Accumulating over 13.1 miles and nearly 30,000 steps, seven students—and two teachers—completed the GO! St.Louis half marathon Saturday, April 9.

“It’s always been a goal of mine to run a half marathon,” senior Anthony Carroll said. “This was a way to do it with school in an organized setting and, it’s a lot easier to train with that constant motivation.”

Carroll was joined by senior Spencer Aalfs, junior Kathryn Bonzon, sophomores Jane Fuller, Vaishali Shah, Kaleigh Stanfield and freshman Sophia Pellegrino, who all trained for the half marathon by participating in the Students on the Go club at West.

“Mrs. Hashley and Mr. Troutier were the teacher sponsors,” Aalfs said. “We would do some running during the week, which is optional, but then there are runs on Saturdays which were building up in distance that you had to go to.”

Aalfs, along with Fuller, Shah and Pellegrino, all also participated in cross country in the fall.

“The half marathon was less pressure than cross country,” Shah said. “You were just going at your own pace and you weren’t really going for a time, you were just doing it to have fun. Whereas, in cross country, it’s way more competitive when you are trying to catch that girl in front of you.”

Aalfs, who ran cross country all four years of high school, experienced a difference between cross country races and the half marathon.

“I was surprised how relaxed I was,” Aalfs said. “I wasn’t taking it as seriously as I would a cross country race because I just felt like I could have fun. And there were a lot of people there just doing it for fun. I was pretty excited.”

With a time of 1:55, Aalfs was the first student from West to cross the finish of the half marathon.

“My goal was 1:40. So I didn’t quite make my goal because my legs were hurting so much,” Aalfs said. “But I still made it under two hours and I was still pretty happy for my first one.”

Despite four of the students having participated in cross country, all the student runners were registered as recreational runners for the half marathon, so they began the race at the back of the starting line.

“It’s a little nerve racking going into the race because we were all the way back in corral G. It was such a long walk and you see so many people, but once you started running and got into your rhythm you just locked in,” Carroll said.

According to GO! St. Louis, over 25,000 participants ran in the activities over April 9 – 10.

“The most memorable part of the half marathon was the start of the race,” Carroll said. “When we were all together, before anyone spread out, the whole GO! St. Louis group was together. It was just such a good amount of energy and everyone was really excited.”

The half marathon took place across downtown St. Louis, allowing citizens in support of the half marathon and the 25,000 runners to cheer on the runners, providing them with lasting memories of the race.

“The best part was just going along the course; there were people with signs that said funny things and everyone was cheering and it was just cool seeing so many people,” Pellegrino said.