Today I competed in the Herts Schools Cross Country Championships at St Margaret’s School in Bushey. It was a big event, with around 150 girls racing in the Year 5 category.
Going into the race, I wasn’t overly confident. Over the past few weeks I’ve raced at York House and Beechwood, and my performances haven’t been at my usual level because I’m still recovering from the severe illness I had over Christmas and early January while I was away in Dubai. I knew I wasn’t at peak fitness, but I still wanted to compete and give everything I had.
Normally, this is the kind of race I would expect myself to win. However, I knew I wasn’t 100%, so my focus was simply to be as competitive as possible.
At the start of the race, I was unfortunately pulled back by another girl from my school, which disrupted my momentum and caused me to lose quite a few places. I found myself down in around 20th position very early on. That was frustrating, but I quickly decided to put my head down and start working my way back through the field.
The race was only 1.5 km, which is very short, so making up that many places was always going to be difficult — especially given my current fitness level. As the race went on, though, I began to feel stronger. I steadily overtook more and more runners, pushing as hard as I could all the way to the finish.
In the end, I finished in a very respectable fourth place. I was only a few seconds behind first, which shows how close it was.
Overall, I’m proud of my performance. I know I’m not even at 70% fitness yet, so expecting to win would have been unrealistic. I’m especially proud that I recovered mentally from a difficult start and didn’t give up. I stayed focused, fought back through the field, and finished strongly.
I can feel myself getting fitter each week. Now it’s about putting my head down in training, working hard, and being patient. I’m confident that in the coming weeks I’ll be back to full strength — and back to producing the top-level performances I know I’m capable of.
