It can suck to age.

Although some aspects of life improve with the passage of time (knowledge, gratefulness, financial health), other things don’t.

I can’t lift as much weight as I did 20 years ago. I can’t drink as much beer as I could 15 years ago. I can’t run a 5K as fast as I could 10 years ago.

And, as it has just been confirmed, I can’t type as quickly as I could 5 years ago. 😂

Back in September of 2020, I completed the The Alphabet Challenge. Built to test one’s typing skills, I typed the alphabet as quickly as I possibly could. Test yourself by tapping here.

I completed the task by briskly typing the 26-letter sequence in 5.917 seconds.

This was a screenshot from my time in 2020.

When it came to my attention that the half decade anniversary of my typing achievement was near, I knew I had to dust off my finger muscles and try again. I needed to see if I had lost a step (or a finger stroke).

Would the continuation of my professional career and the approximately million e-mails I have written since then (none of them AI-assisted, thank you very much) guide me to a new record? Would my continued blogging output shave a tenth of a second off my 2020 mark?

Unfortunately not.

The past five years have evidently not been kind to the nimbleness of my fingers. Despite giving myself 10 attempts to beat my 2020 mark, the fastest time I recorded was 5.925 seconds. That equates to a time that is eight thousandths (.008) of a second slower from five years ago—an eternity in the speed typing world! And, to be honest, my other nine attempts all resulted in times north of 6 seconds.

The Alphabet Challenge is simple and addicting: type the alphabet as quickly as you can.

So I have indeed lost a step…I mean stroke. But that doesn’t prevent you from taking the test and trying to beat my time from 2020 or 2025. Extra points if you beat my time and are older than 38! Don’t Blink.