By: Jose Gonzalez

This summer, many students from Phoenix Military Academy were involved in programs that fascinated them, while others went on vacation to experience new things. Juniors William Hernandez and Aldo Rojas  had tough and challenging summers  because they were preparing for the Chicago Marathon on October 9, 2016.

Not many students would put their free time aside in order to accomplish the goal of completing one marathon, let alone two. Hernandez, however, used his time this summer to become one of the only cadets from PMA to run a marathon twice. He had tiring practices that he took very seriously. In order to do this marathon he showed his true commitment and dedication to running.

“I run every day of the week in order to prepare. I do not run Sundays, but Saturdays are the most important days. It’s the longest run of the week,” said Hernandez.

Several Phoenix cadets ran the half marathon this summer with CARA’s Road Scholars program, but only two continued with Students Run Chi.  Students Run Chi continued the runners training preparing them for the marathon. Ms. Fairchild helped the students train for both races and completed the the marathon alongside Phoenix’s alumni Cristian Uribe and Dennis Sebastian, completing his second marathon.

Hernandez was proud to do something most cadets would not challenge themselves to do. As one of the runners to represent PMA, he took this marathon very seriously.

“It feels great knowing that Aldo and I are the only two juniors or cadets doing the marathon. We do our best to represent PMA and do well,” said Hernandez.

He wants to be able to do more marathons and explained how this will help him continue running. He plans to do more running after high school as well.

“Of course I want to keep running after high school. My goal is to run the Boston Marathon soon and the Olympic Marathon trials. I will continue pushing to complete these goals,” said Hernandez.

On October 9, 2016, Rojas and Hernandez ran 26.2 miles together and crossed the finish line side by side.  Their time was 3 hours 26 min and 55 seconds.