March 20th was the most difficult challenge students at Animo Jefferson Middle School trained for. Students trained for six months to run the marathon. Every year 1.1 million people around the world complete a marathon. Students joined SRLA to challenge and push themselves by training to run the LA Marathon.

First let’s start with what SRLA is. SRLA is a non-profit program for middle and high schoolers that helps them train for the Los Angeles Marathon.

Before the marathon, SRLA coach for AJMS Thomas Lo said, “The marathon is always a challenging race but I think everyone on the team is ready. One issue that students will face during the marathon is being tired. It’s a long race so at the end students will struggle. Usually like around mile 20 it’s starts to get a bit harder. Some advice I would give them is to obviously train which we’ve done. Most importantly is  to make sure to stay hydrated. Get enough sleep before the race, like 8 hours of sleep. Finally to take it one mile at a time.”

March 20th, marathon day, was the day that people have been waiting for and what people have trained for. Some people were excited and some were nervous for the marathon. People had to wake up at 5 in the morning to head to the Dodger stadium to warm up and get everything ready. At 7am the marathon started, with the fastest professional athletes starting first. After the pros went, the public people went after and then after them were SRLA and others.

After a long time of running during a hot day, people had finished the marathon and sadly some people were injured and couldn’t complete it. Then there were people that were able to complete the marathon and were very happy.

SRLA student from AJMS William Roque said, “After I crossed the finish line I felt tired but I felt completed and I felt very proud of myself. It was challenging but I was happy to be able to complete this. This is something I will never forget.”

I myself am on the SRLA team and to be honest even though I was the fastest runner on the team it wasn’t easy. But being the fastest isn’t always about the goal – it’s also about the adventure and it was really fun to be honest. I only wanted to do SRLA because it’s something I really wanted to do since seventh grade but I couldn’t due to Covid-19 and the pandemic. I made many memories and this is something I would never forget. I highly recommend doing SRLA because it’s so much fun and it’s something you won’t regret doing.