I am aware that blood pressure rises with exertion and emotions, however, mine rises excessively from 117/72 upwards 172/113. high blood pressure runs in my family, could this be the cause of the excessive spikes?

No: Your family history makes you more prone to hypertension than an average person on the street and would not be cause of excessive spikes . You can be helped by anxiolytic medication and beta blockers . See your doctor.

BP changes: This may be perfectly normal. There is an old study from Germany in which they had a needle in an artery to measure BP with every heart beat. During ridding a bike in traffic one normal person's BP went up to 300 but back to normal when resting. Also very difficult to measure BP while exercising. Discuss with you Dr. and tell of your observations.