Mitchell Part 2 "Two Stripes"

I never accepted the challenge 36 years ago. It seemed so unattainable, yet I never forgot it.

The physical education curriculum that so turned me off of physical activity did throw down a gauntlet of sorts and it has been laying there on the ground at my feet for all this time. I'd have to say that it was the only honest challenge of the entire P.E. program that could have caught my interest, but because of the poor delivery it not only was wasted on me, but I don't remember anyone else attempting it.

It was extremely simple: adding one or two blue bars made of cloth to the leg of your white gym shorts. Just how did you earn a bar for your shorts at Mitchell Junior High School? You might have guessed it...run around that damned track.

The rules were very simple too; run a mile. One blue bar if you completed the mile in less than 8 minutes. Two blue bars if you could do it in under 6.

I didn't get either one.

But... I want it now. Not the stupid single stripe either. Heck, I've already earned the single stripe lots of times. Fact is, I ran eight minute miles 26 times in a row just last December. What I want are those two blue bars. And if I can do it, if I can someday run a mile under 6 minutes, I'm going to buy a pair of while gym shorts with navy piping, just like the ones I had

so many years ago, and put those darn two bars on the pant leg and what I should do is call Mitchell and insist that they make good on the deal by looking around the old coaches office, seeing if they can find one of those patch sitting back on an old dusty shelf and send it to me.

But first I have to accomplish the feat. I can probably do a 6'30" right now if I push, but that's still a long ways to go. My plan is too lose a little more weight and start doing some training to work those fast twitch muscles. And then go for it!

It's going on forty years and I'm finally going to pick up the gauntlet.