It was actually a kind of pain and in an ideal situation where I would not get stitches, pull my ligaments or sprain my ankle accidentally, I may actually pass this component of the test. Academic exams are not the only tests that existed in primary school. Other than those usual examination, NAPFA was also part of the whole picture. It was to test us on our fitness level and the most daunting component to me was the 1.6km run. I honestly thought I was never gonna get a pass for that. I actually didn’t run very fast and often, I’d get tired and rest.
However, now was different, from all the experience in the game “catching”, “ice and freeze” and sometimes even “virus”. These were common during pre-Covid times and as far as I was concerned, I would be ready to convince myself that I could run fast, deadly fast…
Since our primary school didn’t have a proper 400m track, we ran either around the hall or the field and thus we used the rubber band system, where your partner would give you one rubber band per round you run. 1.6km was about 10-11 rounds around the field or hall, which didn‘t feel so encouraging as I kept thinking that we had to run many rounds. “Ready…get set…” I prepared myself for the run, “GO!” my teacher shouted as my friends all set off with a slower pace than I did.
Some time ago…
“Well, students, the best technique you should use to conquer your NAPFA 1.6km run is to go at a slow pace at first so as to save up your energy and then run faster when you are at your last few rounds." I was doubtful but it did not help at all and as I ran, I got more and more tired. This method was useless.
I went all out at once. It was only 1.6km, I told myself, if I just sped through it, I would finish it in no time. It seemed as if I was very fit as my classmates and even the PE teacher gaped at my performance. I was running, in fact sprinting as fast as I could and with a stunning performance. At about the 8th round, I was so worn out and I was panting hard as I continued sprinting. I closed my eyes and ran, following my gut feeling for navigation. Beads of sweat were rolling down my forehead and the whole back of my PE shirt had been drenched in sweat. I opened my eyes again and the sunlight pierced my eyes. I persisted and on the 11th round, I ran at lightning speed and I reached the end with a timing that gave me an A in the 1.6km run, in fact it was better than the "A" standard by a minute and yet I was only the third or fourth fatsest in my P4 class.
Once I entered secondary school, I was more than ready for trying out the new standard, the 2.4km run and the first time I did it, I realised that brute-forcing the method of going all out was (HIGHLY) ineffective. Well, the old method of running slow at first and fast at the end never worked for me and I tried the last resort, I aimed to run every round with a consistent timing. I believed that stamina was more crucial than speed and motivation was more important than stamina so I worked on motivation and stamina, which were both easy to train.
After sometime, our PE teacher asked us to record down the time for each round we do, which definitely helped to give me more information on how consistent I was in terms of timing. I never believed in speed anymore since primary school, but of course you should not expect me to walk at least be a little more fast paced. I eventually slowly increased my stamina and as I got faster and faster while running 6 round around the track, my motivation moved from 0 to an all time high, that I could bet would make me better than an athlete taking steroids.
Despite my high stamina and motivation, I still had to work on my speed as I would not do so well in sprints although I was considered as fast since I had long legs. Well, I am nowone of the few fastest boys in class in terms of long distance running. Well, that sums up why I run fast. That's it for today, see you again soon.
Cheers,
Da Good Writer (The Good Writer)
Credits to:
D&KB Writing ™️ 2022
My Greatest Success (A Story of Success, Determination, and Motivation) ©
Da Good Writer (Team Master Writers)
Photo Credits:
PicCollage 2022
Brought to you by
D&KB Writing ™️ (since 2021)
We Make Recommendations to Keep Writing Alive
Please do leave a comment down below! And if you haven't already, please subscribe to D&KB Writing by filling in the Subscribe Form at the bottom of the page.
Kommentare