If you noticed your young son was extremely talented at distance running, how would you handle it?

Oviously you put them into every ultra marathon you can find and run the crap out of them so the parent can post up on the grandpa site called facebook and say look at how awesome I am that I raized this kid.

Why don't you old people just go play bingo and pay bills. This is our world now.

My son showed talent for distance running in elementary school. He thought kids were just getting bored with tag on the playground, but really they were getting tired. I did not tell him that he had inherited distance running talent from me.

I let him find running himself with no pressure from me.

He joined the cross country team in middle school and then later became a state champion as a high school senior in the 3200 in a very competitive state and was one of the best high school runners in the country. He is now a D1 college runner and one of the best in his conference and on track to become an All American one day or even better.

I say hands off. Many well meaning parents pushed their kids when they shouldn't have. Your kid will do well or not at distance running, but he will have a better chance at hitting his potential if you let him find his way.

If everything else in his/her life was otherwise normal, I'd try not to make too much of it. Sometimes kids just need to try things on and hopefully grow out of them.

And do understand that it's not just about them, either. If you find you need help yourself, do reach out. There are people who can help.

Let him run xc and track and hope he is lucky eonough to walk into a program with a good coach and an enthusiastic team.

If the coach and team are poor you will have to try to get him into the right coach/team situation.

If the kid has a good knowledgeable coach he is heading in the right direction so just step back and keep your mouth shut.