Students share their viewpoints on SRLA, as many other students at the school wonder what these athletes go through and how they deal with it.

This student, Kimberly Alvarado Uz said, “My biggest struggles in SRLA were, sometimes you could get hurt when you were running, you could twist your leg, get a cramp, or just get hurt. What helped me overcome these challenges was by running with my friends, instead of using vans because I would always use vans to run. I started using running shoes.

It was hard having SRLA and school because after school we would have to practice and have practices and I would already be tired of school, and I didn’t have food so I was hungry. Even with the tiring moments it was still fun. When you were done completing the races in SRLA the coaches would take you out to eat and to go to Knott’s and you would just have good times with the team and the coaches and it would just be a fun time to be with them.”

Another student, Eduardo Teodores Mercado said, “My biggest struggles in SRLA was trying to get fit because I wasn’t really that athletic when I started off and my struggle was trying to gain condition and try to run better. Running more helped me overcome these challenges and helped me gain confidence and more mobility as I did. It helped me gain more strength and become a better runner than I was before. For me, having school and SRLA wasn’t really that difficult. I was always looking forward to running because that’s something I really enjoy. I really enjoyed running. It was fun and I had a lot of fun times running with my friends and going to different places I never thought I would ever be able to go such as running the marathon and doing races. I really enjoyed hanging with friends and running with them. I also liked when we were about to run the marathon, we got different activities and we went to the EXPO and I really liked that and how we got free stuff.”

Another student, we won’t be saying their name for privacy reasons, said, “My struggles in SRLA was trying to keep up with the other runners because they were faster than me. Another struggle I had was Mr. Lo pushing me to try my best. I would sometimes walk in a run,.Mr. Lo would try to keep on pushing me. I kind of found that annoying but I knew he was trying to help me. What helped me overcome these challenges was my coach Mr. Lo and my friends. It was hard to manage SRLA and school because at first my grades were good but then they started dropping and I would be drained from school and it would be tiring to run after but I still liked running.”

SRLA is a running program where you get to experience new things and make new friends.