Today I ran at Colney Heath School in the District League. I was really excited because this was my first District League race of the year, and I was proud to be running as the vice-captain. I wanted to show that I could do well and help my team.

The course was three laps, so I knew it was important to get a good start. I tried hard at the beginning, but I didn’t get the start I wanted. Because of that, I had to work harder during the race to move up into the front positions.

Today I ran at Pitshanger Junior parkrun. I was really excited because I hadn’t run there for a few weeks, and it’s my favourite junior parkrun course. The distance is 2 km, and my personal best before today was seven minutes and forty-seven seconds. My aim was to beat that time and hopefully run faster than ever before. I woke up feeling determined and ready to give it everything I had.

When we arrived, I noticed straight away that there were so many children. Normally there are around 70 or 80 runners, but today it felt like at least double that number. Later, I found out there were actually over 150 children taking part, which made it one of the busiest junior parkruns I’ve seen. This made me even more determined to get a good start, because I knew it would be harder to get a good position in such a big field.

Today I ran in a one-mile UK Athletics accredited race in Ealing. This was very special for me because it was the first time I had ever run a mile on the road in an official race. Normally, I take part in 2K parkruns, so this distance felt shorter but also much faster and more intense. I was determined to do my best and show how well I could run over a mile.

At the start of the race, I managed to get near the front of the pack, which was a good position. When the race began, I pushed hard, but I still felt that my start was not as quick as it could have been. This is something I know I need to work on, because in such a short race, every second at the beginning makes a big difference. Even though I felt a little slow to get going, I stayed focused and kept pushing myself all the way.

Today I ran at Woodside Stadium, which is where the Watford Harriers running club, the club I used to train with, usually compete. It was a “minors” meeting, and my race was the 600 metres on the athletics track. My previous personal best for this distance was two minutes and four seconds, but I knew that was slower than what I was capable of. My goal this time was to run under two minutes, which felt tough but possible. I was excited for the chance to push myself and hopefully set a new record.

When I lined up at the start, I was expecting to race against other girls in my age group. Even though I’ve just started Year 5 at school, in athletics I am still classed as a Year 4 runner. So, I thought I would only be racing against Year 4 girls. However, at the last moment they combined the Year 4 and Year 5 girls together. That meant I would be running with older girls, which made the competition harder. At first I didn’t want this because I really wanted to win, but I told myself not to worry about it and just to focus on running my best race.