At our school, we have a sports program called Students Run LA. Students Run LA is a free mentoring and physical fitness program for middle school students and high school students. The program trains students to run in the Los Angeles Marathon, which is 26.2 miles. Students Run LA is a co-ed sport, meaning boys and girls can join. The coaches who help on this team are Mr. Finer and Mr. Lo, as well Ms. Ashley, who is a JMS alum, and Ms. Lily and Mr. Miles. On Sunday March 8 the SRLA team ran their marathon, which started at Dodgers Stadium and finished at Avenue of the Stars in Century City.
Eighth grader Christian Fuentes, who is a member of the SRLA team, said about his time in the marathon, “Yes, I was very happy and honestly, at first, I didn’t like it because I felt like I could have done better myself, but when Finer told me and Mr. Lo told me that they were, like, really proud of me on my time because that was my first ever marathon. I’m very like grateful that everything went my way and I’m just grateful to God and everything he’s done. And I just want to put that out there, I’m very grateful for everything that the team taught me.”
Another team member is eighth grader Jose Hernandez, and he said, “I’m happy with my time because it was my first time doing the marathon. I had an average of 13:55 minute pace and I started off really slow in the start. The heat and my legs being weak was definitely a big downside of my time being bad. And I’d say even with all of the conditions I faced I’m happy with a sub 6 marathon.”
Another team member is eighth grader Jerry Tinoco, who was in the SRLA team for two years, and he said, “It feels good being in SRLA for two years because it’s what I love to do. I was happy about the time I got for the marathon because I was able to beat my time from last year. I do think I could’ve done better because I wasn’t focused for some time and I was sitting down talking with Gio for a while.”
Some SRLA team members felt good about their time in the marathon because even though they faced though challenges, they were able to complete the marathon and were grateful for that and they demonstrated how strong they were and able to overcome their challenges.
