Discussing my attempts with my co-host Megan, I exclaimed "I used to be good, interschool cross-county and everything, set good times in the fitness test".
"What fitness test?" she asked, with a sense of doubt in her tone.
Back in high school, our PE teacher was ex-military. Twenty years in the army and then boom, PE teacher to a bunch of stinky teenagers.
He ran his classes with the precision of a drill sergeant, and every month there was a timed test, sit-ups, 2k run, push-ups.
"What sort of time did you run?" Megan asked, and due to the fact I hoarded my old school books for the memories, I was able to find out!
Mid-year I ran 11 minutes and 14 seconds, for 2km. A 5min 37sec-per-km speed.
Not outrageously fast, but certainly a lot quicker than the 6min 30sec of my last outdoor run.
"Do you think you could do that now?" she asked me, a wry smile on her dial.
It was a challenge more than a question, a moment to consider going into battle. Myself versus my younger and faster self. A 2km battle with my past.
"No." I answered.
"My knees are tight and my calves burn when I try to go fast."
But the seed was planted, and I wondered if there was a possibility that I could turn back the tides of time, and beat 16-year-old me, in the battle-scarred, 41-year-old shell I now owned.
So I now find myself staring at the start line of a race against myself, can I beat me? In two weeks we'll see. If my knees last that long.
Listen in on the Hits Hawkes Bay to come along for the ride.
- Adam Green
