Before Monday night, the last time I had run a mile was in my 10th-grade gym class. Why did I volunteer to run Maryland men’s basketball’s “Midnight Mile”? Your guess is as good as mine.

The Midnight Mile was created 47 years ago by Terps basketball coach — and now Hall of Famer — Lefty Driesell. To kick off his third season in College Park, Lefty had his players run a mile on the track shortly after midnight on Oct. 15, 1971, the first day the NCAA allowed teams to practice.

The Midnight Mile transitioned into Midnight Madness, which then became Maryland Madness. With 2018-19 being the 100th season for the Maryland men’s basketball program, and with Lefty finally getting into the Hall of Fame, the school decided to bring back the tradition.

Entering the race, I was hoping for a sub-seven minute mile. I thought it was a fairly solid goal for a mildly athletic 19-year-old like me, even though I hadn’t run that far in years.

The first sign that the run would be different than I’d expected was the crowd. I was thinking that 50 or so people would show up, so it was surprising to see hundreds of students packing the Kehoe Track and Field Complex.

The players themselves had much loftier expectations than me. Bruno Fernando boasted that he expected a time between 3:55 to 4:15 (as a point of reference, the fastest mile in human history is 3:43). He also predicted Joshua Tomaic would finish last among the players. Freshmen Aaron Wiggins and Eric Ayala didn’t have specific time goals in mind; they just wanted to go with the flow.

I was interested to see how fast head coach Mark Turgeon thought he could run a mile, but to my dismay, he told the runners he was not going to be taking part, as it was past his bedtime. Such an early bedtime seems like it could get in the way of primetime games, but who am I to judge?

After camera work by Fernando and Wiggins, some dance/hype circles, and Bruno, Jalen Smith and Andrew Terrell’s time on the megaphone, it was race time.

Maryland basketball players start running in the Midnight Mile at the Kehoe Track and Field Complex on Oct. 15, 2018. (Julia Nikhinson/The Diamondback)

Once the run started, a few minutes past midnight, I was surprised to see myself running past some of the players — and so were they.

Right out of the gates, Tomaic was getting passed left and right; he yelled at the people beating him that it wasn’t that serious. Terrell — who’s well-known for cheering on his teammates — was more positive, telling us that we were “fucking killing it.” Trace Ramsey just seemed to be in awe at how fast some of the people were running.

I’d expected the players to at least run the full mile, but after a lap and a half, it became clear that they weren’t trying. Some were jogging backward, some were walking and some were just sitting on the track (I’m looking at you, Bruno).

After my first lap, I was feeling good. I still had a bit of adrenaline left in me, and I was confident in my abilities. By the second lap, my body started to tell me that I was not in shape at all, and I started to slow down.

Jalen was less than impressed by the runners. While he was being passed on the first lap, he wanted everyone to “see me right here on the fourth lap.” For what it’s worth, he did go extra hard at the end. Before the run, he promised that he’d follow back anybody who beat him on Instagram; evidently, he doesn’t want to follow many people.

As I was wrapping up my third lap, I saw Travis Valmon — who moonlights as a track star — appeared to have already finished, and I was slowly starting to die on that track. The fourth lap was a struggle, but I was able to will myself to completing the race.

Unfortunately, I did not reach my goal of sub-seven. Still, I was more than happy with my 7:23, given the aforementioned crowd and the track being slippery from the rain. A good amount of the runners managed to cross the finish line, and only a few people were walking.

My time paled in comparison to the 3:55 that Bruno claimed he ran. Ayala confirmed Bruno’s claim, and Anthony Cowan denied it, then flip-flopped and confirmed it. Nobody was keeping track of laps, so I can’t definitively prove that Bruno wasn’t telling the truth, but I doubt that he came close to setting a world record.

Bruno wasn’t the only player to talk a big game — Darryl Morsell also claimed to have a very impressive time of 4:40, and he even said that he won the race. If that’s actually the case, he might want to follow in Valmon’s footsteps and give track a try. (Valmon’s dad is the track and field coach, so I’m sure he’d put in a good word for him.)

I’m not sure Cowan even ran at all. He didn’t break a sweat, and the entire time he was there he seemed to be recording videos of people running for his Snapchat. When I asked him what his time was, he responded, “Five, uh, flat — five flat.” But he did tell me that I was “flying out there,” so I won’t hold it against him.

Testudo offers high-fives to runners crossing the finish line at Maryland basketball’s Midnight Mile at the Kehoe Track and Field Complex on Oct. 15, 2018. (Julia Nikhinson/The Diamondback)

By 12:15, everyone had stopped running, either crossing the finish line or just walking off the track. A few minutes later came the pizza — a lot of pizza. I’m guessing there were at least 70 boxes out there.

With most of the crowd clearing out by 12:25, they started giving away whole boxes of pizza. Jalen really wanted one, and he seemed jealous of the people who were getting them. He might have eventually picked one up; I was too focused on picking up a box for myself to check.

Even if they didn’t run the whole thing, the players seemed to enjoy the spectacle. Plus, my sources say that practice for Tuesday has been canceled. (My source is Terrell, so take that with a grain of salt.)

Before the run, Turgeon said the goal was to have his players “mingle with you guys.” For all the weird stuff that happened, I can definitely say we mingled — it’s kind of hard not to when you have hundreds of people packed onto an eight-lane track.

All in all, it was a fun night at Ludwig Field. My legs hate me right now and I’m probably going to be sore when I wake up, but I’m still glad I decided to exercise for the first time in a long time.