Debbie is the primary SRLA leader of the group at AAE in Apple Valley, she will be taking on her first ever marathon alongside her students on March 8. In this week’s blog she tells the story of how she went from a parent to a leader!

I first heard of SRLA in 2012 when my son was in 7th grade and told me the day of the parent meeting that there was a meeting that night at 6:00. I was like no way, we cannot add anything else to our plate. I had just returned to work after not working for ten years, had just become a Girl Scout Leader for my twin daughters and was new to being the PTC Treasurer for the kid’s school. I told my son, try again next year and give me more notice!

He remembered the next year and gave me two weeks notice of the parent meeting. We went and were quite surprised with the commitment but I really did not think that my son would do it. After all he was very much a non athletic kid. A couple of weeks later, here I was, picking him up after school in 100 plus weather (we live in the high desert), and he was just glistening with sweat. “Mom … I ran 4 miles today!”

He was quite proud of himself and I thought, this will be over soon. I really do not see him going further with this venture. But week after week, mile after mile, he completed the 2014 Los Angeles Marathon at 6:07:42.

The next year he continued SRLA and one of my twin daughters joined him. She had a rough time and was cut a few weeks later but my son prevailed and took an hour off of his time. He continued a third year and this time my daughter joined him again and completed the 2016 Los Angeles Marathon at 4:38:03 and 5:58:37 times.

For the 2017 Los Angeles Marathon my other daughter joined in “on the fun” with her twin sister and it was just the girls this time that competed. For 2018, now all three of my children ran the marathon and I officially stepped up to the position of Chaperone for the AAE SRLA team. When 2019 rolled around, even though my son had graduated from high school, he did the Conquer LA Challenge since his sisters were doing the marathon anyways.

Through the years our leadership was provided by a middle school English teacher and even when she retired from teaching, she remained our SRLA leader. She did this for several years but then for a couple of years, our school was lead by a couple of dedicated parents who stepped up to the plate. But their kids graduated in 2019 and all of last year’s season, they kept looking at me and saying, “You are going to have to continue the tradition.” Our school has been with SRLA for about 15 years and I did not want it to come to an end and so I agreed to be the leader. But I did not think that being a leader should be me driving past the kids and telling them that they are doing a great job. I needed to be in the trenches with them. I started my training in June, even though official training does not start until September but then again, I needed all the help I could get!!!

I can remember my 5K back in September and the 10K in October (our team does these two races on our own due to the distance to travel to Los Angeles) but we did join the SRLA teams for the 15K at Balboa Park. I found that I was able to do this race and it seems that you begin to make friends along the way (anything to get your mind off of what you are actually doing). It was a relief to see my daughter on the course as she came back to basically walk her mother in after she had completed her race. It is very much a breath of energy. I did the Holiday Half with one of our team leaders and I felt that she basically pulled me along with an imaginary rope. But we made a friend, Frank, an 11th grader from an LA school, who wanted to run with us. We told him we were only running 10 seconds out of every minute and Frank said, “Sounds good to me”. The three of us were together for at least half of the Holiday Half and towards the end, were trying to come up with the Presidents in inverse order (again, anything to keep our minds off of what we were really doing). My daughter again came out to the course to walk her dear mother in and I got to introduce Frank and told her all about Frank as it seemed we got to know him quite well with our mileage. We got to the finish line together and I gave him a hug. I did not know if I would see him again, after all there are 3,200 plus kids in SRLA.

This past weekend was the Pasadena Half. My leader friend was not with me this time and I was basically on my own. But guess what happened when I was on Lake Street? I heard, “Hello my running buddy!!!” I looked up and there was Frank but he was ahead of me and was on one of the switchbacks. I was like, “Frank! How are you doing?” We said our hello’s a few more times over the course of the race until the bitter end when the golf course is taking every bit of energy out of you … and there was Frank. This time he was joined with a female friend from his school, Heaven. I told him, “Frank you slowed down” and he said, “I got tired.” I told him no problem … let’s do this together. My daughter joined us again and she played the Avengers theme song for us. When we almost got to the chute where you go through the tunnel, Frank said to me, “I want to run all the way in.” I told him, “Let’s do this … come on Heaven, come with us.” The three of us crossed the finish line and I almost had a tear in my eye. Such an overwhelming experience.

I am proud to say that I have now completed my second half marathon and only hobble for about two days now. We have that Dam 30K in less than three weeks. My kids tell me that if I can do the Hansen Dam, I can do the Marathon. Fingers crossed … Here I come!!!!

You can join Debbie in helping students cross the finish line - at the marathon and beyond! Consider making a donation at srla.org/donate

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