Today I ran in the Under 11s Girls District League race at Wheatfields School. I’ve been running really well in the district league this season, and I had already won my first two races. Because of that, I felt determined to keep my winning streak going, even though I knew the other girls would be trying their hardest to stop me. I felt confident but also a little nervous, because it’s never easy to win three races in a row. Still, I arrived ready to give everything I had.

In my last district league race, my victory was much easier than the first one, and it taught me something important: if I take the lead early and control the race, things usually go really well for me. So I decided to use the same strategy again today. My plan was to get into the lead as fast as I could, hold it strongly, and push on whenever I needed to. I kept telling myself to stay brave, stay calm, and run smart from start to finish.

Today I ran in the Metropolitan League race at Horsenden Hill. It was a 2 km cross country race on grass, and because it had rained the night before, the ground was a little soft and slippery in some places. This was my first time racing here in the Met League because you can only run in it when you are in Year 5 or Year 6. I felt excited but also nervous because I wanted to do well and see how I compared to the other runners on a brand new course.

In my previous school Metropolitan League race, I finished in third place, so today my goal was to improve on that and try to come either first or second. When the race started, I didn’t get the best start and found myself around fifth or sixth place after the first few seconds. I knew that wasn’t good enough if I wanted to fight for the top positions, so I told myself to stay calm, keep pushing, and slowly work my way forward. The start was tough because everyone was sprinting hard, and the soft ground made it harder to get good speed.

Today I ran in the London Youth Games, which takes place at Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath in London. I wasn’t feeling very excited about this race because there are usually nearly 300 boys competing, all from the 32 boroughs of London. On top of that, the race begins with a very steep hill, which makes the start extremely tough. Even though cross country isn’t my favourite compared to track season, I still wanted to try my absolute best and see what I could do.

When the race started, I didn’t get a very good start. I settled into around 15th place, and I knew that wasn’t where I wanted to be. I tried to speed up, but the problem was the huge amount of traffic. There were so many boys all bunched together that I couldn’t run my normal fast pace. Every time I tried to move to the side to overtake, someone blocked the space. With almost 300 boys running at once, there was pushing, barging, and lots of elbows, which made it even harder to move through the pack.

Today I ran in the North West London League race at Fryent Park in Kingsbury. It was a 2 km cross country race on grass, and the ground was moderately dry because there had been some rain overnight. I got there early so I could jog around the course and get used to the twists, turns, and little hills. The park looked great in the morning light, and I felt a mix of excitement and nerves as more runners started to arrive and warm up.

I’m not the biggest fan of the North West London League races because the boys and girls all start at the exact same time. It can be quite chaotic at the beginning, with lots of pushing and jostling for position. When the race started, I didn’t get the best start, but it wasn’t terrible either. I got caught in the middle of the pack and tried to stay calm while finding my rhythm. At first, I was around sixth place for the girls and maybe about tenth overall in the mixed race. I knew I needed to work my way forward, so I started pushing as hard as I could.