Marathons and president/vice-president hopefuls have been surprisingly interconnected over the past few years. George Bush Jr. ran a marathon in 3:44 in 1993. Sarah Palin ran one in 3:59 in 2005. In 1997 Al Gore finished the Washington Army Run in 4:54. American presidents are fitter than Canadian prime ministers, that's for sure.
But compare these paltry claims to Paul Ryan, who recently said he ran 26.2 miles in under three hours. Quite nice...except that he didn't do it. Turns out his claims were greatly exaggerated. His best and only marathon time was 4:01, and that was 20 years ago. It's sad to exaggerate claims for even for crap like this. Sadder still is that looking at Paul's general healthiness I could have even believed his claim. He seems fit and healthy now, so in his 20s he might have been quite the runner. And it's not that hard to get someone healthy in that kind of shape. But he didn't do it, end of story. Marathoners don't take kindly towards those who pretend such things, so a smile creeps over me to thing that he even tried. Such things are checked my friend. Then again, making up simple facts is right up his alley.
His personal beliefs aside, something else is seriously wrong with this guy.
UPDATE: Here's a piece in the Atlantic discussing why someone would attempt an obvious lie.
