Still, some might read this book and say, “hey, I’m going to give running a try, and then discover they enjoy it. And of course that would be a beautiful thing. As the author of this book I’d be very pleased if that happened. But people have their own individual likes and dislikes. Some people are suited more for marathon running, some for gold, others for gambling. Whenever I see students in gym class all made to run a long distance, I feel sorry for them. Forcing people who have no desire to run, or who aren’t physically fit enough, is a kind of pointless torture. I always want to advise teachers not to force all junior and senior high school students to run the same course, but I doubt anybody’s going to listen to me. That’s what schools are like. The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.
Haruki Murakami, What I talk about when I talk about Running (p. 45)
I ran like a 12 minute mile in high school (sad I know). I remember not being able to run even a 1/4 mile (once around the track), but that any student that ran it under 8 minutes got a free soda. No soda for me!
Maybe the PE teacher should have given me a diet soda…