The One Mile Run Test

Do you remember the One-Mile Run test in high school?

For me, it was the worst day of the year.  When I found out that our gym class had to run the mile, I would literally break out into a cold sweat.  I hated

gym class, and I especially hated running.  Interestingly enough, I attended my youngest son's back to school night this past week.  Gym class is so much different than when I was a kid.  Now, you don't have to participate in the sport of the week.  Yea, you heard me.  Now, you have a choice.  You can go into the fitness center for some cardio or weight machines, you can go into the gym and shoot hoops casually, but you don't have to do the sport.  Life now is all about options.  You can do this, or hey, if you don't wanna do this, then do that.  As long as you're moving around, you're good.  No worries!  Not that I wish I was a kid growing up now, but a few choices would've been nice back in the day.

I have vivid memories of one year in particular, when we had to do the One-Mile run test.  I think it was part of the Presidential Fitness Test, or something like that.  Remember the shuttle run, the 100-yard dash, and that 'see how far you can jump' test?  Anyway, I was a junior in high school and it was one mile test day.  Mind you, the gym teachers back then didn't think it was a good idea to give any pointers to the kids.  "Hey guys, it's simple!  Just get out there and run a mile."  Running a mile, when you never, ever run, is really hard.  It would've been nice to learn a little something about pacing.  Go out slower than you should, and pick it up towards the end.  Some kind of advice for us fat kids would've been helpful.

So the whole class lines up on the track, and the gym teacher yells, "Go!"  So I went.  Like a bat out of hell I went, wondering why I was ahead of everyone else.  I thought, "Hey, maybe I'm not so bad at this whole running thing!"  Well, as you can imagine, by the first lap I was sucking wind.  I wasn't feeling so well during the second lap, and the third and fourth were pathetic.  I finished last, and with so many red blotches on my face, that the gym teacher sent me to the nurse.

The nurse said I should rest, then proceeded to call my mother to tell her to pick me up from school.  That's how unfit I was as a youth.  I hated sports, I hated gym class, and I really hated running, especially after this complete embarrassment.  Did I mention that I hated running?

How in the world then, did I get into running in my 40's?  Well kids, that's a story for another time.

Were you a gym class lover, or an uncoordinated unfortunate soul in high school?

Do you do something now that you hated when you were younger?