John Taylor fund,

Firstly, thank you so much for the funding to go to London for the national cross country Championships, it really made a difference.

I went down to the Nationals at Parliament hill on Friday the 23rd of  February (which also happened to be my Birthday). We went out for a meal at a nice little Indian restaurant in Edgeware, then headed back nice an early so I could get some rest for the next day.

It was an early start for me, 5:30am, not much different to usual but still early. I had the usual breakfast (my speciality pre race breakfast) then headed out about 8:30 with some of the other members of the team to the tube station. A quick tube ride to Hampstead heath, a 15 minute walk and we were at Parliament Hill. My Race was at 11:00am so a walk of the course, and a warm up then It was race time!

I was joined by many teammates at the start line, we wished each other good luck and stood poised anxiously waiting for the starting gun to go off! Within about 200m I was in the top 30, I just focused for the first half a mile on getting in to my own rhythm and then began the real work. My aim then was to keep working through the crowd. I got in to the top 15 at just past half way around the course. I moved around 10th and 12th up until the last 1km where I gave a big push on in to 7th place. I took a bit of a wrong footing in the last 600m which meant me dropping back in to 9th then powered back through to have a clear finish of 8th. I was really happy with my race I’ve had a couple minor set backs this year, some couldn’t have been helped others just needed me to dig deeper. I’m looking forward to my future races this year and hopefully many more years to follow.

Once again Thank you so much for the funding for me to get to the National XC this year, I really think what you are doing as a charity is great for young Athletes like me and genuinely makes a difference.

Best Regards

Mya Taylor (Rotherham Harriers)

Mya Taylor

Mya racing