When you look at your mom and dad, does it make sense you were a distance runner?

My dad played college basketball and was a multi-sport athlete in high school. He wasn't a bad runner for a basketball player, ran 7.5 laps in under 12 minutes.

His dad was a very good sprinter in high school for those days, he ran low 10's for the 100 yard dash, while his mom was a very good baseball player as a kid and golfer throughout her life (I know, not a sport).

My mom's side doesn't really have any history of athletes, although I wouldn't qualify them as totally unathletic.

My brother plays college soccer and cracked 12:00 in the team's 3200m "Cooper Test" weighing 204 pounds. So all in all I wouldn't say me being a distance runner is a huge surprise, that said it wasn't the first sport I was passionate about.

My dad ran 4:31 for the mile in high school.

My mom was on the pom-pom squad.

My uncle ran track was good, but quit after sophomore year.

My other uncle played college basketball.

All my cousins on my mother's side are very athletic.

So, I guess it makes a lot of sense that I ran.

the reason I started running at age 11 was in order to avoid being like my parents!

My dad played football through high school, and then wasn't particularly active after that.

My mom was always pretty active, but nothing really organized.

I didn't even know cross country existed as a sport until I saw them running around during my freshman year while playing soccer.

I've always just been very competitive and active and eventually through some weird circumstances I ended up running and fell in love with it.

Not at all. Nobody in my family has ever been a runner or done anything athletic.

My father was a 4x all American in college for distance running. However I did not know this until I was a senior in HS. He quit running the day he graduated (ran for a full ride scholorship and as soon as that was over had no need to run anymore). Now he golfs and has a 4 handicap at age 56.

My mother was an all state volley ball player in HS and in College played tennis. Still plays tennis and is one of more competitive 56 year olds in the North West.

I was brought up living sports, both parents are very active people and skinny as rails. My extended family consists of farmers on both sides. My two sisters ran and were highly successful in college, as I.

It was no suprise my sisters and I ran and ran fast. We had good body make up and our HS coaches had a gravy train for eight years as the three of us went through the program.

My parents never pushed us to run, actually my father used to say all the time "you don't have to run, only run if you want to." I loved him for that. No pressure, just do what you want.

By the way, I never achieved the same success as he did in running (I was 2x all American, my sisters combined for 5 all American honors), nor as a family man (I am divorced), nor in the work place (he was CFO of a fortune 500 company before retiring)... some shoes are too large to fill.

No known athletes on my father's or mother's side of the family, though I had an uncle who enjoyed archery when he was a kid (as did I--it was my first competitive activity).

So no real wonder that I sucked as a runner. I was closer to national standard as a walker, even though I couldn't really racewalk. Eventually I found that my dad had been marched a long, long way, in the dead of winter, from his POW camp in eastern Germany toward the Western Allies (presumably so the guards wouldn't have to surrender to the Soviets). He did that on basically no food and weighed maybe 130# (at 6-2) when he was liberated, but he made it--maybe I got that from him.

[Yes, I know that neither archery nor walking counts as a sport on this board.]

No, I really ought to be a daily pot smoker and alcoholic.

Of course, for all my running accomplishments I might as well be a drunk pothead.

My dad has pr's of 8:32 3k, 14:32 5K, 25:00 8k, 30:16 10k, 1:10:05 1/2 marathon, and 4:12 mile.

My aunt had an 800 pr of 2:12 in college

My mom had a 5:12 mile, 17:58 5k, 37:39 10k, 3:14 marathon boston qualifier

so yeah It kinda makes sense im a 6'2 145 lb freak.

Lets see...

My Dad had hair to his a** in HS, protested to get a more friendly locker room or something like that, and I'm pretty sure he toked it up SOME. Never went to college, never played sports. He is AWESOME though; outright hilarous, all my teammates love him. He is now 6'2"-ish and a bit over weight, but ears 6 figures from working his a** off and being tough for not going to college. (but he is working on his weight, and when I graduate HS this year my present to him is going to be a membership in the Walk Run Acomplishment Program at the running store I work at).

My Mom, like my dad, never did sports, but apparently really like to run...she jsut never got involved though because they moved so much (military kid like my Dad). Didn't go to college, but got an Assoc. Degree somewhere...

Quit working in like '99 or '00, gained some weight, now trying to lose it with my Dad. Really proud of her; present to her will be the same thing.

So really, I don't think I shold be a [good?] runner. My Dad's family is all obese adn lazy. But the one explainatory thing could be the fact that my Mom's family consists of a bunch of bean poles who have worked Kentucky farms until the most recent generation....maybe that is it.

My generation seems to be rather full of the endurace athletes, for my cousin is a National class swimmer and has won a bunch of Junior Olympics and an assortment of other random National Titles.

My smallest sibling outweighs me by a good 75 pounds - and I have 10 siblings. My shortest brother has me by six inches in height, and I'm not too short at 5-9. They all take after my parents, so, no, it does not make sense that I'm a runner. If I didn't otherwise look so much like the rest of them, I'd wonder if there was a hospital mix-up or if maybe I was adopted.

No way. My dad smoked since he was 15. He was a writer and jazz musician; never did sports. My mom smoked, was an art major, into antiques and the arts; never cared for sports and would read a book in the stands at the meets of mine that she would come to, until my race. No way you would figure they would have a 13:58 5k runner in college. (I was 'discovered' in the old gym class distance run in 9th grade). I sat in rooms with smokers most of my childhood, without even thinking about it.

my grandma did the same trek, but hers was from denmark to amsterdam.

both of my parents are artists, don't do or like organized sports, but are kinda health freaks, and we spent alot of time outdoors hiking and canoeing and never ate junk, so me liking cross was a no-brainer, it was just a faster way of getting through the woods and fields :-) my dad has always done an hour on the nordictrak followed with a glass of wine everyday ever since I can remember...

maybe one day I'll be a champion nordic walker??? lol!

Hmm lets see...

My Dad played football and baseball in High School, but nothing else until he passed away.

My Mom never did sports, but likes yoga, lifting weights, and walking however she has hypothyroidism and she is carrying more weight than she should.

I ran Track, Cross Country, and played Basketball in High School. In college I ran Track and Cross Country. Thinking about it body-wise I do not resemble either my Mom (5'4, stocky, short limbs) or my Dad (5'11") since I am long limbed and 6'5". Nowadays I weigh 200lbs, run 20mi/wk, and play Judo. In contrast when I was competing in college I was 6'5" 185lbs.

My dad played soccer through college. He was goalie so he wouldn't have to run. My mom played basketball in throughout high school, and tried outdoor track. She wanted to do sprints and they stuck her in distance, so she quit.

Both my parents were stumped when I gave up soccer in 9th grade for running.

Not at all. My Dad still can not wrap his head around the fact that I enjoy it and that racing 26.2 is not a bad thing.

By looking at my parents... no way. they don't look like they'd ever run.

My dad is tall and broad chested. He bench presses 350, at fifty-one by the way. My mom fairly heavy and has a larger frame. Though she was 5'7" 120 when she was 18-28.

My dad played college football, defensive line, and was a swimmer in high school. I guess the swimming is the only thing that is anywhere near running.

Also, my younger brother is playing football for a DI school, defensive line.

And some how I am running DI XC and track, mainly focusing on the 10k (sub 29). Weird...

My father who was six-feet tall, was quite thin when he was younger. But neither of my parents was even vaguely athletic.