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
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