Answer - Actaully, it was interesting only in how poorly it was written. I took the time to write to him. Here it is for what it's worth:
Skip,
While I would agree that Khannouchi is a better athlete than Lance Armstrong, you made some statements that seem odd to me, espcecially for a 2:47 marathoner who is a professional journalist.
First of all, your 10K best time of 35:15 isn't as you say "pretty close to five minutes per mile." It is in fact a 5:41 per mile pace, and that is no where near close to a 5 minute pace. A 5 minute pace over 10K will get you across the line in about 31:05, and that is 4 minutes and 10 seconds faster than what you ran - the difference between a halfway decent runner and an also ran - you know there are runners who read what you write - not to gain any insight apparently, but you can't write something like that and just get away with it without being called on it. Seems to me that a 2:47 marathoner really ought to know better.
You also note that KK's world record is under a 5 minute pace for 26.2 miles - so what? What does one have to do with the other? Those in the know know that a 5 minute pace is no big deal in the elite marathoning world. His pace was 4:47 for that distance. Just get under 5 minutes per mile and you run 2 hours, 11 minutes - WAY slower than what KK ran.
Your article is so disconnected that it is difficult to understand exactly what your point is. You say you are more proud of your 2:47 than getting all-area in baseball in high school, but then at the same time you seem to discount Armstrong because he is an endurance athlete. I can see the argument that someone like Ichiro shows more athletic ability than Lance Armstrong, but I just don't see why you mentioned the 2:47 vs. the baseball award thing other than to perhaps make yourself look like something of an athlete, and that is usually a no-no for a sports journalist, because you simply can't measure up to the real athletes you write about, or you would be the one being written about and not the one doing the writing. As much as you might want to write about yourself, no one cares, and it makes you look like someone who it trying to hang on to past mediocre glory. I might want to know that Tony Gwynn cares more about his college basketball prowess than hitting .394 in 1994, but he was an elite athlete at a minimum in baseball. You are a journalist.
You mention at one point that KK's marathon WR is "the most astonishing one-day feat in sports", but at the very end, you say that you "can't even quite rank him above Khannouchi." That last sentence implies that you don't have KK ranked very highly and that you can't even rank Armstrong as high as that. Have you even ever taken a writing course? My advice to you is to take more time planning your columns instead of writing them in 10 minutes, because while I agree with what I had to imagine was your overall point, you certainly did a terrible job of saying it. Good luck next time. Actually, throw the luck out the window and just take the time to write something better.