Personal Narrative: Students Run Los Angeles Marathon

It’s easy for someone to say that they’re going to run a marathon, but the hard part is actually going through with it. Since my freshmen year I told myself that I would join SRLA, also known as Students Run Los Angeles. This was a club that trained you for the Los Angeles Marathon which is 26.2 miles. Every year I put it off whether it was because of sports or programs I was part of because I felt that I wouldn’t have time. It was until my senior year I realized that this was my last year to be a part of SRLA and if I didn’t join, I knew I would regret it.
Running a marathon isn’t something everyone can say they did. It was something I wanted to be able to check off of my bucket list. It wasn’t until May of last year that I went to the meeting and signed myself up. My coach, Mrs. Prado, told us that our first practice was July 21st and that was when it hit me. I had succeeded in signing myself up but now was
where the actual work came. This wasn’t just any club, this club took long hours of hard work and dedication every single week for the next eight months straight. This club would cut into my schooling and my weekends. But I knew that I was capable to handle all that came with it. I was determined.
Our first practice was three miles and we were told to be there by 5:30 am. Never in my life did I think I would be waking up at five in the morning to go run! Some people would say that three miles is a piece of cake, but to me it was not. My body was not used to running more than a mile, if that. Those three miles were the beginning of a challenge I had coming.
Once school was back in session, we were told that we would have practice four days a week; three times during the week after school and every Saturday at 5:30 am sharp. As the time passed I realized that it was difficult going to school for seven hours and then having to give up every Saturday, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. There were days where I felt extremely exhausted and I still had to go to practice and then go home and finish all the work Advanced Placement classes had waiting for me.
Over the course of our training we had special running events for the three, six, nine, thirteen (also known as the half-marathon), and eighteen miles.
For every event I would get extremely nervous and I wondered if I would not be able to complete the run. Each event gave me an adrenaline rush, but also anxiety just thinking of what I had ahead of me. I could not wait to be finished and what made this all worth it was seeing my friends and family cheering for me and receiving those beautiful medals at the end of each finish line.
People always asked me, “Bianca, how are you able to run 18 miles?!” And I tell them that it is all mental. If you tell yourself you can keep going, then you will keep going. Along with school, jobs, etc. If you quit at something it’s because you didn’t believe yourself capable. Even when my hip was killing me, or I could no longer feel my toes, or on the verge of tears, I told myself that I could keep going. Every time I felt myself getting weak, I pictured what the finish line would look like at the marathon and continued to
run.
It’s crazy to look back and think that I was dying running only three miles last July and I am now I am running 22 miles. Who would have that? All those finish lines that I have passed have now lead up to the most important finish line. I am now only one week and a half away from doing what I have been preparing myself for these past 8 months. It is such a bittersweet feeling that this is all coming to an end, but when I cross the finish line at the Santa Monica Pier I will look back and be thankful for all that I have been able to achieve.