Runners World: We Can’t Verify Paul Ryan’s Sub-3-Hour-Marathon Claim

[highplainsdem]

Source: TPM

Runners World magazine is looking into Paul Ryan's claim that he ran a marathon in less than three hours.

"Runner's World has been unable to find any marathon results by Ryan," Scott Douglas wrote Friday. "Requests for more information from Ryan's Washington and Wisconsin offices, and from the Romney-Paul campaign, have so far gone unanswered."

-snip-

Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/runners-world-we-cant-verify-paul-ryans-sub

---

Oh, those pesky fact-checkers! Won't even let a candidate for VP get away with making an unsubstantiated claim that he ran a marathon much faster than any other marathoner on a national ticket.


From Runners World:

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

In an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt last week, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said he's run a sub-3:00 marathon.

In the interview, after Ryan told Hewitt that he ran in high school, Hewitt asked if Ryan still runs. Ryan replied, "Yeah, I hurt a disc in my back, so I don't run marathons anymore. I just run ten miles or less." When Hewitt asked Ryan what his personal best is, Ryan replied, "Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."

Runner's World has been unable to find any marathon results by Ryan. Requests for more information from Ryan's Washington and Wisconsin offices, and from the Romney-Ryan campaign, have so far gone unanswered.

If Ryan has broken 3:00, he'd be the fastest marathoner to be on a national ticket. John Edwards has run 3:30; George W. Bush has run 3:44; Sarah Palin has run 3:59; and Al Gore has run 4:58.

-snip-

[livetohike]

1. Is there anything Ryan won't lie about? n/t

[tooeyeten]

47. No

[tufnel]

2. When I say I ran under a 3

Just believe me.

[pnwmom]

5. Welcome to DU, tufel! nt

[Squinch]

10. When I say I ran under a 3

I meant that I ran a couple of miles holding up a sign with the number 3 on it.

[tomm2thumbs]

68. Maybe he said 'I ran under a TREE' -- chewing gum and talking ain't easy ya know

never easy for the Republicants

[smirkymonkey]

89. LOL! Good one!

[xtraxritical]

15. I think they're all lying, 25 miles, sure, sure.

[NV Whino]

3. Lyin' Ryan at it again, huh?

[cyclezealot]

4. Something Paul has in common with Chinese communists..

Other than exporting our jobs to them..
. Remember Chairman Mao.. He swam upstream and almost set a world record. Could be Ryan's boasting equals Chairman Mao's.

[central scrutinizer]

43. Kim Jung Il got 11 holes-in-one in one round of golf

top that, aRyan!

[matt819]

45. And I think that was in his first round of golf ever (nt)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

73. It was a 9 hole short round.

[alphafemale]

6. All he'd have to do is name the race.

Oh...and be very cautious around people who say trust me.

[Blue Owl]

7. Ryan's memory could use some jogging

n/t

[Yavin4]

8. I Wonder If His Name Really is Paul Ryan?

He lies about everything else.

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. ROFL

[Gormy Cuss]

29. Maybe his name is really Rosie Ruiz

On April 21, 1980 Ruiz appeared to win the Boston Marathon's female category with a time of 2:31:56. Her time would have been the fastest female time in Boston Marathon history as well as the third-fastest female time ever recorded in any marathon. However, suspicions mounted about Ruiz almost from the beginning. Men's winner Bill Rodgers, who had just won his third straight Boston Marathon, noticed that Ruiz could not recall many things that most runners know by heart, such as intervals and splits. Other observers noticed that Ruiz was not panting or coated in sweat, and her thighs were much flabbier than would be expected for a world-class runner. She later released stress-test results showing her resting heart rate as 76. Most female marathoners have a resting heart rate in the 50s or lower....

The most damning evidence against Ruiz surfaced when two Harvard students, John Faulkner and Sarah Mahoney, recalled seeing Ruiz burst out of a crowd of spectators on Commonwealth Avenue, half a mile from the finish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_Ruiz

[mysuzuki2]

56. I was standing a couple hundred yards from the finish line that day and saw Rosie finish.

She did NOT have the appearance of a world class runner.

[underpants]

88. Yavin THAT is the best line I have heard yet to sum up this Lying Liar

thanks I will use it....liberally

[Blue Idaho]

9. A Marathoner that can't remember their personal best time?

Give me a break.

[HangOnKids]

20. And The Name of the Race & Probably The Date

I could give you my stats right now! Napa 3:36 March 1994.

[BlueStreak]

38. Can't remember the first girl he kissed either

Or what school he graduated from.

Or his first car.

This guy has been a big fish in a little pond with no serious competition for his seat before this year. He obviously was never held accountable to anything in his prior campaigns. And the beltway media only wanted to talk about how handsome he is and what a great workout he does every day.

And he only appears on Faux, where they never challenge anything. So he has been conditioned to just make shit up.

I am trying to think of anything of substance I have heard him say that was actually true.

[hobbit709]

11. What's to figure out? Were his lips moving? Then he's lying.

[catbyte]

12. Wow. You know you have a problem with the truth

when Runner's World comes after you!



Diane
Anishinaabe in MI & mom to Taz, Nigel, and baby brother Sammy, members of Dogs Against Romney, Cat Division
"Dogs Aren’t Luggage--HISS!”

[Cha]

19. ...

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. Even Palin didn't make that claim

[petronius]

14. Well he didn't claim to have done it all at one time, right?

Maybe he just sprinted around a track 105 times, over the course of a year or so. Wouldn't that be just as good?

[goclark]

24. That is the only way he could do it!

....A "narcissist" is someone who desperately needs other people to validate their own worth. It includes lying and delusions.

[sakabatou]

16. Ryan: Trust me, like you trust Romney with his taxes!

[arcane1]

17. Kim Jong Il got 11 holes-in-one in golf once

[Cha]

18. Fucking Lyan. No wonder Anngry wanted him

on the ticket. "That fucker can lie like mitt and me."

[alcibiades_mystery]

21. That is a pretty fucking ridiculous lie to tell, if it's a lie

It's verifiable and the claim is fantastical: it takes a helluva lot of talent, training, stamina and effort to run a sub-3 hour marathon. I know people who've run daily for 20 years and have run multiple marathons that couldn't manage under 3 hours 10 minutes no matter how hard they tried. Real runners. Sub three hour is tight as hell. If he didn't do it, this would be close to making him a laughingstock. It's like a dude in high school telling you he benches 340. It's a weird as hell lie to tell.

[jobycom]

61. It demonstrates more about him than his other obvious lies so far.

It demonstrates that he'll lie when it does no good and when he will probably get caught at it. That's not just a personality problem, that's a mental illness.

[area51]

70. +1 n/t

[smirkymonkey]

90. I think he has a personality disorder. Seriously.

I am not sure which one - seems to be a combination of many. But I am sure he is not quite right mentally or psychologically

[lolamio]

23. I've run several marathons...

I've never run a sub 3 hour marathon, but I have had times good enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon three times. A male running a sub 3 hour marathon is a guaranteed Boston Qualifier (BQ). It shouldn't be that hard to track down the results and the race at which he achieved his BQ. I call BS, but of course we all know that anyway.

[underpants]

87. I have run 4

You don't just "get in" a 10 miler - that is still a LONG run both in distance and in time AND on the body. I haven't done 10 since I was training for the Richmond marathon last year because you have to work into that.

Not knowing his PR or at least getting close to it is also a red flag. Mine is 4:30 - I ran that at about 250 lbs - and every marathoner can talk for hours about almost each of their runs. Those are days of your life that you will never forget.

NOW I am offended by Ryan. Don't lie about "marathonS" take pride in your one but don't say you've run multiple.

For the record I have started 5 but only finished 4 - I just couldn't do the last 10 MILES on one of them - Last November in my last complete marathon I walked the last 7 miles due to cramping.

[mathematic]

25. Eh, it's believable. Sub 3hrs isn't that hard for a young runner

He ran track in HS and has a runner's frame. Race results from over 15 years ago are hard to find. So his claim combines believability with (potential) unverifiability. Since he's a politician that probably means he's lying.

[Aviation Pro]

28. Funny...

...I can find all the races I participated in since the 1990s.

Having a runners frame is one thing, doing 6:00/min miles for 26.2 is another.

[mathematic]

30. Sub 3 is a 6:50 pace, not a 6:00 pace. That's a big difference.

If he said he ran a 2:37 marathon, I'd find that unbelievable.

As for race results, I can't find any of the ones I was in during the 90s. I think you'll find that full race results weren't getting published online regularly until the late 90s.

[Aviation Pro]

34. I was being general....

....any 6 - 7 minute mile over that distance is always a nut to crack.

[groundloop]

51. But he couldn't even remember his PR

That's a number EVERY serious runner can quote without hesitation. My daughter runs track and cross country, ask any runner on the team or any parent who used to run what their best time was and they don't have to stop and think about that. He was just making that up as he went, it's total BS.

[Quantess]

26. We already know he's a liar.

What difference does it make if he really did run 22.5 miles in less than 3 hours? His pathological lying habit discredits him.

[jsr]

27. A perfect dirty operator for the Mormon bishop

Ryan lies as easily as he breathes.

[carlotta]

31. A good friend has done it multiple times

He placed third in in his age group at the Boston Marathon a couple of years ago. 2:43. But he's been training and runnning for years and is a running coach.

Not buying it for Ryan.

[jtuck004]

32. Is this the Vulture/Voucher jobs plan? Create the need for hundreds of thousands of

fact checkers because no one can trust ANYTHING they say?

[SoapBox]

33. I'm sure he can do it under 3 because

Liar, LIAR your f'n pants are on fire!

[AsahinaKimi]

35. You mean he doesn't have a world record? Three Olympic gold Metals? What a liar!

[DavidL]

36. Lyin Ryan, that's all there is to that!

The man cannot tell the truth.

My bets?: this was a HALF marathon.

[rurallib]

37. easy to settle - have him do it again.

the whole country can watch this time.

[Mr.Bill]

39. So he remembers his personal best marathon time

as ending in "something"?

[tblue37]

40. He won't release any more information about which race or what the exact time

was, because it will just give reporters and Democrats more stuff to comb through for "ammunition," and then if they get the results of one race, they will want to see results from even more races. </Ann Romney>

[zuzu98]

41. anyone I lnow who has run a sub 3 marathon

including my husband (2:52:20) can tell you the exact time, the race and the year, if not the precise date. And everyone they know will have heard the story.

BULL. SHIT.

[jmowreader]

42. He plans to run the country into the ground in less than four years

That's more important than whether he ran a sub-three-hour marathon.

[Pat Riot]

44. a marathon is 26.2 miles

Not picking a fight, just my OCD acting up.

[eppur_se_muova]

79. .

[Mr.Bill]

46. I will concede

that Paul Ryan's best marathon time was probably better than Chris Christie's.

[PMcDee]

48. Republican Response

But Gore claimed he invented the internet and Obama thinks there are 57 states!

[mathematic]

49. Update: It was a 4(!) hour marathon

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

That's not even close. You have to be quite delusional to think you're over an hour faster than you are.

[groundloop]

53. Good catch. Runners World doesn't take kindly to cheats and liars

I'm glad to see they've called him out on this.

[Heather MC]

55. My dh can do it in 3:42 Ryan is slow on his feet, but a fast liar

[Jimbo S]

63. The results state Mpls as the residence for Paul D. Ryan

Paul Ryan attended Miami (Ohio) in Oxford.

However, I admit I don't know if he attended any other colleges or if he transferred.

[mathematic]

64. Oh that's definitely him. See place 2028, Stan Ryan, older brother & MN resident

Ryan's totally busted on this one.

[lolamio]

66. So instead of a 2:50ish, it's possibly more like 4:01ish?

That's quite a difference. Seriously. If this is really the same person, then why on earth lie about something like this?

[FailureToCommunicate]

50. 26 miles in three hours? BFD!

I ran 150 miles to Sparta and back - AND had just run at the Olympics- before that little Marathon to Athens jaunt!

[Heather MC]

52. My DH has run over 30 Marathons

And I Google his name and find just about everyone of his race results he ran. even the smallest of Marathons uses an electronic shoe chip. If Ryan ran Marathon that fast his name would be on a race roster unless he ran it illegally.

[nickolas007]

54. i ran too

I ran 40 miles to Sparta and back

[zbdent]

57. I killed seven in one blow!

[zonkers]

58. "Marathongate" This story has legs.

[DreamGypsy]

59. I have 35 sub-3-hour marathon finishes...

ranging from 2:40:41 at San Francisco Marathon 1983 to 2:58:39 at Golden Gate Marathon 1982. My only Boston finish was in 1980 when I came in 'behind' Rosie Ruiz in 2249th place at 3:09:24. My best recent finish was 3:11:13 at Avenue of the Giants in 2007, good enough for a 12th place.

I have good documentation for all of the 6,487.54 miles (10,440.69 kilometers) I have run in various races.

I have no desire to lie my way into the Vice-Presidency.

[Jimbo S]

60. I run marathons in SE Wisconsin

in fact I keep an unofficial list of all Wisconsinites under 3:00.

http://www.wisrunningstats.com/honorroll.htm

Trust me, if Paul said what he did, I'd be very aware of it. I've never seen him or his name in any results in this area.

I don't care for his politics, but he'd always seemed like a stright-shooter. This is a side of him I find surprising.

[nuxvomica]

71. He may have run under the name "Tommy Flanagan"

[alcibiades_mystery]

72. ROFL

[spooky3]

62. He probably only does P30X, too.

[obamanut2012]

77. lol

[TexasBushwhacker]

65. They can't find ANY marathon results n/t

[tomm2thumbs]

67. Maybe he had a dream about it - those can really seem real ya know

sort of like his dream of how to balance the budget by throwing more money at the rich and taking it from the middle class.... that sorta dream

[PMcDee]

69. Serial Liar?

The more I see of this guy the more I think that he is. Not only does he lie about political issues but he also lies to make himself appear to be something he is not. He has always been a big fish in a little pond and nobody ever called him out on stuff like this. There is no way he is going to be able to stand up to a national campaign.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

74. Quelle surprise! Lyin' Ryan actually run in 4:01:25 and it was a long time ago. (thread link)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021246929

[olegramps]

75. He exhibits the same pathological lying traits as a fascist.

Fascists are zealots who are capable of justifying even the most hideous crimes in their zeal to achieve their desired results.

Ryan believes that he is on a God inspired mission that allows him justification to exaggerate and out-right bare false witness. His fabrications reveal a seriously warped conscience of a person if put in a position of authority can can have disastrous consequences. He has demonstrate that he will not hesitate to lie about President Obama.

He is fully conscience that he is purposely feeding his adherents falsehoods that stroke their prejudices. He is doing absolutely nothing different than Hitler did when he played on the animosity of Jews that had been breed into millions Europeans over centuries. Just useful idiots whose prejudices make them easy recruits for demigods like Ryan.

Hitler attacked the very same type people who are derided by the religious fanatics who have hijacked the Republican Party. Ryan has become their standard barer whose ultra-conservative extremism is seen as a virtue rather than an embarrassment. Far ranging from homophobia equating it with perversion, unquestioning acceptance of religious doctrine and a Flat Earth mentality that includes the rejection of scientific fact ranging from evolution to the to the asinine belief that the universe was created a mere few thousands years ago in six days.

[speedoo]

82. Very interesting.

I'm not yet ready to equate Ryan with Hitler, but I can't disagree with any of your points either.

[olegramps]

83. It wasn't my intention to equate him with Hitler.

However, I believe that zealots exhibit the same ability to disregard basic morality to achieve their goals. Consider the pious monks who tortured innocent women into confessing and then sanctimoniously burned them alive. When people believe they are pursuing a holy cause they are the ability to sanctioned behavior that is barbaric. Similarly, people who supposedly God fearing church pious believers turned into mobs who lynched Blacks. A generation latter their children spat on Blacks, beating them and sicing dogs on them when the had the audacity to demand decent treatment. As my father warned me years ago there is nothing more contentious than some whore who got religion.

[Lex]

78. Romney's "running" mate

There's something clever to made of that but I haven't had enough coffee yet today.

[eppur_se_muova]

80. Hey, he's creating his own reality !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community

Only wimpy liberals deal with reality as it actually is.

[Canuckistanian]

81. And he's supposedly the GOP's "numbers guy"?

Hey, Aryan/Ryan! The CORRECT numbers MATTER

[alterfurz]

84. "I worry that the story of Paul Ryan lying about his marathon time will overshadow the fact...

...that he's a sociopath." -- Andy Borowitz

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/09/ryan-calls-nomination-greatest-triumph-since-winning-tour-de-france.html

[Herlong]

85. Sad

His abs where great. For reason of his current lies, I cannot support Paul Ryan as Vice President on the United States. I'm going with Joe Biden.




I really wanted to go for the douche-bag.

[renate]

86. "I really wanted to go for the douche-bag"

good one!

[adigal]

91. Runners are pissed

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