Paul Ryan's marathon

You sound like a fun hang. That is, for someone who likes listening to unwanted bragging and then being insulted to cap it off.

Ancient Marathoner wrote:

Completely agree. I'm looking at printed results of 1970 Mission Bay (San Diego) Marathon (which I still have because I won it in 2:22, couldn't resist the shameless plug, sorry!) Anyway, among 53 who ran 3:03 or faster were no fewer than 26 teenagers, mostly guys coming off X-C (race was in January) who did a long run or two and just jumped into the marathon. Included two 14 year olds (2:55, 2:56), three 15, five 16 (incl. Mike Baer, 2:37:12 for 9th, one place ahead of Doug Schmenk who later was U.S. champion and ran 2:14). Really, if you're young and in any kind of shape 2:5x is nothing. Completely plausible that Ryan could have done it without being running-obsessed, then gotten hazy on the details. IMO most of the posters here are pussies.

Reality Check Runners wrote:

I have seen 16 year old kids who have never run over 13 miles run

2:53 at the end of XC season. 2:50 + is certainly not worth lying about

but the real funny thing is not one person will change their vote

when it's proven he ran 2:5x

Completely agree. I'm looking at printed results of 1970 Mission Bay (San Diego) Marathon (which I still have because I won it in 2:22, couldn't resist the shameless plug, sorry!) Anyway, among 53 who ran 3:03 or faster were no fewer than 26 teenagers, mostly guys coming off X-C (race was in January) who did a long run or two and just jumped into the marathon. Included two 14 year olds (2:55, 2:56), three 15, five 16 (incl. Mike Baer, 2:37:12 for 9th, one place ahead of Doug Schmenk who later was U.S. champion and ran 2:14). Really, if you're young and in any kind of shape 2:5x is nothing. Completely plausible that Ryan could have done it without being running-obsessed, then gotten hazy on the details. IMO most of the posters here are pussies.

According to the New Yorker, Ryan has just "fessed up":

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/08/paul-ryan-marathon.html

Sorry, I thought that was still to be determined!

I'm not going to engage the whole where-was-the-president born question, but I will try to enunciate my point here.

Leaving aside the philosophy 101 questions about whether it's morally OK to lie to save someone's life or to avert some disaster, I think lying is a bad idea and is never OK.

That said, I can UNDERSTAND why someone would take the risk of lying when something really desirable is at stake, and when the only way to get it is to lie. If someone really was born outside the U.S. and wanted to be president of the U.S., under current law he/she'd have to lie to become president. Being president is a big deal, and is arguably worth lying to achieve. If no one ever catches you, you get to be president. I can see why someone would risk a lie to have that opportunity.

I don't understand why someone would lie about something like their marathon time. Even if no one ever figures out you're lying, it doesn't really gain you much of anything. Some people will be impressed, some people won't care, a bunch of strangers will yammer on message boards, but it won't actually benefit you in any way that I can think of. There's a lot of risk involved--these stories have a way of getting exposed in the age of the internet--but there's very little up side if you don't get caught.

Obviously lying about these two things is leagues apart in seriousness, but the rationale for one of them makes sense and the other doesn't.

I hope this makes a little more sense.

EYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSTEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

This means Sarah Palin could outrun this joker! MAN! And George W Bush too! Al Gore, however, would be toast.

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Ryan, through a spokesman, responded that he'd just mixed things up. “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."

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ya right. typical politician.

poptarts wrote:

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Ryan, through a spokesman, responded that he'd just mixed things up. “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."

***************************

ya right. typical politician.

No doubt. Cause you didn't round anything, Paul. You lied.

I heard Ralph Nader and Ron Paul ran a marathon too. You should have voted for them.

So letsrun has once again made it to the big leagues of journalism - this time forcing Ryan to admit he had it wrong.

Holy crap rojo, you better not close this site down, javelin fest or not.

Seriously - youse guys did it again - congratulations.

"I contacted the campaign this evening about the discrepancy. Ryan, through a spokesman, responded that he'd just mixed things up. “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."

Read more

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/08/paul-ryan-marathon.html#ixzz25BKHyUC7

Schadenfreude wrote:

Well, though I believe that Romney and Ryan will do much better than Obama, I'll put it to you this way: How could they do any worse???

For starters they could run us into the worst recession in over 80 years like the last administration and then criticize their opponents for not returning the country to prosperity quickly and painlessly.

Rounding is saying he ran a 4 hour marathon. This ain't rounding. It may not be lying, but it may be a sign of self-aggrandisment mixed with self-deception. Hey, that's lying to one's self until one believes it.

Looks like he rounded to the nearest 2-fifty-something.

This is hilarious. It's also why I love Letsrun, you can't pull the wool over the eyes of the Letsrun crowd. Congratulations to the original poster for digging this up.

The New Yorker blog indicates Ryan is treating this like a "misremembering" moment, but any runner knows this is implausible.

The context of the interview shows he was fairly specific, and even backed it up with a follow up claim about his speed, when he could have played it off as he is doing now:

HH: I’ve just gotta ask, what’s your personal best?

PR: Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something.

HH: Holy smokes. All right, now you go down to Miami University…

PR: I was fast when I was younger, yeah.

So the potential Vice President of the US, a current US Congressman, Chairman of the Budget Committee, and future Presidential nominee (based on how things work), just isn't a numbers guy?

What an embarrassing farce. Glad we have such accurate people in charge of such important governmental functions!

He misspoke.

At least he "fessed up", (doesn't make it right that he exaggerated his time ) ) unlike the current President who refuses to fess up to anything ...;)

Bottom line, you can't trust ANY politician!

long sox wrote:

He misspoke.

Keep sippin'

New Yorker reporting Paul Ryan ran Grandma's in '91 -- 4:01

Ancient Marathoner wrote:

.......IMO most of the posters here are pussies.

Ancient Marathoner, you are still correct. Decent cross country fitness and many teenagers are breaking 3 no problem, at least in he old days!