Running the marathon this October? There are plenty of dos and don’ts about training, nutrition, posture, etc. And now, there’s another to add to the list: never fib about your marathon finish time.
Mitt Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, has been making plenty of hay in recent days about his personal fitness – including running a sub-three hour marathon.
In a radio interview last week, Ryan was asked what some of his best times in marathons were.
“Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something,” he said.
What Paul Ryan might look like if he qualified for the Olympics
While he’s certainly a trim and healthy-looking guy, there’s been plenty of skepticism about it.
Firstly, anyone who’s ever slogged their way through 26.2 miles has their finish-time chiseled into their memory.
Second, this kind of time would require an impressive pace of under seven minutes a mile for the whole race – something only 4 per cent of marathoners have achieved, according to research by Runner’s World.
So, yesterday, Ryan’s claim finally hit the wall, so to speak.
He issued the following statement that was published over the weekend by The New Yorker magazine and Runners’ World:
“The race was more than 20 years ago, but my brother Tobin — who ran Boston last year — reminds me that he is the owner of the fastest marathon in the family and has never himself ran a sub-three. If I were to do any rounding, it would certainly be to four hours, not three. He gave me a good ribbing over this at dinner tonight.”
Needless to say, he now faces a merciless ribbing from Democrats, too. In fact, it’s already started. A web site has been created that “converts” any runner’s best marathon time to a “Paul Ryan equivalent” marathon time, improving it by more than 30 percent.
So now you know. Never exaggerate your marathon time – especially if you’re ever planning to become a ‘running’ mate.
