Are Mile Times Heritable?

Study investigates whether the time it takes to run a mile is

heritable from parents to their offspring.

By: Catherine Schwarzwalder

 Heritability of various phenotypic traits is a topic that scientists have studied for decades. For

elite-level athletes, rigorous training when paired with a favorable genetic profile often produce some of

the best results. This study estimates the heritability of running times from parents to offspring. More

specifically, it questions whether time it takes to run a mile is a heritable trait. Twenty-three college

students and their biological parents were used as subjects. They were asked to respond to a short survey

asking them their gender, mile time and their parent’s mile time. A heritability value of .246 was

calculated for the population. While a positive linear slope was observed, the heritability value was not

strong enough to conclude that mile times are heritable. When each gender was compared individually,

heritability values increased. However, sample sizes for individual genders were too small to be

statistically significant. While this study does not prove or disprove heritability of running times, it is still

an interesting topic that should be investigated further.

 Millions of years ago, endurance running evolved to help our ancestors with long-distance

hunting and other activities necessary for survival. Both speed and stamina were advantageous human

traits that were likely passed down from parents to offspring (Lieberman). While we no longer need to

hunt for food, genetic differences in muscle composition, body size and lung capacity are advantageous

for competitive runners. At elite levels, these small variations in genes have a big impact. In this study, I

was particularly interested in researching the heritability of running times. I wanted to know if more than

just physical traits were heritable, causing me to ask, is the time it takes to run a mile heritable from

parents to their offspring? I predict that mile times are a heritable trait: the faster the parent’s mile, the

faster their offspring’s mile. If running speed was an advantageous trait for our ancestors, it is likely still

passed down from parents to children. I also believe that a stronger value for heritability will be observed

when measuring fathers versus sons and mothers versus their daughters because of the disparity seen in

running times between the two sexes.

Participants were comprised of college students and their parents. Most of the individuals

surveyed were UW students, but several students from other colleges also participated (Santa Clara

University and UC San Diego). Students responded to a Google Forum that asked their gender, fastest

mile time and their parent’s fastest mile times. (Figure 1) Twenty-six students were surveyed but three

data points were omitted for providing insufficient information (i.e. leaving their parent’s time blank).

Twenty-three students were used for the data analysis: six males and seventeen females. Their times were

converted from minutes and seconds to minutes in decimal form (Figure 2). Using scatterplots, the child’s

fastest mile run was compared to the average of their parent’s fastest mile. Heritability was measured on a

scale of 0 to 1. The slope of the regression line gave the estimated heritability of the trait from parents to

offspring. The regression line and the slope were computed using excel. In addition, analysis was run

based on gender: mothers and fathers were compared separately to their sons and daughters. Segregating

by gender avoided any lurking effect that sex had on fastest mile time. The slopes calculated for these

four graphs were multiplied by two to roughly account for the other “half” of the genes given to the child.
 While there is no “cut-off” point at which a trait is deemed heritable or non-heritable, the closer

the slope value is to one, the higher the estimated heritability. If mile times are—at least in part—

heritable one would expect to see a relationship as displayed in Figure 3. If mile times are not heritable

from parents to offspring a relationship similar to one depicted in Figure 4 is more likely to be seen.

After completing the analysis, an overall heritability value of .246 was calculated (Figure 5).

While a positive, linear relationship does appear, it is not particularly strong. Several influential points

could have affected the regression line a great deal. The predicted heritability was much stronger than the

one seen in the actual experiment. All four of the graphs segregated by gender had stronger heritability

values. Fathers and their sons had a heritability of .365 (Figure 6) and mothers and daughters had a

heritability of .333 (Figure 8). Surprisingly, the estimated heritability was the strongest for mothers versus

sons (.891) and fathers versus daughters (.483) (Figures 7 and 9). These high heritability values could be

due to the fact that each heritability was multiplied by two to account for the other parent’s genes. This is

a rough estimate because it implies that the genes a child inherits from his or her mother and father are the

same. In addition, since the sample size for males was so small (6 students) it is difficult to extrapolate

much from this data set.

There are several lurking variables that question the validity of this study. The largest source of

error is likely the accuracy of the subject’s mile times. Student times were listed more specifically, while

for parents more general times were given. For example, six people listed their mother’s time as “10:00”.

While students were urged to contact their parents for their specific mile time, many students could have

ignored this request. It is also plausible that their parents do not remember their own times. As in many

other heritability studies, it is difficult to determine the effect of environmental conditions. No

background was given about the circumstances under which their fastest mile was run. Factors like age,

training regimen and experience in the sport were not recorded. It is also important to consider the

population sampled for this study. Not only was the sample size relatively small (24 students), the

population was comprised of mainly cross country runners. If a child’s parents are avid runners, it is more

likely that the child will become involved in running as well. Likewise, if a parent has a child that is
serious about running, parents may pay closer attention to their own times. These are just several of the

lurking variables that may affect the distribution of the data and thus skew the values calculated for

heritability.

While this study is far from perfect, it does shed light on heritability of running times. The

original hypothesis that mile times are heritable from parents to offspring cannot be proved with this

study. A heritability of .246 tell us that mile time could be heritable, but the relationship is not strong

enough to provide solid evidence. While there was higher heritability when comparing each gender with

their mothers and fathers, the sample size for these comparisons were too small to be statistically

significant. They do, however, signal that there may be interesting trends and repeating this study under

more ideal conditions may be worthwhile. Whether environmental or genetic it is clear one’s background

does influence the development of certain traits. In the modern day, heritability of various athletic traits

has been a topic of contention among the athletic community. Many believe that the differences in genetic

disposition cause sports competitions to be unfair. What–if anything—should we do to “level the playing

field” for these elite-level athletes?

Analyzing a trait like mile time is an interesting concept but it proved difficult to account for the

environmental factors that affected the data. It would be more useful to measure heritability of a physical

trait. Favorable body proportion greatly improves a runner’s success. For example, longer leg length

allows for longer strides, giving a runner the upper hand in races. In a future study, it would be intriguing

to measure the heritability of leg length. This would be a relatively easy study to complete. Participants

would be comprised of parents and children that have stopped growing. The mother, father and child

would each have their legs measured from torso to ankle. Data would be recorded and plotted on a

scatterplot to estimate the heritability. If leg length is not at all heritable a relationship like one depicted in

Figure 10 will be seen. Figure 11 displays the data if leg length is highly heritable. It would be interesting

to see the trends of the data when measuring a more physical trait.
Figure 1: screenshot of survey sent to students

Figure 2 displays the data table for the responses collected. Times were converted from minutes/seconds
to minutes expressed in decimal form.
Figure 3 displays the predicted data if the hypothesis is true. A high level of heritability is depicted in this
graph (.857). (It is unlikely that the results will have a heritability value this close to one in this study.)

Figure 4 displays the predicted data if mile times are not heritable. The slope of this graph is nearly zero
(.002), signaling that offspring’s mile times do not depend on their parents.
Figure 5 displays the overall results of the study. On the X axis, the average of the parent’s fastest mile is
displayed. On the Y axis, the offspring’s fastest mile is recorded. In the upper right hand corner, the slope
of the regression line is given. (.246) This value is the estimated heritability. It is important to note that
several influential points could have skewed the data. For example, if the top most right point is omitted
the estimated heritability drops to (.182).
Figure 6 depicts the estimated heritability comparing fathers to sons. The heritability was originally .1824
but this value was multiplied by two to estimate the overall heritability (.365). Since only six points were
recorded it is hard to make predictions about larger populations.

Figure 7 displays the scatterplot comparing mother’s times and son’s times. A high heritability of .891
was calculated (original .4456). Again, the sample size is too small to be significant.
Figure 8 displays the estimated heritability for mothers and daughters. There is a large clump of data at 10
minutes because many students reported their mother’s time as “10:00”. The heritability calculated for
this graph was (.333)

Figure 9 displays the data for fathers versus daughters. A relatively strong correlation of .483 was
observed. (original .2414)
Figure 10 displays the predicted data if leg length is heritable from parents to offspring. A strong positive
slope is observed in this graph. The heritability is close to one signaling a high heritability. (.8396)

Figure 11 depicts the predicted data if the null hypothesis is correct. There is no correlation between leg
length of parents and the leg length of their offspring.
Works Cited

Bramble, Dennis and Liberman, Daniel. 2004. On Endurance running and the evolution of Homo. Nature
432.

Epstein, David. 2014. On The Sports Gene. Penguin Group.

Guth, Lisa. 2014. On Genetic Influence on Athletic Performance. U.S. National Library of Medicine.
DOI: 10.1097/MOP.0b013e3283659087