Courtesy of Cody Bashore of the Arizona Daily Sun. Read the original story in its entirety here.

After spending much of his lifetime on the run, running competitively in America didn't initially interest one of Northern Arizona's newest All-Americans.

Considering himself a soccer player, the eighth-place finisher at this year's NCAA National Championship meet felt forced into a career he seemingly inherited upon his arrival to the country.

For Peter Lomong, the acceptance of running as a sport -- and not as a necessity -- needed to come naturally, not preordained by those who recognized his last name.

"When I came here ... my story was already written. I have always been one of those people like, I want to do what I want to do, like soccer-wise," Peter said. "It stayed with me for years, throughout high school and when I came to college, and it was based on nothing, no hard work or anything."

With his world-famous brother a former NCAA national champion and United States Olympian, Peter strived to make a name for himself and live life as his own person, away from the pressure-packed shadow of Lopez Lomong.

"That's the hardest thing ever. It is so hard, it is so hard," Peter repeated. "Everywhere you go, high school or whatever small event you are in, they say your last name and they automatically think you are a big star. People created who I am in a way, they just assume things. I played that character pretty well, but I did not perform results-wise with what people assumed."

Arriving from a life migrating across South Sudan and Kenya, Peter ended up enrolled at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia, where he completed his tenure as an all-state runner along with his brother Alex, who now runs for Ohio State.

While Peter now says he believes anything is possible and he has high ambitions for the sport he fell in love with, he felt compelled to run when he first moved to the United States in 2009.

"Who would I be if I did not have his last name?" Peter said, adding that the pressure coupled with the culture shock affected his grades, his mental health and who he was as a person. "I was in a dark place."
 

Read Peter's entire story here, or check it out in the Sunday edition of the Daily Sun.