Running is really getting their kids somewhere

OREM — Sarah and Sasha Pachev joke that they've got a family farm. But they're not growing corn or raising livestock. They're raising runners. And over the years they've had a bumper crop of them — eleven Pachev runners.

Sasha was born in Ukraine and grew up in Moscow, where he took up distance running.

"I was bad at basketball. And I wanted to be good at some sport," he said.

When he got married, moved to the States and had a son, Ben, he encouraged the boy to run, too.

"We tried to get him to run, and he just refused," Pachev said, "Until he was 5. Then he finally got into it."

The rest of the Pachev children followed Ben's lead, whether they liked it or not.

"It's kind of like farm work and that it's not 'Would you like to do this today? Does that sound fun?' It's more 'Okay, let's go for a run, let's get that done," Sarah, who is also a runner, said.

Sarah, who homeschooled her kids (and talks about homeschooling as well as the family's efforts to help war-torn Ukraine on her YouTube channel), said there was a big cultural difference between her and her husband's parenting style.

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"I probably would have raised the kids on Sesame Street and lollipops, and he's like 'No. We're going to learn to work,'" she said.

"It's very stoic," William, Pachev No. 7, said. "Putting in the work and then get the results."

William said although he might not always have enjoyed the runs, the skills learned have transferred.

Ben went to BYU when he was 14. He's now 27 and has a PhD. Other siblings went to college at 16 and 17. Jenny earned multiple scholarships and became a computer programmer at 20. William is going to college and running a window washing business.

All of the Pachevs speak Russian and Ukrainian to some extent.

There is one other thing that makes the Pachevs unique. It's on their feet. At races, their feet turn heads because they're not wearing athletic shoes. They're wearing plastic shoes: Crocs or Crocs knockoffs.

When Jenny was little, she showed up at a family run in her Crocs.

"And she's like, 'I don't want to change into my running shoes, Daddy. I run around in my Crocs all day long. I can run in my Crocs,'" Sarah recalled.

"'They're lighter … I can't stand socks,'" Sarah recalled Jenny saying.

When they saw how their daughter performed running in Crocs, they realized she was on to something and everyone switched to the shoe.

Ben's feet went international when he placed 4th in a half-marathon in Crocs.

And the shoe's low cost was a positive for a family that needs 13 pairs of running shoes.

And so the Pachevs got their nickname.

"They call us the Crocs family," Sarah said.

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