On Sunday March 17, 2019 students and teachers from Animo Jefferson ran the LA Marathon. SRLA is a running program where young kids and adults run in a 26.2 mile race. People run from Dodgers Stadium to Santa Monica. SRLA was created to help students set a long-term goal. Many people accomplished the goal of finishing the marathon.

Many kids from AJCMS thought that SRLA was a very challenging thing to do. They wanted this and mainly did it for their family.

SRLA runner Jessica Lopez said, “This is something I have always wanted to do and then something my mom wanted to do so I accomplished it for myself and I did for her.”

After the marathon since it was a long and tiring thing they went to sleep. Both the kids and the teachers went to sleep and had to try to gain back all their energy.

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SRLA coach Mackenzie Anderson said, “I went to bed at like 8:00 clock and slept the rest of the night and got up for the work on Monday.”

The teachers are so proud of their students. Seeing the kids do this is what makes the teachers keep training and teaching them. They are proud of what everyone of these students running and accomplishing the marathon. They are proud of how they  prepared and gave everything for SRLA.

According to Anderson, “I am very proud of my students. It is daunting and nerve racking as an adult to run a marathon and as a 12-13 year old maybe even some 11 year olds being able to dedicate that much time during the week and during the weekend and giving up hanging up with friends and family to train but then to complete a marathon, it is emotional, it is scary and it hurts.”

Even though the SRLA students hit the wall they still kept going knowing what they had at the end of the marathon, knowing they will make their families proud and themselves as well. A wall is when they hit that mindset of “I can’t do this no more” and their body is out of energy late in the race. However, the students managed to get past that stage in their mind and finished.

SRLA student Nathan Marin said, “I hit my wall at like mile 18 and it hurt. I was begging to give up but knowing I had people depending on me I didn’t because I knew I needed to finish it.”

The next day everyone was in pain and sleepy. They all wanted to sleep but still managed to go to school and do what they had to do. They were very proud of each other and of themselves.

Jessica said, “I was thinking of not coming to school but I wanted to show of my medal and show people that I can do it, that I can run a marathon and finish it and still come to school and have good grades. I am proud of everyone on my team even if we are in pain and everything.”

No matter how bad they felt, how painful they felt, how tired they felt, both the SRLA students and the teachers finished the marathon and still went to school. They all got lots of rest and are proud of their achievements.