Modesto students take run seriously, especially when it comes to beating principal
Every Friday afternoon at Robertson Road Elementary School in west Modesto, students leave class a little early to line up on the blacktop to do some stretches. As they count through squats and hamstring stretches, the students are excited to do the popular chant that has gained traction as a meme: “six-seven.”
But they are perhaps even more excited for the race that comes after the stretches: beating Principal Guillermo López Romo at running the mile. “We are the Roadrunners, right? So, it really fits with our school name,” Romo said.
Last Friday, sixth-grader Lucas came in first place, beating the principal for the seventh time, with a time of 6 minutes, 46 seconds.
The idea for the mile race against the principal came two years ago when then-third-grader Freddy was having a hard time in school. When he told the principal he liked doing push-ups at home, the pair started a push-up contest when Freddy came to Romo’s office. It helped Freddy stay calmer in the classroom.
“We both got on my floor, we started doing push-ups. I think it was like 10. And then I said, ‘How do you feel?’” Romo said. “He said, ‘I feel a lot better.’”
Soon, the push-up contest left the principal’s office and made its way to the blacktop at recess, where many students also started trying to beat Romo.
After the success of the push-up contests, Romo tried to introduce a schoolwide fitness event when fifth-grade teacher Kendra Shervington invited him to run the mile in the morning with her class.
Romo then put out an invitation to the whole school. “A few teachers started joining, more students, and by the end of the school year last year, everyone was out there running with me,” he said.
During the 2024-25 school year, Romo tried to run with students whenever he could during the school week. But classes had different schedules and not everyone could join every time.
This year, students, teachers and the principal have the 2 p.m. Friday mile run built into their schedules. And Shervington’s students, along with a few others, might take the task of beating the principal most seriously. As one of her fifth-grade students, Dylan, said, they look forward to the mile every Friday “cause we beat the principal.”
And Freddy, Romo said, has definitely matured. “I can’t say it’s all because of push-ups and running, but he’s matured. He’s not the same kid he was in third grade,” Romo said. “He’s special to us because of everything he’s done and everything he’s gone through, and he has really turned it around with a lot of his decisions, so I’m proud of him for that.”
Romo added that Freddy was very surprised when he learned he inspired this new school tradition.
“My small idea, it made everything happen,” Freddy said in an interview with The Bee. He added that he hadn’t told all his friends yet that he was the inspiration, because the mile run was a polarizing topic among them.
This story was originally published November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM.