Today I ran a Junior Parkrun at Pitshanger Park in Ealing. The course is supposed to be 2 kilometres, but on my watch, it showed a distance of 1.93 kilometres. My goal for today was to beat my personal best, which is 7 minutes and 13 seconds. I was running really hard, pushing myself to get a new record. But as I was running, a lady who was walking on the track got in my way. I accidentally bumped into her, which slowed me down a bit and made it harder to keep my pace.

In the end, I finished in 2nd place. The boy who came first had a personal best that was just one second slower than mine, so he was really fast too. My final time was 7 minutes and 20 seconds, which both my dad and I thought was a good result, especially since it was my first time back running after a month off. Even though I didn’t beat my personal best, I was happy with my time.

T oday, I competed in the North West London League at Fryent Park. It was an exciting event, and I was both nervous and motivated to give my best performance. Before the race, my dad walked me through the track, pointing out key sections and ensuring I felt confident in knowing the route. This preparation helped calm my nerves, as I knew exactly what to expect on the course. The race was supposed to be 2km, but according to my watch, it ended up being a little shorter, measuring 1.72km.

This race was a crucial opportunity for me, as it was my last chance to impress my coach before the selection for the London Youth Games. I knew I needed to show my skills and determination if I wanted to secure a spot. As soon as the race started, I focused on maintaining a strong pace and staying close to the front pack. My strategy paid off, and I felt strong throughout, managing to finish in 5th place. Although I was 13 seconds behind the winner, I was proud of my effort.

This morning, I woke up to my dad telling me that my sister and I were going to run at Pinner Village Gardens. We were planning to do 3.5 kilometres, which is about three laps around the park. I wasn’t too sure how the run would go, but I was ready to give it my best. Pinner Village Gardens is a nice place to run, with wide paths and lots of green spaces, so I thought it would be a good chance to test myself.

We started our run, and I felt like I was going at a decent pace for the first kilometre. I was focused and enjoying the cool air in the park. But then, out of nowhere, a dog jumped onto the path in front of me. I tried to move to the side to get around it, but the dog kept following and blocking my way. I really don’t like dogs, so this made me quite nervous and frustrated. I tried to keep going, but it was no use, so I stopped and ran back to my dad to explain what happened.

I had such an amazing time at this year’s Donkin Cup! I had my fingers crossed that it wouldn’t rain like last year when the race got postponed twice due to bad weather, which was really frustrating. Thankfully, the weather held up, but I was so excited the night before that I could barely sleep. Not only was I buzzing to race, but I was also heading off to Spain with my school later that same day, so it was a double thrill!

I went into the race feeling really confident. After all, I’d won it last year and I’ve been training hard, especially with the Habs Dash runs on Mondays and Thursdays, where I recently got a personal best of 13:41. As soon as the race started, I took an early lead and did everything I could to stretch it further throughout the race. My main goals were to avoid tripping up and to finish with a strong time. My Dad told me that the best time for Year 5 last year was 11:57, and I was determined to beat that and win by a good margin.