not just another jog in the park

So yesterday I went for a run at Bolling Park behind Cherokee High School (CHS). I was looking forward to the run even though I was going during the heat of the day - around 2:00. Bolling Park has a gravel trail, which I like a lot. As I was rounding the corner of my 2nd mile, about 70 Freshmen from a CHS P.E. class showed up to run two laps around the shorter track. Talk about bringing back some mortifying memories for me and the time I spent in P.E. at Towers High School. I did not like P.E. I hated dressing out. Here's a list of memories:

• I got a new pair of leather Tiger Asics (which were very cool back in the 80's) and they got stolen from the locker room.
• Square dancing in the gym - not fun - and the mortification of who we'd get paired up with still rings in my memory. And trying not to look like a complete dork while square dancing in a gym, which was pretty much impossible no matter how cool you were.
  
• Fitness tests - ugh! Especially when I was not so fit back then. I twirled baton and took dance classes, but I was not so much athletic, and I was always 10-20 pounds overweight, so I was not very good at any one thing on these tests, especially running. I was always in the back of the pack.
• Having to run either 1/2 mile or a mile and one of my friends, who was in worse shape than me, was going to finish last, and I was a few people in front of her, and I slowed down so she wouldn't have to finish last. That could have been a growing moment for me now that I look back at it. I didn't want to finish last, but I didn't want her to finish last alone.
• Dressing out - talk about uncomfortable - 30 girls of all different shapes and sizes and all different levels of self confidence. Not a good memory.
• Coming up with excuses not to dress out - that time of the month was a good one that always worked on male coaches, not so much on the female coaches. Stomach aches, twisted ankle. I don't know if I ever made an A in P.E. I could have, but I'm pretty sure I dissed dressing out enough times that it came closer to a low B or C. Duh!
• Being overweight in high school was never much fun, but somehow P.E. just put a spot light on those who were not in the best shape and not very confident.

Of course now, I wish I had taken advantage of P.E. and been motivated by it instead of traumatized by it.