Oakland Students Run in Los Angeles Marathon
Posted in Healthy Living Today, the newsletter of the Nutrition Services of the Alameda County Public Health Department.
February 2007
Have you run a marathon before? Spencer Hooper, Executive Director, Students Run Oakland (SRO), has run many, and he doesn’t run them alone.
Each Fall, SRO, which is modeled after Students Run LA, recruits about 75 youth from Fremont, Castlemont, MetWest, and Oakland Tech High Schools to train enough so that, by early March, they can run the LA Marathon. Hooper says many of the youth are lured in with an all-expenses-paid trip. But the physical exam they must pass, the rigorous training they must commit to and complete five days a week, as well as the grades they must keep above a 2.5 average, thin the group to a mere third of those who sign up.
After passing the physical exam – which fewer students pass each year because of health problems such as diabetes – the participants receive lots of encouragement throughout the school year. Students have free access to medical and mental health care at Children’s Hospital’s teen clinic. Also, students receive assistance from volunteer running coaches, personal trainers, and yoga and spin-class instructors – who include a professional coach as well as past participants who are now college students.
SRO was selected to receive Measure A funds from Alameda County Public Health Department’s Nutrition Services for the last two years. The funds are for general operating expenses, covering items such as transportation – one of their bigger expenses. Also, the funds have allowed them to keep expanding. Nutrition Services has partnered with SRO to provide nutrition seminars for the students. Topics covered included the basics of a healthy diet, the importance of complex carbohydrates, label reading, eating and exercise, and water intake.
And so, maybe not surprisingly, it’s not the big day in LA that Hooper finds most rewarding – it’s the participants’ graduations in the Spring. “Last year, we had twelve seniors participate [in the program],” says Hooper. “All graduated from high school and ten went to college. Some of the people I’d known since they were in 9th grade, and I had serious concerns about them making it through high school.”
Hooper believes it is the commitment and then follow-through that helps participants succeed in life. “If you don’t see something through,” he says, “you’re going to stay where you are. I run with the kids all the time. Some of these kids never ran in their life. I talk with them. I say, ‘I bet you thought you couldn’t do this two months ago. You can go to college too.’”
What’s in store for the organization? Two years from now, SRO intends to consistently support 100 kids running in the marathon each year with community support, according to Hooper. Longer term, SRO plans to organize a training program at each Oakland public school.
In the meantime, SRO has enjoyed some fame. A documentary, “Runners High,” has been made, following four youth who train for a marathon through the organization; it has been aired at several film festivals, the Grand Lake Theatre, and now at marathons around the country. Find out for yourself how many of the youth make it to the marathon – the film is now on DVD!