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When I think about running a timed mile in elementary school gym class, I can still feel the stinging in my lungs and the full-body sensation of strain.

I can also remember the crushing realization that, despite having run a whole mile — the same distance from my childhood home in suburban Atlanta to a Blockbuster, which felt significant even in my mom’s minivan — I’d finished near the back of the pack.

It may not have been a race, but I still felt like I’d lost.

The mile run was part of the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, a biannual assessment given to elementary through high school students. An early version of the test was introduced by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966. Though the test evolved over the years, for decades it included the mile run, sit-ups, pull-ups (or push-ups), a sit-and-reach and a shuttle run. (In 2012, President Barack Obama replaced it with an assessment called the FitnessGram.)

Twice a year, the top 15 percent of participants nationwide were honored with a Presidential Physical Fitness Award. At my school, the winners’ names were painted on one of the gym’s walls, surrounding a mural of the presidential seal.

For years I stared wistfully at those names, wondering if I would ever make the cut. I was fine at some events, but I struggled with others. (No matter how hard I tried, I could never pull my chin above the bar.) And struggling in front of my classmates wasn’t something I looked forward to. I was a striver, even as a kid. I hated feeling like my best wasn’t good enough.

Memories of the test propelled me to revisit it for an article published recently in the Well section of The New York Times.