People of all shapes and sizes and condition run half marathons all the time. Those are about 13 miles and in order to do them they run about 13 miles.
I'm not saying I would ever do this as a coach but I'm with Coach May - it's not the end of the world. It will definately show who wants it and who doesn't. You never know what / where your breaking point is until you push yourself to find it.
So the coach is not the nicest guy in the world - once again not the end of the world. Whatever happened to the lesson of listening to the message and not how it's delivered? Trust me back in the day I was yelled at, insulted and dogcussed by the best of them (most of the time rightfully so) but it didn't destroy me or my emotional self worth. Yes my feelings were hurt and I was embarassed but I learned something. If I don't want to feel like that again then I better make sure I don't make the same mistake again.
The opening post talks about how his son is good and has a future. That's great but what about the rest of the team? Is the team having a successful year? Are they a great bunch of kids who respect the coach? Are they a bunch of jerks who try to get away with whatever they can under the sun?
I find it hard to believe a coach would act like this if things were going great. So this leads me to think there are some problems. Maybe this guy came in last year and faced a ton of challenging players and he has to teach them who the boss is. Maybe this guy knows he's got a bunch of jerks on the team and he wants rid of them since he inherited them. Best way to do that is run them off literally.
If their health is truly at risk then yes there is a problem and something needs to be done. But last time I checked doctors want people to run more because it leads to a healthy heart / body.....well that's what mine tells me when I tell him I have to buy new pants every so often because the old ones shrink.