My blue eyes are a biological gift from my dad. My sister inherited her red hair from our grandmother. As a kid she was teased and called Carrot Top. For that she nurtured a stubborn and feisty nature. One of my brothers has my mom’s Irish temper. Certain parts of us are genetically determined, while others are a propensity, or learned behavior. While no elites with super running genes are sprinting around my family tree, my passion for running was nurtured by my older brothers who ran cross country in high school.
Would my racing times be faster if my dad was John A. Kelley? Biological genes would have made me predisposed to be a better runner, but what about the desire and passion for running? Can you succeed with just the biological genes, or do you need both nature and nurture? And do the parents of our legendary elite runners even want their children to pursue the sport with the vigor and tenacity they did? To find out, I interviewed the children and grandchildren of some of the world’s best runners.
Ben Diestel, a junior at Northern Highlands High School in Allendale, NJ, has a personal best of 16:04 for the cross country 5K. When he wins a race he celebrates by going out for sushi with his grandmother, world-record holder Toshiko D’Elia, the first female over 50 to run a sub-three-hour marathon.
"She gives me tips on nutrition, stretching, breathing, and selecting racing flats," says Ben. "She knows what she’s talking about." According to Ben’s mother, Erica Diestel, a former track champion, "Ben runs just like my mother. He has the same fluid form and makes it look so easy and effortless." Some day, Diestel hopes to run marathons like his grandmother. Ben seems to have it both ways. He inherited his grandmother’s form and running genes, and his talent is being nurtured by both his mother and grandmother.
When 18-year-old Jacob Edwards won a 5K cross country meet in 16:38 last fall, waiting at the finish was his grandfather, John J. Kelley. "I try not to think of his times and legend as I race," says Edwards, the son of Kelley’s third daughter, Eileen. "I have a lot to live up to."
The Kelley girls never ran as kids—in fact, they didn’t completely understand what their famous dad did. According to Eileen, the two-time Olympian Kelley, who was called the only American hope to win the Boston Marathon throughout the 1950s, was very humble and never talked about his wins, not even Boston. "It wasn’t until we were older, and some of us ran the Boston Marathon that we could appreciate what he did." Eileen ran the 2002 Boston Marathon and at mile 18, already four hours into the race, remembers thinking, "Dad was home, showered, and having dinner with mom by now." Her son, Jacob, also knew very little about his grandfather’s legendary career. "I sort of knew a little about him, that he ran, but it wasn’t until I got to high school and started learning about his times and wins that I realized how awesome he was," he says. "It will be tough filling his shoes," Edwards admits, "but it’s in my blood."
Are Edwards and Diestel counting too much on DNA? According to sports medicine doctor Cathy Fieseler, an ultrarunner, genetics can only do so much. "Even if your parents are Bill Rodgers and Joan Benoit, you still only have the genetic potential to be a great marathoner. You may inherit their VO2 capacity and their slow-twitch muscle fiber, but it’s what you do with it that will determine whether you follow in their fast footsteps."
Fieseler thinks that one benefit that the grandchildren of the fast and famous have is that they did not witness the hard training, dedication, defeats, and all-consuming life it takes to be the best. According to D’Elia, it wasn’t until Ben was in high school and got interested in running that he picked her brain. When D’Elia set the 70- and-over age group course record at the 2000 Fifth Avenue Mile in 7:04, 10-year-old Ben was bored to tears. "He only came for the free lunch," recalls D’Elia. "But now he is like a sponge and very receptive to my advice. Nurturing can only be given when it is ready to be received."
Bill Rodgers’s two daughters knew their dad was a famous runner for only one day a year, the third Monday in April. "The press stormed the house for that one day, and then it was like I didn’t exist," says Rodgers. The one time they came to watch him run the Boston Marathon, he dropped out. His daughters, Elise, 19, and Erika, 14, shied away from running. Elise plays rugby and field hockey for Wheaton College and Erika gravitated to horseback riding. Rodgers says what is more important to him than his kids wanting to be runners is that his daughters aren’t couch potatoes and have a sport they enjoy doing. "Of course it would be a dream come true for all of us to run a race together," says Rodgers, "but I think it might be hard on them to be the child of a famous runner. That’s a lot of pressure."
What if you don’t have the famous name, like Edwards and Diestel? Edwards, who lives in North Stonington, CT, just five miles from his grandfather, and races in the same community where his grandfather grew up and lives, still can’t escape the famous name. "Everyone knows my granddad. When I cross the finish line they always say, ‘And hear comes Jacob Edwards, grandson of John Kelley.’" Edwards also works in the running store that is his grandfather’s legacy, Kelley’s Pace, in Mystic. Jacob is getting a taste of what it would have been like if the Kelley daughters picked up running early on. But instead of trying to escape the pedigree, he embraces it.
Alex Shorter, the 25-year-old son of Frank Shorter, ran cross country in high school and is now a recreational runner. According to his father, he had the talent to go far. "He trains like a true competitor, focused and consistent," says Shorter, whose three children were born after he was 30, when his running career was on the far side of the bell curve.
"Running the way I did was a personal decision. No one can impose that on you. It was something I loved and something I was good at. What’s most important to me is that my children make their own decisions and do what they choose to do with their own lives," says Shorter. "I want them to have a normal life, not necessarily my life." Alex worked as an engineer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Falmouth, MA, and ran the Falmouth Road Race with his dad many times. Alex’s siblings, Mark, 23, and Julia, 15, are also recreational runners. "I just want them to have a passion for something," says Shorter.
Nature AND Nurture
Although Shorter’s children most likely inherited his running genes through nature, the nurturing part was not encouraged, as the kids weren’t interested in following in his footsteps. But 8-year-old Raven Dillon has both the nature and the nurture going for her. Her mother is Patti Catalano Dillon, former world record holder in the 5-mile, 20K, half marathon, and 30K, and her father is Dan Dillon, a two-time All American in cross country. Patti and Dan live in New London, CT, with their two children, Aaron, 11, and Raven, who are home-schooled. Patti coaches a team of home-schooled children from the area, the Connecticut Home School Harriers. Aaron is a three-time Junior Olympian, and Raven is a two-time Junior Olympian.
According to Dan Dillon, the kids had no idea of their mother’s illustrious career. "There are no medals, trophies, or past news articles displayed in our home about Patti," says Dan. But that all changed in 2002, when the entire family was invited to the Honolulu Marathon Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where Patti was being inducted for her four-year winning streak (’78–’81). They now realize their mom was one of the best.
"I’m glad my kids are runners," says Patti. "Running brings so much self-discovery to their lives." Aaron runs a 6:11 for the mile, and Raven’s best mile is a 6:58. A chip off her mother’s shoulders, Raven wrote a poem about running with this sentence: "The worst word in the running dictionary is Almost. You either do it or you don’t."
Dan and Patti would be thrilled if their children took up running as a career. "Through running, we have traveled the world and made lifelong friends," says Dan. "There is something so sweet about earning wages through hard-earned accomplishments." But even though their children may have inherited the genes for running, they would rather the kids rely on hard work, dedication, and training. "Running competitively is extremely hard work," says Patti. "I’d rather instill in my children the lesson that winning comes through hard-earned accomplishments, not through a gift of nature."
Can’t Inherit Passion
Speaking of talent, 86-year-old Ted Corbitt, the father of ultra-running, doesn’t believe that he passed on any running genes to his son, Gary, because Corbitt doesn’t think he had any talent. "I was not a gifted runner. What I had was a strong urge to run and run a lot," says Corbitt. "I neither encouraged nor discouraged him from running." Growing up, Gary was in awe of his dad. By 10, he was handing water to his dad at the Yonkers Marathon. He ran track in high school and college but never pursued it with the vigor of his father.
After watching his son compete, Corbitt believes Gary could have been a contender if he stayed with it. "He had the potential to run a 48-second quarter mile, maybe faster, if he stayed with it," says Corbitt. But after his freshman year in college, Gary quit competitive running "My high school and college coaches would say, ‘Oh, you’re Ted’s kid,’" says Gary. "It did put pressure on me, and I didn’t handle it well. The challenge was to carve out my own identity." Now 53, Gary, a media researcher in Florida, is very comfortable with the running scene. "I still go to my dad for advice, and I’m still in awe of him."
What happens when the entire family carries the elite gene? Catherine Ndereba and her husband, Anthony Maina, train together in Kenya. Maina never ran before meeting Catherine. He started running with her after her pregnancy to help her get back in shape, eventually becoming good enough to make the running team at the prison where he works (work places in Kenya recruit runners for their teams, as do the armed forces, police, and post office). But his focus is not running; it’s caring for their 9-year-old daughter, Jane, when Catherine is away at her races. Catherine’s siblings are also fierce competitors and talented runners. Her sister, Anastasia, 30, has a marathon PR of 2:29 and younger sister Esther holds records in shorter distances. Her brother Samuel usually places in the top five nationally in distances from the 10K to the half marathon.
Catherine doesn’t give much credence to the gene theory of gifted runners, nor to her heritage. "Being Kenyan doesn’t make me fast. Training hard makes me fast," says Ndereba. "Running is my passion; it’s in me. I love to run."
Jane is already aware that her mom is a famous runner and expects her to always win. After finishing second at the 2004 Olympics marathon, Jane greeted her mother, "Why didn’t you win? You only came in second." For the moment, Jane aspires to be a pilot and wants nothing to do with running. Whether that changes in the future is left to be seen. Her last name is not Ndereba or Maina, so she will be an unknown unless the media digs up the link to her parents. She also didn’t grow up in the country as Catherine did, running to school and doing chores. She’s a city girl and takes the bus to school. That may have a bigger impact on finding her talent than any gene she may have inherited from her parents.
Jessica Wright, 25, swore she would never become a runner. The daughter of Rosemary and Trevor Wright, both elite runners in England, Jessica spent her childhood attending their races and hanging out with the runners. "I always thought runners were a strange bunch, and I was adamant I was not going to become one," she was quoted, in a recent profile in New Zealand Runner. Her parents must have agreed, because they did not encourage her to take up running. She excelled in hockey, but ultimately became a runner when she couldn’t play hockey for Canterbury University in New Zealand.
She hit the Auckland running scene like a pro and never looked back, leaving her competition in the dust at the New Zealand cross country championship in August 2004. For now, she is concentrating on cross country, building up speed, like her mom, who ran 50-flat when Great Britain broke the 4x400m world record. But she also has future plans for the marathon, influenced by her dad’s 2:12 PR. Although running is in her blood, she also attributes her fast times to good coaching. She trains with New Zealand’s best distance runner turned coach, Robbie Johnston.
Referring again to the hypothetical Bill Rodgers–Joan Samuelson union, Jessica Wright may in fact turn out to be a better runner than her parents. According to Fieseler, "Bill’s genes are not 100 percent endurance running genes nor are Joan’s. Let’s say for the sake of argument that 80 percent of their genes make them elite distance runners. Depending on how the mix of that other 20 percent from BR and 20 percent from JB comes out, it is possible that their progeny could wind up even more genetically gifted than the parents. It’s a roll of the dice (or genes)."
That may be the case with Joaquin Chapa, an 800m runner for Stanford University. His father is Rudy Chapa, one of the great distance runners in the United States in the 1970s, who ran with Steve Prefontaine at the University of Oregon. His mother, Patricia Chapa, was a long jumper and sprinter at Indiana University. As a freshman at Stanford, Rudy ran a personal best of 1:49:83 in the 800m.
Some of the world’s top female marathoners do not have children: Grete Waitz, Kathrine Switzer, Priscilla Welch, to name a few. John A. Kelley didn’t have children either. The running world will just have to wait to see if Deena Kastor and Paula Radcliffe—who is married to an elite middle-distance runner—have little runners some day.
No Single Thing
In the meantime, eyes will be focused on the budding careers of Jacob Edwards and Ben Diestel. Toshiko D’Elia, now 75, is cautious and protective about her grandson’s future. "He is still young and has to work very hard. He hasn’t been at it long enough to really know what he is capable of doing."
And therein lies the answer to the gene theory. It really doesn’t matter who or what your parents are, or how fast or how many medals hang on the mantel. There is more than one specific thing, like good genes, that goes into the making of a great runner. Things like training, coaching, personal conviction, a competitive spirit, and a hunger to win. Sometimes genes can be a bad thing, like passing on a genetic potential for alcoholism, obesity, diabetes or cancer. Dan and Patti Dillon both have diabetes in their family medical history and are determined to have their kids adopt a healthy lifestyle to cut down on the odds. Running is one of the best ways to do that.
Nobody knows what they are capable of doing unless they work hard to discover it. Whether the outcome is couch potato or Olympian is up to the individual and what they choose to make of their life. Having said that, wouldn’t it be great to see a repeat of the 2004 Olympic marathon featuring the future daughters of Kastor and Radcliffe battling it out?
Gail Waesche Kislevitz is the author of three books on running, most notably First Marathons. For the record, her two kids don’t run. She is currently working on a new book that will answer the question, why do we run?