Who got you into running?

No one in particular. Realized I was the fastest kid on the playground and I should probably join the track team.

my dad. he ran in high school and college and likes running any distance from 5k-marathon. my aunt (his twin sister) was a really good runner and she sadly died 20 or so years ago but they did run a marathon together

I started to like running in 5th grade, then joined XC in 6th grade. at the time I still did baseball, so never tried track until 9th but liked it even more .

whyrun wrote:

For me it was my parents. They just enjoyed running as a hobby and I'd bike along them when they ran...

The bully who was chasing after me.

whyrun wrote:

For me it was my parents. They just enjoyed running as a hobby and I'd bike along them when they ran...

Middle school football coach who was also track coach. He was light Heavy weight boxing champ of Pacific Fleet. He came up to me at lunchtime and said "you running track aren't you?" I was to scared to say no...won few state championships in VA in high school got that div 1 scholarship. He changed my life.

High school coach. He called me up at the end of 8th grade and recruited me to run cross country. Until that moment, I had never imagined that there was such a thing as an organized school running team, or that I was any type of competitive athlete. Totally changed my life - not directly through running (I didn't run in college), but through the shift in mindset.

I was the captain of the high school football team, a two way starter at center and nose tackle, but I weighed 165 pounds and was playing against guys 100 pounds heavier than me and was tired of all the bs that surrounded playing football and wanted to focus on getting into a good university, so I quit. The coach told me "you'll come crawling back begging to be let back on the team, the quitters always do". I went home and called up the cross country coach to see if it would be alright to train with his team just to keep in shape - he said fine, no problem - practice runs started out right by the football field where the football coach could see me and get angry - he liked to shout at the team about quitters when I ran by. We won the cross country state championship, the football team won a game or two, and I've been running ever since.

Mostly through off-season running for college soccer and through contact with the XC team. My soccer team in college had pretty bad chemistry, and I ended up being pretty friendly with a lot of the runners. I started going for easy 4-6 milers in the morning, even during soccer season, and I'd bump into the XC folks out on the trails. Eventually I joined them for some Sunday long runs, and I registered for a marathon in the summer, which I ran just to finish. When my senior season of soccer ended, I pretty much knew I was done with that sport as a participant, and I started putting in a lot more miles. It sort of snowballed from there.

My friend who ran track and played football.

I mostly tried track because of my interest in getting faster for football.

Me. I have always run since I was little. I remember in like 4th grade I would challenge people to races and lose but I just liked the running. My losing streak has continued throughout my entire career, with a few high points scattered in. I never raced because it was a sport. I raced because running was a thing I did and there was a sport or it.

I work a sedentary job so I am forced because of my health.

i mostly found it on my own. neither of my parents were/are runners. a few of my aunts and uncles ran in college but they didn't have much influence on me. my dad's cousin who we used to see a fair bit was a 2:24 marathon guy in the early-mid 80s which i always thought was cool. but he barely ran a step from roughly '85 to like 2015 (he's tearing up the local 60+ age group category now.) anyway, there was an ambient awareness of running as a sport growing up but i wouldn't say it was strong. up until high school i always thought golf would be my main sport. it helps that there was a strong inflection point somewhere around the end of 8th grade where my modest running prowess absolutely skyrocketed past my terrible hand-eye coordination and athleticism that always hampered me in the ball sports.

whyrun wrote:

For me it was my parents. They just enjoyed running as a hobby and I'd bike along them when they ran...

My friend Richard.

He decided in his senior year of HS to run cross country to have a sport on his record. I decided as his friend to join the team too. After summer practices, he quit but I decided to keep at it.

I struggled during the summer and ran/walked my first practice race in 27:57. By the end of that season, I was able to do 5k in 22:02. Not blazing by any stretch, but I learned I could improve.

I did track the following spring and with my grades was one of nine nominees for a Union -Tribune scholar athlete award from my high school.

I'm nobody from nowhere with nothing but because of Richard, I'll at least have that.

whyrun wrote:

For me it was my parents. They just enjoyed running as a hobby and I'd bike along them when they ran...

Great, I was always wondering about that when I see little kids on their bikes.

Now I know, they all will end up on letsrun.

Maybe I should wear my 55 letsrun shirts more often.

I didn’t start running seriously until my older brother took me on a run with a team he trained with in the summer. It was full of good looking girls. I was sold.

"Pure Hate"

I didn't get seriously into running until after I got my first permanent job as a professor at age 28. One of the senior faculty, 20 years older, was an avid runner who cajoled several of his junior colleagues into it. At one point my department of about 20 faculty had four sub-3 hour marathoners. I ended up the fastest with a PR of 2:42:50--and the only female.

I was 25 and a pretty chunky dude..never really athletic at all.

My friend promised me he would buy me a Quarter Pounder Meal from McDonalds, but I had to run the whole way there. It was a just short of a mile away.

I failed miserably.

The next day I failed miserably again..but I made it further than the day before.

A few days later I succeeded and my friend did indeed buy me that QP meal.

I'm 43 now. Still not fast. Still not ridiculously fit. I do absolutely love this sport (activity/whatever) and can't imagine my life now without it.

Did middle school track, hated it and swore I’d never do it again

When I played freshman football I would run intervals and get my ass whooped by the very developed and strong seniors, but I could still hold my own

Then when we’d run the mile I’d usually be like 5-7 depending on how it was that day

Everyone said I should do track so I did it, screwed around and walked at most practices and ran 2:39 on a flat track

No one, I suddenly discovered one day that I love running after telling myself all my life until then that running was so unenjoyable and boring a form of exercise.