# 13. Go-Karting

Booking a family go-karting session seemed like a great idea at the time. However, as I sat through the safety briefing at the F1K Indoor Karting Centre at Heathrow I began to panic. I could imagine myself accidentally putting my foot down on the accelerator as I tried to get into the kart. I could picture my go-kart flipping over and crushing me under it. Wasn’t the point of the safety briefing to reassure you, not freak you out! The panic began to increase when I couldn’t find a helmet to fit. Eventually I got into the kart without causing myself or anyone else any undue damage. The first lap was a practise run before the actual race began but as I settled into the kart and acclimatised myself to the track, I noticed the same drivers racing passed me a number of times. I was being lapped! And more to the point, the race had actually begun. It took awhile for my competitive spirit to override my fear of crashing or spinning out of control but when I did eventually get into it, I began to enjoy myself. Annoyingly, my bandana kept falling into my eyes so I had to make a couple of trips to the sin bin. I enjoyed the experience of go-karting . I felt as though I had been driving quite fast towards the end of the session but my results revealed that my top speed had only been 28.6 miles per hour! I was quite satisfied with my result of coming tenth out of twelve drivers and with my best lap time being 34 seconds (only 12 seconds behind the leading driver) until my husband brought me back to reality explaining that was a big time difference in racing terms. After the experience I felt that I probably wouldn’t try it again but looking back now, I think I would. Overcoming the initial fear, I think I would be more daring and competitive next time especially if all the drivers in the session consisted of family and friends. If you would like to try go-karting for yourself, more information can be found at http://www.f1k.co.uk/tracks/heathrow/