Ji Eun Bok/Week 3 Assignment/Tuesday 11am

The Mile Run "On your mark, ready, get set, go!" The sound of the P.E. teacher's whistle spread across the green field, and soon, a swarm of students, dressed in their blue P.E. uniforms, set out for their long journey, the mile run. I was the never the one to excel in sports. Due to my tall height, many people who don't know me very well would initially assume that I am a very atheletic person. I guess I can say that I loved sports as a kid, as I was running all over the place with my friends, not realizing how much time has gone by and always being called back home half-forcibly by my mom. However, as I grew up, I was expected to spend more time solely on my studies, and so I used this as a lame excuse to defend myself for not getting enough exercise. On top of that, Korean public schools do not tend to stress the importance of P.E. classes and the students' regular exercising. Thus, the middle school years I spent in Korea did me no good to developing a liking for playing sports ever since I left elementary school. When I moved to Indonesia, I could see that my new school really aimed to allow its students to experience a variety of activities. While a P.E. class in Korea was deemed to be an easygoing class, students just sitting on the benches in the cool shades beneath large trees, the P.E. classes in my school in Indonesia were quite insane. We had to try all different kinds of sports, ranging from relatively familiar sports such as badminton, baseball and soccer to even rugby which scared me a lot. I never really sweated in my Korean P.E. classes, but I always brought a towel to wipe after shower and an extra pair of underwear in my Indonesian P.E classes because I would always be soaked in sweat afterwards. My friends who were at the school told me about how hard we have to work for an average P.E. class, and they especially warned me of the mile run. In a mile run, you are to run a mile, just as its name suggests. However, there isn't a set time for this, so the whole class would start at the same time but it would last as long as the last runner's finishing time. The number of laps depends on the size of a school's field perhaps, and in my school, a mile would equal to 4 laps around the field. It was quite a big field. Now, I knew this mile run would have to come some day eventually, but when I actually heard it come out from my teacher's mouth, it terrified me again. I had heard stories of some students who threw up while doing the mile run and some who even passed out. I did think I would manage better than them at least, but I was still scared. "I'll just have one banana for breakfast today," I told my mom. "Why? That will not be enough!" criticized my mom. "Well, I have the mile run at school," I replied. And magically, my mom nodded her head and accepted my request to eating less. I took the advice from my friends that it is better to eat less on the day of the mile run, or else we would get stomach cramps. I really tried hard to prepare myself for the best that day. When it was finally time, I checked my shoelaces, tightly doing them once again. Soon, the whistle blew, and I was jogging along with my friends before I even realized that it was the real start. At first, it was okay. The weather was scorching hot, as it is almost everyday in Indonesia, but the beginning went smooth and easy. But I regretted thinking this as I finished my second lap. We, my classmates and I, had started out all together at the same start line, but as time passed, it became very obvious who could run well and fast and who struggled a bit. I was more in the second group, unfortunately, and I felt a sense of discouragement as I saw my friends who were running way faster than me. I was showering with sweat rolling down from my head and face to the rest of my body, and to my amazement, my arms and legs were sweating too. My legs felt feeble and I thought I would just fall down in any minute. "Go, Ji Eun!!! You can do this!!!" shouted my friends from the bench. They had already finished their run, and they were getting their well-deserved rest. I really envied them. I knew I couldn't give up. I tried to do my best, as far as my strength allowed me to, and finally, I finished my four laps. I couldn't believe I had done it! I was too exhausted to say a word, and I just collapsed to the ground, taking deep breaths to calm myself down. This was my first experience of doing the mile run, and I had a few more trials after this. My first record was 9 minutes and 45 seconds, but eventually I managed to cut it down to 8 minutes and 46 seconds. It still isn't an outstanding record compared to some of the students who are athletes for track and field, but I was satisfied with my achievement. And from this, I learned how to persevere and never give up. Daum 메일앱에서 보냈습니다.