GOP marathon time

Anyone who knows me will have an idea about the direction of my political leanings. But this isn't about that. It's about the obsessiveness of runners, especially those who run long distances, and their competitive natures as a whole. This is one of those things I love most about the running community: we are a fact checking, stats collecting, competitive bunch. While our political leanings may be as diverse as our personal bests, we are united in our commitment to one thing: not letting others lie about their accomplishments. You're only as good as your last run. And if this habit happens to bite the GOP vice presidential candidate on the ass, so be it.

In his political life Paul Ryan (the aforementioned GOP vice presidential candidate)  has made a number of claims about a variety of topics. He's not someone I'd vote for but then, to be honest, the whole GOP platform exhausts me. I can no longer tell crazy misogynists from Birthers from those that believe the earth is flat and global warming doesn't exist. Occasionally I try to read stuff and it makes me depressed. Even all the crazy rape stuff doesn't make me angry anymore - just really sad.

But back to Mr. Ryan - some media outlets have commented that he has a tendency to stretch the truth (or lie). But, by and large, there hasn't been a lot of comment on the mistruths. Until now. Because Ryan lied about something that really counts. That's right - his marathon time.

For those who haven't heard, Ryan made a claim that he'd run "marathons" and his best time was "under three hours". And, runners being runners, this was checked out. And it turned out to be false. He ran one marathon and did it in well over 3 hours. (JUST LIKE ME!!!!! WOOOHOOO!!!!! WE have so much in common).

It's pretty basic. Anyone who's every done a 10K Fun Run knows you don't make this stuff up. It's too easy to find out the truth. And someone always finds out the truth. I knew a guy who would DNF on races. He'd always find a shortcut and cheat. He'd cross the line, get the medal but, once it was discovered he hadn't actually run the race he'd get the disqualified. It was just so pointless on his part, and weird and kinda embarrassing for everybody else. BECAUSE EVERYBODY KNEW. Runners are like that, we read the stats and check up. Here's the link to the Runner's World article.

http://news.runnersworld.com/2012/08/31/paul-ryan-says-hes-run-sub-300-marathon/

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Yes, it's been awhile since I posted. I have photos and a bunch of other cool stuff to share about my adventures this summer once I have returned to the dark, damp and dour of Edinburgh. This story seemed too good and timely to pass on ...