Teens ready for L.A. Marathon
Chris Schreiber
Like hundreds of UCLA students, I had a 1994 Los Angeles
Marathon T-shirt, but I gave it away after wearing it about a dozen
times. Felt guilty.
See, I didn’t run the L.A. Marathon last year. I knew the race
manager. He hooked me up.
I mention it because most of the students in those shirts are
hoaxing you. Next Monday, more will be pulling the wool over your
eyes, but six Bruins will not. They will be road-weary veterans of
the race.
Robin Caine, a freshman English student who will be running her
first marathon, simply hopes "they won’t have to scrape my body up
off the street."
She need not worry  the group she trains with has a 97
percent finishing rate. Not bad for a bunch of teenagers.
And those teenagers have surprised more than just themselves in
establishing that mark. She runs in a group called Students Run
L.A., which is exactly what many of these kids might be doing in
the not-too-distant future.
The program targets at-risk high school students from around the
Southland, teaching them the value of setting goals  "even if
it’s a marathon," says Stephen Thomas, the UCLA senior who started
the chapter on campus this year.
Thomas heard about the organization from a friend at Cal State
Northridge and decided to begin a group in Westwood.
The decision was music to the ears of the group’s four founders,
high school teachers Harry Shabazian and Paul Trapani, CSUN
Kinesiology professor Don Bethe, and principal Eric Spears.
"We were  and are  really excited to have the
college kids running with them, because they’ve become role
models," Spears says of the natural consequence of their
involvement.
And make no mistake about it, the respect is mutual. "It’s
almost ridiculous the rapport you can build with someone in a
10-mile race," Thomas says.
Ten miles is, of course, down the line. Besides donations of
running shoes, race-fee waivers and free transportation, the group
goes out of its way to properly train its members.
The group starts in September with a run even the most
out-of-shape couch potato could finish: a one-lap quarter-mile.
In the months that follow, training takes you to a 5K, then a
10K, then a 10-miler, then two half-marathons, and ultimately, the
Big Daddy.
"I may worry because I’ve never run one," Caine says, "but the
program definitely prepares you."
It’s not just the kids, you see, who are surprised at their
resolve.
"There were points that I worried I couldn’t do it," says senior
Jerry Weitzman, who had more than just his doubts to overcome. "I’m
trying to prove that if a guy with asthma and a beat-up body after
four years of college can do it, anyone can."
And that ‘anyone,’ usually a young high school kid, does it
almost all the time. "I tell you, it’s amazing to see a little kid
whip your butt in a race," Weitzman says.
The results of the program  which has blossomed into a
1,300-strong organization  have been remarkable.
"These kids have met the challenge," Spears, the principal of
Highland Park High School, says. "They’re living history. Given the
opportunity to succeed, with structure and support, they have. They
just do it."
They do it so often, in fact, Nike would be proud  and not
just for the races.
"We’ve got graduation rates of over 90 percent of the students
involved compared to 58 percent normally," Spears says. "You see an
improvement in attitude, an improvement in attendance, and an
improvement in the family."
And for the seven UCLA students, it’s an experience they won’t
soon forget. Weitzman already has plans for triathlons in his
future.
Not everything has gone perfectly for Thomas, who laments this
group’s inability to put in more time with the kids, whom they’ve
seen mainly at the races.
"Because it’s really a busy group, it’s been hard to see them as
much as we want," he says. "But if the group continues on at UCLA,
hopefully it will grow and it won’t be as much of a problem."
And therein lies Thomas’ last dilemma: finding someone to take
over the program after he graduates.
"We want to pass it off and get it bigger," he says. "Some
people worry that it’s more than they can do, but it’s not."
And that much seems true. Weitzman is an asthmatic. Thomas runs
on a surgically reconstructed knee after an ACL tear. Caine just
ran track in high school.
If they can do it, and they’ll all tell you, anyone can do
it.
Are you interested in Students Run L.A.? Contact Thomas at
208-CAVE for more information.