Senior Stories: Alejandro, Facing Roadblocks
Meet Alejandro!
Alejandro just recently graduated from MSA1 Reseda, and he will be attending Cal State University Northridge come fall. He has run three LA Marathons with SRLA, and he is a recipient of the SRLA Scholarship. Alejandro says that running has taught him to achieve the impossible.
I have been in SRLA for three years now, (2018-2020) and I have had the opportunity to run three marathons which have changed my life for the better. The thought of running a marathon seemed impossible to me at first because the thought of running 26.2 just seemed insane.
“Running has changed my life, now I feel like I can achieve anything I put my mind to. ”
Marathon day was approaching soon and I managed to fight off the chest pain. I was soon up and running again, but I had not practiced long distance running in about a month. I decided to run the marathon because I knew that I had come so far, and I was not about to give up this dream of running my first marathon. I took my chances to do what I thought was impossible at first, but I managed to finish the whole marathon in 6 hours and 8 minutes! I was so happy I can’t explain how I felt because I was feeling so many unexplainable emotions.
I remember I was doing so well preparing for my first marathon, but a few weeks before the marathon date, I suddenly fell ill with chest pain. I later found out this was chest inflammation. This ended up preventing me from participating in the 18 mile race. I still tried my best to run in the practices, but it would just hurt my chest even more. I went to the doctor and he gave me medication and prohibited me from running long distances until I felt better. So many things were going through my mind and I even questioned if I could complete the marathon. My coach talked to me and he told me to take it slow, to do what I could. I would still manage to go to every practice even if it was to do stretches and walk a few miles.
Alejandro with his SRLA team.
“It all started off with one mile, little by little the miles picked up and so did my self-esteem.”
I know sometimes we plan things to go our way, but sometimes they don’t go the way we plan. I learned that through this experience. SRLA gave me the opportunity to run the marathon again the next year and I was able to get a time of 4 hours and 44 minutes, beating my old time by more than an hour! Running the marathon again had a huge impact on me because I practiced and I pushed myself. I was determined to set up new goals for the upcoming year which I not only accomplished, but surpassed. I feel like I can accomplish the impossible now. It’s the feeling you get after running your first marathon, you feel that you are more than capable of doing anything in life.
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