Why do people not like the mile?

The mile run is an event that takes place every week in the field in the park where P.E students run 3-5 laps and are graded fairly on their time. The mile helps kids get more exercise during the day and helps them work on their speed and stamina by encouraging them to get a better time and pushing them to do more laps.  

But even with the many benefits of running the mile, why do students at our school dislike doing it so much? When students realize that they will be doing the mile that day they tend to spin on what time they will get on the mile. This leads to their worries building up and overall leading to lasting anxiety over doing the mile every week.

Despite what most students feel about the mile, it has many benefits. The benefits of running include building muscle strength, decreasing stress levels, and boosting your mood. These are just a few of the many things that running can do for your health. Just these three benefits help not just your body but your life in many ways. On top of that our P.E teachers grade students fairly if they put in the effort.

In an interview with Milania Sanderson,  she was asked what she thought about the benefits of running the mile and if it changed how she viewed running the mile and she said, “Yeah, I thought about that last month, and thinking about running was healthy for me made me dread running it a lot less. It’s like my motivation to be better.” 

As many benefits as running the mile provide, students still don’t like to run it. This is for reasons such as what was talked about earlier, the build-up of stress before the mile, the inconvenient weather conditions, and mostly, the fear of being graded badly on your time. But why are students so stressed and afraid of getting a bad time? Your P.E grade is largely based on two things, your effort and your mile times. This gives the impression that students have to get good times for fear that if they don’t they’ll get a failing grade.

According to Selena Mejia, the most stressful thing about running the mile is, “Getting good time because when I’m running all I can think about is getting a good grade. It makes me think, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to run faster.’ ”

Students tend to focus on the stressfulness of running the mile when they should try to focus more on the benefits it brings to their health in the long run. The many benefits that the mile brings to the table should heavily out way the stress that students feel before the mile and they need to start realizing and appreciating the advantages it brings to their health, both mental and physical.