Teen Places Second Overall at Spirit of Giving 5K

Some people were just born to run. They have an innate talent that when developed through training leads to great success. Marc Alania is one of those people.

Marc is a 14 year old freshman at Davis High School in Modesto. He is also training for the Modesto Marathon with Teens Run Modesto.

At Saturday’s Spirit of Giving 5K race in Downtown Modesto, Marc surprised everyone by finishing second out of a pack of over 850 runners. The only person to beat his time of 16:44:50 was running legend Jon Olsen.

Having a student place in a race with cash prizes posed a unique problem. High school and college athletic programs prohibit runners from receiving any sort of monetary compensation for their efforts. This meant that Marc couldn’t accept the $50 cash prize for a second place finish.

Instead, Marc decided to donate the prize to the Teens Run Modesto program. He asked that the money go towards the purchase of a new pair of running shoes for a deserving student.

Teens Run Modesto would like to extend a warm thank you to Marc for his generosity. We look forward to training with him to reach him goal of completing the 2013 Modesto Marathon.