Students Run LA (SRLA) is an awesome organization that challenges teenagers to do something less than 1% of the population will ever do – run a 26.2-mile marathon!

Each year, SRLA welcomes 3,000 middle and high school students from 185 schools across LA to train ALONGSIDE their teachers to complete the entire LA Marathon, learning along the way that if they can run a marathon, they can do anything!

Through SRLA’s FREE 7-month marathon-training program, students train WITH their teachers, on average, 10 hours per week. With support from funders like you, SRLA provides students with the resources needed to be successful, including uniforms, shoes, monthly community training races, transportation to the races, and, most importantly, caring adult mentors who guide them every step of the way.

To prepare students for the BIG DAY, SRLA organizes, transports, and pays for participants to enter six community races of progressively longer distances, building from a 5K in September to a 30K in February. Emphasizing completion, not competition, at each race, SRLA creates a supportive, encouraging community. Participants of all shapes, sizes, and athletic abilities have a chance to succeed.

Over 30+ years, our consistent annual results are striking - 99% of students who start the Marathon, finish it.

Our students’ success on the race course translates directly to the classroom:

-- 99% of SRLA seniors who finish the Marathon graduate high school;
-- 94% of these students have plans to attend college in the fall; and
-- 75% of those students are among the first-generation of their families to go to college.

But that’s just the beginning. Kenia, a Marathon finisher from Manual Arts H.S., explains:

If I had not been part of SRLA or run any marathons, I would not have been as confident and ready to take on a challenge like I am now. It made me realize that if I can do a marathon as a teenager, imagine all the other goals and dreams I can fulfill if I believe in myself.