The COVID-19 Impact
On March 8th 2020, SRLA students completed the Los Angeles Marathon, just days later LA County went into a mandatory stay at home order due to the spread of COVID-19. What was expected to be just a 2-week shut down turned into months of challenges. Students Run LA was able to adapt its season to continue remotely during the COVID-19 Pandemic; however, the impact of the disease on our program and participants is unmistakable.
Leaders uploaded this image, to indicate that a student had missed an event due to COVID-19.
As the SRLA 20 - 21 season came to a close, SRLA Leaders and students filled out surveys reflecting on their experience. The immense impact of COVID-19 on our communities is apparent in the results.
71% of SRLA groups reported that at least one student became ill with COVID-19 during the course of the season. Even one student becoming ill was major hurdle for our group leaders; both because the disruptive effects of a COVID-19 illness could back track a student’s training for weeks or even months and because it meant the possibility of community spread.
The impact of COVID-19 on our students’ families is even greater, with 75% of SRLA groups reporting that at least one family member living with an SRLA student became ill with COVID-19. The illness of a family member could be extremely disruptive to an SRLA student’s training and academics. Caroline Rhude, one of the SRLA leaders at Hamilton High School, explains “Some students had their entire family struck ill with the Covid virus and had to drop out of school to support with jobs.”
One barrier to training this season was the very real fear of infection when leaving the house. 77% of the SRLA groups reported that parents were concerned about COVID-19 in their neighborhoods and did not want their children outside. This led to some creative solutions for students to stay on track with training, including timed indoor workouts and formulas to convert stationary bike miles to running miles.
The story of the SRLA 20 - 21 season was really a tale of three seasons. From September to November, while our first three events of the season were taking place, 43% of groups were completing their weekend training runs virtually, 23% were meeting in person, and 34% were taking a hybrid approach (meeting sometimes in person and sometimes virtually). During this time, many leaders were figuring out a meeting approach the worked best for their students and their school community.
Some students completed home workouts when the virus prevented them from going for training runs in their neighborhood.
“At the beginning of the season everything was fine, although it was different. But after Thanksgiving almost everyone around us were sick, our team fell apart for a few months, it became extremely hard to maintain momentum.” - Laura Valenzuela, SRLA Leader at PUC Community High School.
From December to January, Los Angeles experienced a massive surge in Covid-19 cases which lead to stricter stay at home orders. During this time, many SRLA groups were forced to shift their training approach: 75% of groups were completing their training runs virtually, 17% were taking a hybrid approach and just 9% met in person.
“For part of the season we could supposedly meet as a group but with such arduous, unfeasible COVID constraints, it essentially precluded us from training as a group. Independent training for the first few months was manageable. But as we approached double-digit mileage it became rough. There were many factors, but the combination of distance learning, solo training, college prep, work schedules for some, emotional and mental strain, and students &/or family contracting COVID, it was brutal.” - Denise Miller, SRLA Leader, Carter High School
During the end of the SRLA season (February to March), vaccines became available in Los Angeles County and the surge from earlier in the winter began to ease. This allowed more groups to resume meeting in person. During February and March 61% of groups were meeting virtually, 22% were taking a hybrid approach, and 17% were meeting in person. The SRLA Cross the Finish Line Challenge, our final event of the season, which took place on March 20th and 21st, had the most in-person participation of the season with 43% of groups meeting in-person, 34% meeting completely virtually, and 24% taking a hybrid approach.
“The Culminating Challenge was our school's first in-person student event of the entire year. This was a crucial first step back towards normal.” - Brian Pfeffer, SRLA Leader, Animo South LA
This season presented our students with some great challenges, however with the support of their leaders, their teammates, and their communities they were able to persevere.
“We all have our personal problems that may have arisen due to the pandemic but having a team to always be there to support us was significant to me. I am so grateful for the opportunity to run with SRLA.” - 8th grader at Griffith Middle School
YOU CAN keep SRLA running, no matter what challenges come our way
Donate, volunteer, sponsor or run with our students to make a difference with SRLA.
For many groups, the SRLA Cross the Finish Line Challenge was the first time they met in-person all season.