Teacher uses Got2Run to inspire her Carpentersville students

A fourth-grade bilingual teacher with Barrington Unit District 220 is sharing her love of running with her students - and, in the process, is creating a whole new culture of fitness and empowerment.

Marisela Guzman and her colleague, Anabel Morales, will lead a team of more than 30 students from Sunny Hill School in Carpentersville at 8 a.m. Saturday, May 21, at the annual Got2Run for Education event in Arlington Heights.

It will be the school's third time participating in the race after sending just one student in 2014.

The course weaves students, parents and faculty members on a 2.62 "micro-marathon" through the Scarsdale and Scarsdale Estates neighborhoods of Arlington Heights.

Jeff Chamberlain, race director, expects this year's turnout to be its biggest, with an estimated 1,750 participants coming from approximately 165 schools in more than 80 surrounding communities.

Of those schools, Sunny Hill might one of the least affluent, with more than 90 percent of its student population considered low income. In fact, cost was one of Guzman's biggest obstacles in involving her students. Most could not afford the $15 entry fee. Yet she persisted, and found business sponsors to cover their registration.

"Running a race is not a cultural routine in our community," Guzman says. "We realized that we needed to mold this new generation of students and their families into participating in important community events."

She and Morales began to call parents personally to convince them to let their children participate. Once parents learned that proceeds from the race - raised by their students - would be earmarked to return to Sunny Hill, they quickly came on board.

Last fall, their running club, Tigers on the Run, began training for the second year, meeting twice a week with students before school. As winter set in, they cut back to just once a week, but they kept running.

With proceeds from last year's run, the club purchased pedometers for students to track their miles. Guzman and Morales also devised an incentive program, awarding charms for every milestone reached.

"(Running) has appealed to all kinds of students," Morales says. "Some have found that they're really good at it, while others have found it to be the perfect activity to fit in. They're really flourishing."

Both teachers say that students arrive at early morning practices with enthusiasm and that they can see how much their stamina is growing and how much more energized they are during the day.

"Some of our fifth-graders have mentioned they are interested in pursuing cross-country in middle school and high school," Guzman says. "The light in these children's eyes is one that we could never have put there."

Guzman herself is a good mentor. She has run multiple 5Ks and a half marathon, all for good causes, and is currently training to run the Chicago Marathon to benefit St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.

Her latest race took place Saturday, when she lined up at Chicago's Soldier Field with more than 4,000 runners for the Cinco de Miler, which benefitted the 100 Club of Chicago for surviving spouses and children of first responders killed in the line of duty.

The Got2Run for Education event may not be quite as dramatic, but for third- through fifth-graders it makes an impact.

"The whole idea of training for a race and raising money for your school is motivating," Guzman says. "For the first time, our students are seeing running as something they can do for fun. It's social and it helps with fitness.

"When they cross that finish line, we won't be measuring speed," she adds, "but their motivation - and excitement."