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# Running with the law
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/running-with-the-law/
- Published: 2002-03-11T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:07:06.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Santa Monica students finish LA Marathon*

*By CHRIS YOUNG Special to the Daily Press*

Some teenagers run away from the police. In Santa Monica, they run with them.

Twelve Santa Monica kids ages 12-19 ran the LA Marathon eight days ago under the training of the Santa Monica Police Department’s Police Activities League.

Joking around with each other as they compared their finishing times, the runners seemed to be part of an extended family rather than a motley crew of teenagers.

“I thought it would be really cool to do,” said Lizette Urena, 14\. “Teens like us, they don’t do these kinds of things. But we’re dedicated. We can do that.”

PAL staffer Don Condon started the training program four years ago so kids could lose weight and stay in shape. Then somebody suggested they all run a marathon.

“I said ‘I’ll do it if you do it,’” recalls Condon. “They called my bluff. And now here we are.”

The group trained three times a week for two hours from September until the marathon March 3\. To address the students’ busy schedules with sports, school work and extracurricular activities, they all had to commit to two of the three weekly runs.

“I felt like quitting during the end of basketball season,” said Lizette Urena.

> “But everybody encouraged me.”

Gema Santiago’s cross-country coach told her she could do either cross-country or the marathon. The marathon would take the fun out of running, the coach said.

“I found out later cross-country took the fun out of running, not the other way around,” Santiago said. “I don’t like running for competition, just for fun. Running is like meditating for me.”

Condon is proud that during the four years of PAL’s running program, every kid who started the marathon finished it. And five of them have run marathons in the past.

For Diego Godinez, Simon Hanna, and Bryant Villa, the LA Marathon was their second race. Leon Caballero and Chris Villa have done it four times — ever since the PAL training program began.

“People say I’m energetic, that I should use it constructively, so I ran a marathon,” said Bryant Villa, 12, the youngest to run the race.

By experiencing the event and enduring the grueling training that led to it, kids learned teamwork and leadership.

“Since I’m the oldest runner, I’ve got to be responsible with my actions,” Caballero said. “I can’t do something bad, like tell a slower runner they’re not as fast as me, because it gets passed on — it’s a bad influence.”

During the race, parents and other well-wishers lined the track about every five miles, keeping the rest stations supplied with water and snacks.

The kids said the encouragement helped them cross the finish line.

“I thought it would be hard, like four or five hours of pain,” said Santiago, 19\. “But it was easier seeing people support you along the route.”

The youth center that brought the teenagers together, PAL, is for kids ages 6-17, and staffed by the Santa Monica Police Department. Its mission is to foster positive relationships between the youth, police, and the community through steady mentoring and a variety of activities.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/031102-03_01.jpg)

to the Daily Press These students, part of the Santa Monica Police Department’s Police Activities League, all finished the LA Marathon last week. (Photo: Chris Young/Special)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 11, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/031102.pdf?ref=smdp.com)