MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Yesterday marked the LA Marathon. It also marked a celebration for a city still recovering from wildfires. Elise Hu has the story of one fire victim who used marathon training to heal.
ELISE HU, BYLINE: They say that tackling the marathon distance of 26.2 miles is a mental test more than anything else.
ABEL RIVERA: I got one more step, just one more step. Afterwards, is one - another step. So that's my motivation.
HU: But training matters too. Fifteen-year-old Abel Rivera has trained with his running club from Pasadena's Blair High School for nine months.
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HU: He expected the run - starting from LA's Dodger Stadium and winding through downtown, past city hall, Hollywood landmarks and down Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive - to be painful.
ABEL: I think the first 10 miles I'll probably be all right. And then from mile, like, 11 to 12, I'll be struggling. No, I'll say 20 to 24, I'll probably be hurting a lot.
HU: But running is the kind of pain he chooses. On January 7, when the deadly Eaton Fire tore through his Altadena neighborhood and burned down his home, that kind of pain is something he never chose.
ABEL: I lost the house and, like, not really the way I wanted to. I didn't want to leave it behind that way.
HU: He lost other things too, including the medal he earned last year, the first time he ran the LA Marathon. Many of Abel's classmates also lost their homes in the fires. Eric Glenn coaches the running team and said they had to pause training in January.
ERIC GLENN: The smoke was just too much. You can't run in the smoke.
HU: But they got back on track, and 19 students entered the race.
ABEL: I don't know. Like, it just feels like we were doing it for our city, you know?
HU: Abel started his marathon run just past 7 in the morning and ran side-by-side with his mother for the first half. By 1:30 in the afternoon, after about six hours of running, Abel Rivera...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Welcome to your finish line.
HU: ...Crossed the finish line to earn his second LA Marathon finisher medal.
ABEL: It feels like a milestone. And running the marathon's nostalgic. It reminds me of a time before I had the fire.
HU: His mom, Lupe Melchor, finished about 50 minutes later.
LUPE MELCHOR: We didn't finish together, but we did it.
HU: Glenn waited for all his students at the race's end.
GLENN: And they just did a hard thing while going through a hard thing, you know? And it's really a testament to their resilience, and it's super inspirational.
HU: Clean up and rebuilding is only getting started in Los Angeles. Abel and his mother are still without a permanent home, but they aren't without hope.
ABEL: I feel really good about myself, that no matter what, I always push through.
HU: A reminder of resilience and the capacity to keep going, even when it really hurts.
For NPR News, I'm Elise Hu, in Los Angeles. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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