Today, I ran a race called the Mini Mo Run in Richmond. The course was supposed to be 1.5 kilometres, but my watch recorded it as 1.4 kilometres instead. As I ran, I faced a few challenges. One of the biggest was a boy in front of me who kept blocking me whenever I tried to overtake him. Each time I found an opening, he would move over to block my path again. It was really frustrating because it slowed me down and threw off my rhythm. I wanted to run my best race, but it felt like he was holding me back on purpose.
The pace setter also made things tricky. He was on a bike and was going so slowly that I actually caught up to him and even managed to overtake him at one point. I like to start my races fast and get a lead early on, but it’s hard to do that when the pace setter isn’t moving quickly enough. To make it even harder, the track wasn’t clearly marked, so I didn’t always know where to go. Without proper labels or signs, I had to keep an eye on the pace setter to make sure I was heading the right way, which was distracting and annoying.
Only the first-place runner would get a medal, so I felt extra pressure to come in first. With all these obstacles, it was tough to stay focused on my goal. But, just two metres before the finish line, I found an opening and overtook the boy in front of me. I was thrilled to finish first, especially because I did it fairly, without blocking or cheating. Winning by running my own race felt really rewarding.
My pace ended up being 3 minutes and 46 seconds per kilometre, a bit slower than my target of under 3 minutes and 40 seconds. I finished the race with a time of 5 minutes and 19 seconds. Even though it wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for, I was still proud of myself for pushing through the challenges. I know that if the pace setter had been faster, the course had been marked clearly, and if I hadn’t been blocked, I might have had a better chance at beating my target.
In the end, I was happy to come in first, and the experience reminded me that racing fairly is always the best way. I always try to run my own race and not block others, and I was glad to see that sticking to my own approach helped me win. It feels good to know I didn’t need to use any unfair tactics to come out on top.
Overall, it was a challenging race, but it taught me a lot. I’m excited to work on my speed and keep improving. Next time, I’ll aim for an even faster time and hopefully a smoother race without any unexpected obstacles!
