Jimmy Carter's XC Times?

I can find nothing regarding his times, but I do know that he received one varsity letter (1943) and graduated in 1946, meaning either he stopped running or peaked early, but he was evidently decent for at least a year.

Incidentally, Navy was absent from the Heps that year, but won the US Cross Country Championships as a team, although no mention of Carter being a member of that team can be found.

arcott ramathorn wrote:

I can find nothing regarding his times, but I do know that he received one varsity letter (1943) and graduated in 1946, meaning either he stopped running or peaked early, but he was evidently decent for at least a year.

Also mentioned was that he ran track and played on the lightweight football team while at Navy.

Incidentally, he went to Georgia Tech and Georgia SW College before attending Annapolis. He was accepted into the Class of 1947, but graduated a year early due to WWII.

Yes President Bush is the only president to run a marathon. I remember reading in Runners World during the election(2000) that we would get out first president who has ran a marathon (Gore has ran one too).

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich ran a 3:22. He has his sights on the White House in 2016, so he will become the fastest marathoner President.

2016 will be an exciting year here in Illinois......Obama will be finishing his second term, Blagojevich will be in line for the next presidency, Mayor Daley will continue to be more powerful than ever, and Chicago will be hosting the summer Olympics. It is amazing what money will do.

What kind of an idiot asks about XC times? It's XC; times don't matter.

He had bad form, kicked all of his teammates out but results were not too bad.

BlagoFan wrote:

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich ran a 3:22. He has his sights on the White House in 2016, so he will become the fastest marathoner President.

2016 will be an exciting year here in Illinois......Obama will be finishing his second term, Blagojevich will be in line for the next presidency, Mayor Daley will continue to be more powerful than ever, and Chicago will be hosting the summer Olympics. It is amazing what money will do.

i heard Blago made a killing selling his chip to a guy who ran 3:34

arcott ramathorn wrote:

I can find nothing regarding his times, but I do know that he received one varsity letter (1943) and graduated in 1946, meaning either he stopped running or peaked early, but he was evidently decent for at least a year.

I believe your research and also saw on the Navy site a JE Carter (1943) letter winner in XC, but have one question: if Navy was still part of Heps, at that time and for many year after Heps freshman runners did not take part in the championships varsity race at Heptagonals. So did he earn a varsity letter while *not* running his conference championships? Was 1943 not his freshman year through some oddity due to WWII (otherwise a graduation in 1946 would mean, in a standard 4-year education, matriculation in 1943)? Or because of the war did they let freshmen run varsity events?

Just curious about the history, because I always appreciate the presidents (and other important/visible individuals) who were/are runners, because anything to help the profile of the sport is generally a good thing.

(on a side note, he may also have stopped running for baseball, which he also played at Navy...but he did not receive a letter for it, according to Navy sports website.)

I sent email to the Carter Center, asking someone to bring us some facts here.

I believe it is wrote:

I remember reading in Runners World during the election(2000) that we would get [our] first president who has ran a marathon (Gore has ran one too).

"has ran"?

shy and intimated wrote:

What kind of an idiot asks about XC times? It's XC; times don't matter.

Are you mental? Of course they matter in this situation. You're not going to pretend like you don't care about what kind of times one of our past presidents ran! There's a big difference between him running 34 minutes for 5 miles and 26 minutes for 5 miles.

I think he was on the Navy team and ran a 10:22 for 2 miles.

Someone reads the wall street journal. I couldnt find any of his results. Just might have been a fun runner.

This bleeping Boston bib is just too bleeping valuable to give away for nothing. Bleep the BAA, bleep their bleeping rules.

I was curious about that too. While he transferred into the Academy after a year at Georgia Tech, he entered as a plebe, although his graduation was affected somewhat by the war. As for freshmen not running at Heps, that year the whole team was absent, winning the US Championships a I mentioned, so perhaps another criterion was used for letters that year. I know his coach at Navy spoke of him as being quite talented, so I assume he quit to pursue baseball or just academics.

yeah, missed the US Championships part earlier; scuttled off to look up information and see what the ol' internet had. It is curious that at least 2 fairly reputable websites I had listed his graduation date as 1947, but I'm not sure that's anything of note.

It is odd that he quit to play baseball, but in all the articles I briefly encountered, not one mentioned a position. Maybe he should have stuck with running. It's also plausible that he cut back on sports for academics, as you noted; he finished, based on one source I found, around 59/820 in his class; however, my limited understanding of the service academies is that this is not only a reflection of his academic achievement, but also reflects disciplinary status as well.

More than likely, it will take the luck of a former teammate or someone who knows him well to get the story on Carter's running. Or some serious sleuthing by a letsrunner, though I won't hold my breath. Thanks for your replies, Arcott Ramathorn.

Carter did in fact graduate in 1946. He - and all the other members of the Class of '47 - were on an accelerated program due to WWII.

Carter didn't quit XC altogether. In fact, in addition to the letter he earned in 1943, he at least trained with the team in fall 1945 (his third and final year at Navy.) He mentions being teammates with Wesley Brown, who was the first African-American to graduate from Navy. Brown entered in the fall of 1945.

"My first personal experience with racial integration began when an African-American student, Wesley Brown, entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1945. We both ran cross-country during the year that we spent together in Annapolis. A few members of my senior class attempted to find ways to have him discharged, but Brown's good performance prevailed and he became the Academy's first black graduate. Breaking the Color Barrier describes Brown's experiences, the travails of his predecessors, and, through the African American community's efforts to integrate the Academy, black people's dream of achieving equality." - Jimmy Carter, from the book "Breaking the Color Barrier"

(The Sports Complex at Navy is named after Wesley Brown, by the way.)

Oh, and I found this about Carter:

"In the fall of 1943, Jimmy Carter joined the freshman cross-country team at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. According to Capt. Ellery Clark, Jr., USN (retired), who was his coach, Carter was an "excellent cross-country runner as a plebe." That year, he tied for first in one race and finished fourth and seventh in two others."

Given the track record of pols, I dont believe that any of them ever ran a marathon. They probably paid someone to run it for them and then took credit for the time. If you believe any of these fish stories, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.