Helping Teens in the Long Run : L.A. Marathon: Continuation school students train for the event to discover long-term motivation.

Three years ago, Sylvia Herrera began skipping classes at Canoga Park High one day each week. Within months, she was absent whole weeks at a time.

Then she missed an entire semester.

Like most teen-agers with a history of truancy, Herrera was transferred to a continuation school where specialized help keeps students on an academic track. Still, Herrera wasn’t too keen about ever graduating from high school--until she ran in the L. A. Marathon.

“I never really ran a marathon before,” said Herrera, 18, who plans to graduate this spring from Aliso Continuation High School in Reseda. “I never even ran half a block before. I felt very good about myself after running. I felt proud and knew the feeling would stay with me a long time.”

Herrera is one of 250 students involved in “Students Run L.A.,” a program that helps Los Angeles teen-agers train for the L. A. Marathon to discover long-term motivation. The program originated at Boyle Heights Continuation School and Aliso in 1989 and spread citywide to public high schools this year after a $35,000 grant was secured from the Milken Family Foundation last summer.

“The experience was so rewarding, I tossed the idea out to some kids,” said Harry Shabazian, 32, a Boyle Heights continuation school teacher who ran in his first marathon five years ago. “Now we’ve found that it really gives them a sense of accomplishment and identity--it becomes a positive drive in their lives.

“If they smoked, they gave it up. If they were normally late for class, they began showing up on time. If they had no plans to graduate, they made them. And many have even gone on to college.”

Roberta Weintraub, the L. A. Unified School District board president (who will run in her first marathon this year), heard of the idea and helped secure the Milken grant, which pays for running shoes as well as transportation to training runs.

The students train for six months, sometimes alongside one of 60 teachers who provide leadership. The teachers also will run with the students and an estimated 20,000 others on March 4.

This year, 33 high schools will participate, with half of the students coming from continuation schools.

“This gives an extra . . . dimension to the marathon,” said L. A. Marathon founder and president, Bill Burke. “We’re now looking for horizontal growth for the run. We want to keep our traditional runners but reach into the roots of the community.”

Burke said that he is waiving the standard $20 entry fee for the students. “Once these kids get back into school after having that kind of experience, the enthusiasm is going to transfer to other young people--just like my friends got excited after I ran my first marathon.”

Before 1989, minors were not allowed to run, but Shabazian’s efforts persuaded Burke to allow those under 18 to enter the race, provided consent forms were signed by parents or guardians.

At a recent 10-mile training run at the Hollywood Reservoir, about 100 students filed off four school buses--some dressed in makeshift plastic bag jackets to fend off rain. Others wore Walkmans and took practice runs near the reservoir.

“The most difficult part is making time for the weekly runs,” said Jodah Jensen, 18, who attends Aliso and lives in Northridge. “I was seriously considering quitting around the 18th mile last year. I figured all my friends were ahead of me--until I saw a guy in serious pain who I thought was seriously going to beat the pants off me.”

Paul Trapani, Jensen’s teacher, made a bet with Jensen last year that he could outrun the student by at least an hour in the marathon--or he would wash Jensen’s 1979 Mazda. Trapani ended up washing the car.

“Through this program, students have begun understanding long-term goal-setting and what that means,” said Trapani, 27, who lives in Simi Valley. “They’ve been able to see that making a commitment is easy but difficult to pursue--and by perseverance and investment of time, they’re going to get benefits. That’s not an easy connection to make with high school students. It’s one thing to say it in words, and it’s another to show it with some action.”

The students’ monthly training runs began last October with a “Running Faire” at Cal State Northridge. The day’s events were organized by CSUN kinesiology professor Donald Bethe, who helps coordinate Students Run L.A. The students ran a “fun mile,” then sprinted between several clinics, including those on goal-setting, nutrition and cardiorespiratory training.

Bethe originally considered the marathon “beyond health” because of the lengthy distance, but “these kids really started changing their behavior in ways you couldn’t expect from other programs,” he said. “Everyone tells them they’re losers and they can’t do anything--and so they wear a lot of negative labels. Running a marathon is not typical for them. It’s really changed their perception of themselves.”

As part of their training, the students ran the San Diego half-marathon in December.

Throughout training, the attrition rate for continuation students has remained high. “About 60 percent of them have dropped out of the program,” said Bethe. “We were hoping we would have a higher adherence. The dropout rate from other high schools has been about 25 percent.”

Annette Small, who ran alongside Herrera last year, said the marathon holds a double meaning for most continuation students. “A continuation school is really like a last chance for these kids--a last chance to make a commitment to graduate and complete it,” said Small, 45, who lives in Woodland Hills. “The finish last year was very emotional. We were all in tears every time we looked at Sylvia--it was such a big thing in her life to accomplish this.

“The students have this feeling now--’Hey, I ran a marathon and I can do anything in my life.’ It helps them reach for other goals.”