BigDude wrote:
Precious Roy wrote:He is over 6 feet tall. He does not have a light frame.
6 feet 165 lbs is featherweight. That is a light frame.
I doubt Ryan was racing at 165 lbs. He is definitly over 6' (Romney is 6'2". Ryan is just a hairline shorter). Solinksy and Mottram are about the same height as Ryan. They race at 160-65. If an elite runner gets down to 160s running tons of miles, then a non-elite guy of the same build is going to be 170s at best in marathon shape. Point being that someone of that kind of build has no advantage running a marathon and will need to train very seriously to get under 3 hours. It can certainly be done. I have friends who are of similar build and got sub 3s. But they busted their butts to get it done with several years of serious dedication to training. I just don't see Paul Ryan putting in the miles and having access to coaching/training plans/running clubs to get it done. During his window for running marathons (1992-98) he was in DC working lots of inside the beltway jobs that were probably very demanding of his time. It would take a very dedicated runner to get a sub 3 done under those conditions. Not a guy who years later can only say he ran a "two something".