Today I ran in the Stan Allen one-mile race in Tooting. I was really looking forward to this race because I had never run a mile on the track before. The furthest race I had done before was 1500 metres, so this was a new challenge for me. The journey to the track was quite long, and when we were travelling there it was raining very heavily. For a while I thought the race might be cancelled and that I would not even get the chance to run. Luckily, when we finally arrived, the rain had almost stopped. It was still spitting a little, but it was only light and it wasn’t going to stop me from running.
My race was the fifth heat, so I had to wait and watch a few others before it was my turn. I was determined to do well and had set myself a target time of six minutes. I believed I could get close to that target, and I felt ready to push myself. When the start came, I didn’t hear the bell properly and because of that my start wasn’t as sharp as I wanted. I managed to settle into the pack quite quickly, but during the race I often found myself stuck on the inside, surrounded by three or four other runners, which made it difficult to run freely.
As the laps went by, I kept trying to find space to move forward, but it was tricky being boxed in on the inside lane. I had very little room to run at my own pace, and a few times I had to slow down just to avoid tripping or bumping into others. On top of that, I also had two moments during the race when I felt sick. This was the second time it has happened to me in a race, and I am still not sure why. Even though I felt uncomfortable, I refused to give up. I wanted to push myself as much as I could and finish as strongly as possible.
In the end, I crossed the finish line with a time of six minutes and seventeen seconds. That meant I was seventeen seconds slower than the target I had set myself, which was a bit disappointing. I knew I could have done better, and I really wanted to be closer to six minutes. I also thought about another boy in the race who ran a time of five minutes and forty-eight seconds. I had raced him over 800 metres only a few weeks ago and had only lost to him by five seconds. That showed me that in this one-mile race, I should have been closer to him, but I was not.
Looking back, I can see two main reasons why I didn’t reach my target. The first was being trapped on the inside lane, unable to get out of the pack. This cost me a lot of time because I was stuck jogging behind others instead of running at my own speed. Next time this happens, I know I need to make a quick decision: either move to the outside lane or slow down slightly and then sprint round to break free from the pack. The second problem was the feeling of sickness during the race. I need to figure out why that is happening so I can stop it from affecting me again in the future.
Overall, I still think the run wasn’t bad at all, especially since it was my first time racing a full mile on the track. For my age, I know I am probably one of the fastest runners over this distance, if not the fastest. Still, I believe I have a lot more to give, and I am confident that I can run much quicker next time. I am hoping to enter another one-mile race in the next couple of weeks, and I feel sure that I can beat my time. I know I had more energy left in the tank, and with a stronger start, better positioning, and no sickness, I believe I can get much closer to six minutes, or maybe even under.
