an early lead, set a strong pace, and keep it going. I know I can do this because I’m good at longer distances, like a 5 km parkrun. Moving forward, I won’t let the field get away from me in the first kilometre.
