Paul Ryan's marathon

The thing about a running time is this: it is conveniently and concretely verifiable. It serves as an indicator. If such a clear fabrication or "mistake" is made of a simple, yet clearly personally valuable, number, then facts and constructs of a more abstract or debatable nature are surely to be of little basis in reality.

Avocado's Number wrote:

http://www.hughhewitt.com/blog/g/3229320e-2c55-4122-93f1-2ebe4fbc8663

I was going to write that I don't care how a professional polition performs as an amateur runner, just like I don't really care how a professional athlete performs as an amateur politician. I would take Joschka Fischer over right-winger Jörg Haider any time, even if the latte has a faster marathon PB to his name.

Lying about your times, however, is a totally different matter. I can only hope that he did not actually give that interview, like many celebrity "interviews" that are actually written by their agents, or in this case, the campaign. If he really said :

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.

that disqualifies him for most jobs that require a degree of trust, whether or not you agree with his political positions.

I'm afraid he will get away with it, because most Americans won't hear about this, let alone appreciate that the difference between "a two hour and fifty-something" and "a rounded four hours", is about as great as a degree from a community college is from a degree from Carnegie Mellon. Good for you if you've gone to college, and good for you if you've finished a marathon in any time. But lying about your laurels for political gains should make anyone question what else you're lying about right now.

I actually listened to the interview (I think it was about a week and a half ago on my way home from work). Hugh Hewitt is a nationally syndicated, conservative radio host/author/law professor. I think he also runs.

The response came in a follow up question about Ryan saying that he was a distance runner in high school but doesn't run much anymore. Ryan seemed perplexed that Hugh (who is a very serious guy) was asking about his life in high school rather than his plan to create real economic growth in America. Looks like he ran an unserious marathon with his brother when he was in college and, at worst, massaged the time after twenty years in response to an unexpected question.

I wonder how good Ryan was in high school. I am guessing he was a roster filler since he was not a three season guy (played other sports). I am guessing a 5:15-5:20 (1600)/11:30-12:00 (3200) guy.

Paul is a liar without ethics. His other lies well flushed out by the daily show:

So, still no hard truths. That sounds like it's just convenient truths. You know what, at this point in this speech, I'd settle for any truth.

PAUL RYAN (8/29/2012): $716 billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama.

What? You mean the $716 billion dollar reduction in payments, mostly to providers, the exact same amount Republicans also proposed to cut from Medicare, in their highly praised — What was the name of it? — Ryan budget? I can't believe Ryan Seacrest would suggest such a... WAIT A MINUTE!! RYAN!!!

PAUL RYAN (8/29/2012): He created a new bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.

Oh right, that was the Bowles-Simpson proposal that was never officially presented to Congress in part because it was voted down by a blue-eyed dreamboat named Ryan. Ryan Gosling, I can't beli... WAIT A MINUTE!!

You know what? Maybe if you told a more personal story about an auto plant closing in Paul Ryan's district, maybe that'll contain some of these hard truths he's known for.

PAUL RYAN (8/29/2012): Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: "I believe that if our government is there to support you, this plant will be here for another hundred years." That's what he said in 2008. ... That plant didn't last another year. ... The recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.

Yeah, except that plant announced in June of 2008 that it would be stopping production. I mean, hold on a second. Siri, who was President in June 2008? "George Bush!" Thank you, Siri. You're the best.

....

You get your news from the Daily Show? You are a clown.

Politics-schmalitics who cares.

I want to know his damn time!

OK here's what really happened. This interview was for a freakin radio show. Radio show transcripts usually don't end up on the web. So he thought there is no harm in lying because no one is ever going to find out.

You can't be serious wrote:

Ummm... what are you trying to say? Lying about a birth certificate ( which i believe he did) versus a little fib or someone who can't EXACTLY remember a hobby jogging time that he ran? I'm certainly guilty of not remembering certain times/event but I definitely know where I was born or would not lie about it.

You remember your exact geographic location from the day you were born; I was pretty sure infantile amnesia made that impossible. Or are you just trusting in what people told you? At least a 20 year old should remember within an hour of what they ran a marathon.

And which statements of Lyin Ryan were misrepresented?

Roger Clinton wrote:

You get your news from the Daily Show? You are a clown.

Roger Clinton wrote:

You get your news from the Daily Show? You are a clown.

That's the thing about facts: It doesn't matter who says them, they're still true.

Some guys at Wikipedia are trying to get this fact about the marathon out of the article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ryan#Personal_life

Please feel free to comment at the talk page of the article on this edit policy.

The Huffpo's calling him out on it now...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/01/paul-ryan-marathon-time_n_1848715.html

Wikipedia says he's climbed over 40 fourteeners in Colorado. I suspect that's an exageration as well. While there are a few that allow one to climb a couple in a day-many are a weekend trip from Denver-i.e. fly to Denver on Friday-Drive to Alamosa or Aspen Friday night-climb Saturday, return home on Sunday. I don't think he has the stomach to have done that 30 or 40 times. Even if he lived here for a summer or two-40 is a lot-unless that's all he did.

I want a list, with dates, and we can cross check the Colorado Mountain Club summit registers before I believe.

What’s striking about the exchange is how he responds to Hewitt’s “Holy smokes.” A four-hour marathon, for a twenty-year-old, is not something that elicits a “holy smokes.” It’s entirely average; in fact, for the race that Ryan ran, it was below average. In the marathon in question, he finished in nineteen hundred and ninetieth place, out of just thirty-two hundred and seventy-seven male runners. (A 2:55 would have had him at a hundred and thirtieth.) But Hewitt’s reaction didn’t set off any alarm. Instead, Ryan could tell that he had just impressed his host, and he reinforced it, saying “I was fast when I was younger, yeah.”

Nutella1 wrote:

OK here's what really happened. This interview was for a freakin radio show. Radio show transcripts usually don't end up on the web. So he thought there is no harm in lying because no one is ever going to find out.

hugh hewitt is not a minor character in right wing radio. he's one of the bigger hosts.

after the interview, hewitt posted the following on his blog:

"I was also surprised to hear Ryan has run a sub-3 hour marathon. Add another interest group to the list of groups like Catholics, hunters and Miami of Ohio grads who are going to connect easily with this candidate.

There are lots of details yet to be added to Ryan's public portrait, but the campaign has to make him available to the media to get that story told. Both Romney and Ryan are their best salesmen, so putting them out more into settings where they can tell their stories and not just detail their policies is key to continuing the momentum they clearly have."

ryan had plenty of time post interview to tell hewitt that he might have made a mistake in saying sub 3 hours. he clearly did not do so.

in retrospect, the phrase "tell their stories" seems rather appropriate.

sniff test wrote:

Randy Oldman wrote:

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

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

BS artist. A runner that doesn't know his PR's?

Bullshite.

I'm not sure if you're joking or not. You really think that all runners know their PRs? Especially if it was from a long time ago? I'm a much more serious runner than a two fifty something marathoner and I have a hard time remember my 5k PR from a couple years ago. Maybe some people have other things they need to use their brain to store than times.

I haven't really been following Ryan or his politics, so can't really say for sure how trustworthy he is in terms of all that, but to me this is an obvious case of a casual runner just being clueless about times (especially one from 20 years ago. Even if it was a PR). I think people who are turning this into a political thing are just being silly and shows the pettiness of politics. I mean, come on, we've all had that casual runner make some ridiculous comment that make you stop and think, "wait, you actually run?" Like I have a friend's dad who once said he ran a 2 mile race in under 9 minutes when he was younger. He was an excellent athlete when he was a kid, but I don't believe that. What I believe is he ran just under 10 and in the 9 minutes. But over time, the 9 minute part was all that stuck with him and then he vaguely remembered he just ran under a certain time, so figured that time was 9 minutes. Just like with this case. Probably he timed the race on his watch at just under 4 hours into the 3 hours (they didn't have chip timing then did they? So he may have legitly went from the starting line to finished line in under 4). And the 3 hours is all that stuck with him. And he knows he just broke an hour marker, so assumed it was 3. Heck, I'm a faster runner than him, and I ran the marathon a couple years ago just for fun and have a hard time remembering what I ran for it (it's obviously my PR too). I can remember for 5k, 10k, 10 mile and other distances I care about and train seriously for, but since that was more just to do it, I don't really bother to try and remember it. I kind of had that casual runner approach to the marathon that I'm sure Ryan had. It's the distance that most people care about (especially someone running it around 4 hours), not that time

You're calling all of that "obvious?" What else is "obvious" to you? Good grief.

This lie in isolation means nothing but a pattern about Lyin Ryan is emerging.

The funnest part was when is when he seemed like he thought he would be challenged on the lie and he added that he can't run marathon's anymore because of his back problems. He san do p90 exercise tapes but he can't run distance anymore.

What a tool.