What non-endurance sport would a distance runner be best at?

Golf, darts, wake surfing,

I did running alongside football. Any contact sport or sport with a lot of turning and twisting risks injury. I tore mcl ligament in the knee. My advice especially if your body isnt conditioned for a new exercise, take it slow or else your running will suffer.

Kayaking, swimming, cycling, sup boarding, something like that is least risk.

climbing if you can develop a good strength to mass ratio?

This...I'm not a climber by any means but at least once a year I like to grab the railings of the 2nd level of the playground equipment and pull myself up and over (at least once). Not sure if it impresses my kids or they think I'm weird, but at least in my mind I maintain a feeling of decent upper body strength to weight despite it lacking.

It's not just a pull up etc, they're vertical bars so I have to peg board style raise my hands to bring myself up an extra 5' and then I can grab the top rail and get over.

any decent runner will probably have a below-average upper body strength compared to a normal member of the public (shoulders, arms etc). So unless you want to go full Ryan Hall, running would not be a good move.

To answer OP's question I think many would say cycling (leg strength, Lactate Threshold training, Vo2 etc) but I think inline skating and maybe ice skating if people have the knee tendons for it

You mention soccer, basketball, and tennis in your post. Your thread title specifically states “non-endurance sport.” Those are not non-endurance sports.

During a soccer match a player will cover 7-10 miles. Some of it is an all out sprint, some a jog, and some a walk. Players are spent at the end of a match. Plenty of soccer players end up being really good runners from the sprints to distance events.

Basketball players don’t cover nearly as much as soccer players do in a game but it’s still about 3 miles. Again, with varied speeds.

Tennis players will cover 4-5 miles in a long match with most of it being short sprints.

Others here have mentioned cycling and swimming. Those are definitely endurance sports. Cycling is probably more grueling and demanding than distance running when it is done at extreme efforts for hours in a row.

I guess that the OP should clarify what a “non-endurance sport” actually is in their mind.

I think Hobbs is being extremely modest comparing his 5.14c to a 4:12 mile. To put in perspective, the world's first 5.14 was put up in 1985 (Punks in the Gym 5.14a, Mt Arapiles, Australia) and 14c is magnitudes harder than 14a. Grades are into the 15's now but no one in history had climbed a 14c until 1990 (Hubble, Raven Tor, UK). So this '4:12' equivalent hadn't been achieved by anyone until the 90's.

I know climbing was a bit of a niche sport at the time with lower participation levels, but 14c is a phenomenal achievement no matter which way you look at it. Most of us in our prime could probably bust out a few hundred metres or more at 4:12 pace, but I doubt there is anyone here (myself included) could even get off the ground on a 14c, even highly skilled climbers. He's a beast.

Sport should be what you find to be fun. That way, you can make it a lifetime hobby. Weightlifting is a good compliment to running. So are cycling and swimming. All of the sports you listed require a team or a buddy. That may or may not be a consideration. They also require specific skillsets that you might not have.

Find something you enjoy.

Wrestling and combat sports. UFC fighter Charles Johnson ran collegiate cross country/mid distance at a small D-1 school. Nate/Nick Diaz's fighting style was so aerobic centric they were running 90 minute trail runs 3-4x a week.

semoredhawks.com

Charles Johnson - Track and Field

Charles JohnsonDistance - 2013 Cross Country: Competed in five events in 2013...Turned in a top-8k time at the SIUE Cross County Challenge (9/13) where he placed

Link:semoredhawks.com/sports/track-and-fiel...

Lower level professional fighting, the two most important qualities you can have are grappling/wrestling and stamina. Runners are pretty damn tough, this also helps I'm sure but I'll pass on getting punched in the face.

Colby Covington regularly competes in trail races as part of his training as well.

The question was "non-endurance," so running or cycling or paddling or swimming, and even climbing are out.

Bowling.

Ultra runner extraordinaire Park Barner took that route after his running days wound down.

It would depend on your individual skillset.

Soccer would be a good bet for most runners, but if you don't have the coordination to play it, you'll still suck. I played intramural soccer one year in college, I was by far the fastest player in the league. I could easily run past everyone, get to the ball first, than immediately kick it out of bounds, or pass it to the other team, other times I would just miss the ball completely.

For me personally, hockey is the only sport outside of running that I'm not terrible at.

Golf. Nick Willis has a pretty smooth swing. With the modern equipment, a good golf swing is all about generating club head speed. You do not have to be built like Bryson or Koepka to be able to deliver top club head speed. In fact, some of the longest players on the tour are built more like runners than football/baseball players. Joaquin Neimann is 6' and 150 lbs. He was ranked in the top 40 for driving distance when he was on the PGA tour. Will Zalatoris is stick thin. Cam Smith dropped a lot of weight in order to improve his game. Being thin means that you can generate a lot of rotational speed between your hips and arms without having to have all the muscle mass of the big guys.

Ultimate Disc, Nordic Skiing, and high altitude mountaineering climbing.

Bowling 🎳

Get yourself an afro like Kyle Troup