10 is not bad for a middle distance runner. I recall hearing a silver medalist sprinter over 400m not being able to do many at all, but they are hardly relevant to running anyway.
I am 61 and can do 11 very strict cadence pullups with no hip movement.
sadly, my legs are weak as in comparison which does not help my running these days.
When I was in middle school, we had to do them for some kind of annual fitness test. At the time I wasn't a runner yet and, though I played a lot of sports and we were much more active than kids today, I was a total non-athlete. I smoked the entire class including the top athletes in my grade, with 8 or 9. It was strictly because I was in decent shape and super light weight (probably 90 pounds at the most).
As a high school athlete, where I was a 5'7 105 lb 4:20 miler, I think my PR was 13. A year or two later in college I would do three sets of them to exhaustion and that was usually something like 12, 10, 9 with a few minutes rest in between. I wasn't getting any better at them (could not break 13) despite doing them all the time, but I think my running was eating all my muscle away.
Around 40 years old and 150 lbs, and out of shape, I could only do 3 despite being a lot stronger in my arms and body. Now I'm just over 50 and I doubt I could do more than 1, but I weigh 160. Pullups feel like the absolute hardest thing in the world at this weight even though my arms are much stronger than when I was in my 20s. It's all about having a light body. I'm sure if I keep working out and drop 40 lbs I could do 10 pullups again (hopefully we'll see in 6-12 months as I've just started working out again).
Distance runners who are really fit and reasonably well trained in the arms will probably come in around the 10-15 range. If you quit distance running and become a basic gym bro before you just get fat, you can probably get it up to the 20-30 range without too much difficulty. Most people don't do the specific exercises necessary to be good at this.
Stop making excuses, you do NOT need a light body per se, just proportional strength and endurance.
I bet if you * tried * you could be back up to 5-6 within a month or two. Back to 10 in three or four months, if you do pull ups 3-4 times a week...
mixed with sets of dips (harder then pull ups btw), push ups, body weight squats, step ups.
I don't disagree with you and I'm not making excuses. What I'm saying is that as a young person who was not in any kind of strength-based shape (no lifting etc), I was able to do 9 without even training because I was super light. Later, even though I was training (including lifting) but had really no muscle because I was running too much to put on arm strength (or maybe you could say my nutrition was bad) I could get up to 13. Later, as a person who was not really working out but got stronger and heavier, I could only do 3 (and now probably 1). I don't know how many I could do at age 50+ if I was working out solid because I'm pretty far out of shape. No excuses (other than plantar fasciitis - but I was already getting out of shape before that). Other things in life just took precedence. I'm trying to get back in shape now but have no idea if I'll be able to stay motivated.
Pullups are tricky because it's not just about being light and its not just about being strong. It's probably the most strength-to-weight ratio exercise I'm aware of.