Jane Lee

Grace collapses on the floor after “running” an almost 14-minute mile.

After hearing the news that President Trump expressed a desire to reinstate the Presidential Fitness Test, two Falcon news editors, Grace and Jane, set out to attempt it themselves. 

Using standards from 1985’s 85th percentile of 16-year-old and 17-year-old girls, for Grace and Jane respectively, we attempted pull-ups, sit-ups, pushups, a shuttle run and a mile run.

For reference, the last time Jane took P.E. was in eighth grade; after doing color guard from freshman to junior year, she now takes weekly Lagree classes — low-impact, high-intensity workouts utilizing time under tension. Her best mile time was between 8:45 and 9:30. 
 
On the other hand, Grace took P.E. in freshman year and had a mile time of 8:59. Additionally, she has played volleyball at school since her freshman year and participated in club volleyball in her freshman and sophomore year. 

On the evening of Aug. 24, Grace and Jane decided to face their fears and met at the Saratoga High track to complete the fitness test. 

The test consists of pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, a shuttle run and a mile run. 

The shuttle run requires students to run 10 yards back and forth twice while picking up an object on the 10-yard line and then setting it down for time. 

After quickly realizing they couldn’t do a single pull-up, they moved onto sit-ups, with the 85th percentile being 44 sit-ups for Jane and 45 sit-ups for Grace in the span of one minute. After two trials, Jane’s high score was 25 sit-ups and Grace’s high score was 21 sit-ups. 
 

 
For right-angle push-ups, Grace was expected to do 24 and Jane was expected to do 25 to pass. Unfortunately, Grace has never been able to complete a push-up in her life, so both of them decided to stick to knee push-ups. Grace managed to do two, and Jane did 10 — both of them sported horrible form. 
 

 
Next was the shuttle run — running 10 yards back and forth twice. With the expected time being 10.1 and 10 seconds, they came close with Grace at 12.48 and Jane at 12.30.

Finally, they moved on to the dreaded mile run, with an expected time of 8:15 for Jane and 8:23 for Grace. Putting in their AirPods, they took off on the track, hoping to survive the arduous four laps. While they promised to maintain the same pace, halfway through the first lap, Grace urged Jane to abandon the plan and push forward without her.

Eventually, Jane completed her mile with a shameful time of 11:13. Grace finished two and a half minutes later at 13:49.

Jane’s final thoughts

Despite failing in all components of the test, I took personal pride in beating Grace in every physical activity after she hoped being a varsity volleyball player would provide an ounce of athleticism. Having not run a mile in four years, I felt like 11 minutes wasn’t the worst time I could’ve ended with. Pop stars Tate McRae and Charli XCX somehow kept me alive during the last two laps despite my aching joints.

While we might not be your most athletic newspaper staff, I’d be impressed to see anyone pass all parts of this test — and if you do, please give us your tips while we work on improving our mile time.

Grace’s final thoughts

While the shuttle run and situps were not too difficult, running a mile was another story. As a senior, I instantly got freshman year P.E. flashbacks; I had forgotten what it felt like to push through four entire laps with an ache that slowly crept into my ears and teeth, accompanied by an occasional side stitch. 

As I ran, I could feel the wind whipping my ears as Jane slowly crept further and further away from me, making me feel even more ashamed of being  last year’s sports editor. While I didn’t have high hopes of matching my freshman year mile time of 8:59 minutes, I certainly didn’t expect to reach the end at almost 14 minutes. 

Overall, trying out the fitness test was definitely a grueling experience, and we wouldn’t envy any future students who will be required to take the test every year. 

We rate the Presidential Fitness Test 1.5/5 Falcons.