LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) _ Many families enjoy running around together, but members of the Riley family of Lawrence are different --they literally run around together.
Dad Steve Riley may be the best masters (age 40-plus) runner in Kansas and is among the best in the state regardless of age, teen-age sons Justin and Matt are top age-group runners, and mom Marcia runs marathons.
They run both separately and as a group, often with the Sand Rats, a Lawrence club that includes many of the better area runners.
Steve, 47, competed in the pole vault at Wichita East High School, but was an occasional runner even then.
"My track coach made me go out for cross country to stay in shape," he said. "I didn't have a choice -- it was J.D. Edmiston, who was Jim Ryun's coach at Wichita East."
Ryun was a three-time Olympian who held the national high school mile record for 36 years until it was broken this summer.
Steve Riley came to the University of Kansas as a pole vaulter, where he ran occasional workouts with the distance runners and became a teacher after graduation. He became a regular runner in his mid-30s and since then has been a top placer and occasional winner in races in Kansas and the region, including a win in the 2000 KAKE-TV Wichita Marathon.
"He's a really dedicated runner," said Paul Heitzman, of Eudora, who has set several national records in the over-60 age groups. He said Riley holds most of the Kansas records in his age group for distances from 5 kilometers to the marathon, including the marathon record of 2 hours, 39 minutes, 4 seconds.
Justin, the older son, is one of the top distance runners on the Lawrence High School track and cross-country teams. But he wasn't a runner when he was required to run a mile in a junior-high gym class. Nevertheless, his friends expected him to be fast -- because they knew his father was a runner.
But Justin's first mile run didn't go so well. "I finished near the back, so I started training," Justin said.
He went on to run eighth-grade track and since then has run well over 100 races including track, cross-country and road races. Justin prefers to run cross country, but one of his best races came at Kansas City's Groundhog Run last year when he ran the 5-K in 16:32 to set a Missouri age-group record.
Matt, the younger son, is a junior-high student whose first race came at age 6 when he ran a 5-K in 36 minutes. Since then he has run at least 50 races. Matt set a Kansas age-group record last year as a 12-year-old when he ran 1:41:05 at the Raintree half-marathon in Lawrence. A few months later, he ran 1:39:04 at the Wichita half-marathon.
All three male Rileys were age-group winners at a half-marathon in Topeka two years ago, a rare occurrence because the youngest age group in many races is under-19, and the two boys are often competing against each other.
Marcia Riley began running in college but stopped when the boys were young. She resumed running eight or nine years ago and ran her first marathon at Wichita in 1996.
Over the years, the family has often traveled to races together. "At Grandma's (in Duluth, Minn.), I'd do the half-marathon, Steve would do the full marathon, and the kids would do the 5-K," she said.
Though they grew up in a running family, the boys weren't necessarily expected to become runners themselves.
"We didn't force them to run," Steve said. "They kind of expressed interest. They would tag along to races and sometimes ran and sometimes didn't."
The parents are glad that running is a sport their boys enjoy.
"Kids in distance running are always focused and do well in class," Marcia said. "Teachers always speak highly of them. Almost 100 percent of cross-country runners are academic all-stars."
Running is an integral part of the Rileys' lives, and it's a sport they all plan to continue.
"I plan to continue running in college," said Justin, who graduates from high school in 2002, "and after that for recreation, and to enjoy myself."
Steve and Marcia Riley are both teachers in the Perry-Lecompton School District. They also are directors of several Lawrence races, including the annual Sand Rat Trail Run in October, the Raintree Half-Marathon and 5-K in April, and Heather's Run, a 5-K that was held this year in memory of a former student who died of cancer.
Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.