WHY DO THEY MAKE ME RUN
THE MILE?

There are some sick, twisted people in this world, and they do strange things that don’t make any sense. One of these strange things is running. Neither of us can figure out why people would run on purpose—for fun. When you get into high school, some students will join the cross-country team. We know, it doesn’t make sense to us, either, but it’s true.

Do you know what cross-country means? Well, let’s break it down. In ancient Greek the word cro means “to run” and sscountry means “without purpose.” So cross-country means “to run without purpose.” Okay, maybe that’s not really true, but it sure seems true.

The mile is a form of cross-country race. Actually, the mile is a race that many people run professionally, and you can watch it every four years during the summer Olympics (except nowadays it’s the 1,500 meters). But if you have no desire to run the mile when you grow up, why do they make you run it in P.E. class? Here are a few answers to this puzzling question:

It’s some sort of law. It’s probably not an actual law, but having students run the mile is one of the standard P.E. things that schools are expected to follow. Your state and our federal government have all sorts of expectations about what gets taught at school. Believe it or not, they actually have guidelines about running and stuff that your school needs to pay attention to.

It’s called “P.E.” for a reason. Not sure if you know this, but “P.E.” doesn’t really stand for “please exclude” me from running the mile. It stands for “physical education.” So your P.E. teacher is there to educate you about all kinds of stuff that’s physical. Unfortunately, running the mile is part of that stuff. You don’t run (or walk) the mile just to do it, but you do it to learn how your body responds to different types of physical activity.

It’s good for you. We know you didn’t want to hear this one, but it’s true! Running, whether it’s one mile or a marathon, is good for you. Your body needs physical activity, even at your young age. Exercise isn’t something that only your parents need as they get older and wider.

The mile isn’t going anywhere. It’s been around ever since people started measuring stuff. Making middle schoolers run a mile at a time has been around for a long time, too. We both did it; and if you have kids someday, they’ll be doing it, too.