One of the most amusing things about the US press, especially during election season, is the tendency to label everything. Frequently the incident is given a one word title, followed by the suffix "gate". Remember Watergate?
Now we have the latest rendition of "gate". Marathongate.
For anybody who has ever ran of jogged, this should be of some interest.
VP candidate Paul Ryan recently claimed the have ran a "sub 3, or 2:50 something marathon back in 1990. Turns out it was more like 4:01. Here is hoping for the future of the US, should he ever move up the political scale, that his budget math is better then his recollection of his time in his only marathon.
For those not familiar with running times, a sub-3 would be better than 7 minutes a mile. Quite a feat to anybody who achieves it. A time of 4:01 makes him little more than a weekend "jogger". Quite a difference.
Mainstream Media's Brilliant "Marathongate"
"Fast and Furious? Pish-Posh!
National debt? Balderdash! Obama's birth certificate? Silly ramblings.
Now we have something truly important, if not wondrous, that may even be operative within our national security, and it involves the GOP's VP candidate. Yes, indeed, contact Mossad and the CIA, and quickly, this could get out of hand.
The stunning word is that Paul Ryan may have exaggerated on the time he took to finish a marathon, and the Press is hot on the trail. Below is what could be a Pultzer-Prize winning article that will stun the nation's collective, and I do mean "Collective," from none other than the Huffington Post:
Paul Ryan's campaign walked back comments the VP nominee made about running a marathon.
"I had a two hour and fifty-something" marathon, Ryan said last week an interview. "I hurt a disc in my back, so I don’t run marathons anymore."
But the Ryan campaign confirmed to Runner's World that he has only run one marathon, the 1990 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, which he finished in just over 4 hours.
"The race was more than 20 years ago, but my brother Tobin—who ran Boston last year—reminds me that he is the owner of the fastest marathon in the family and has never himself ran a sub-three," Ryan said in a prepared statement. "If I were to do any rounding, it would certainly be to four hours, not three. He gave me a good ribbing over this at dinner tonight."
The admission comes after wide speculation that Ryan had exaggerated his marathon time. Running a sub-3 hour marathon means averaging under 7 minutes per mile for the entire race, a possible but extremely impressive feat. As the New Yorker's Nicholas Thompson put it, "It’s the difference between racing and running."
This isn't the first time Ryan has come under fire this week for stretching the truth. His RNC speech was chastised for misleading claims about Medicare and the 2008 closing of a Wisconsin plant.
The running fib "sounds trivial," wrote the New York Times' Paul Krugman. "But I remember the 2000 campaign, when Al Gore was constantly hounded by claims of fibbing on trivial issues — claims that, by the way, were all, as far as I could tell, fabricated. These alleged fibs supposedly showed some deep defect in his character. So if Ryan is making false claims about his physical prowess, this is absolutely fair game."
Indeed, and I hear he exaggerated even on the size of a fish he once caught while ice-fishing. Word is, from the Democrats, that Ryan even cheated by sawing a hole in the ice to catch it. National implications, to be sure.
More on this as it non-develops.
Barry Secrest, Charlotte Conservative Examiner
North Carolina native Barry Secrest is the owner of two successful small businesses of 25 years and the highly successful political website, Conservative Refocus. He is an Honor Graduate of the U.S. Navy Technical School, recipient of the National Republican Congressional Committee's National...
Now we have the latest rendition of "gate". Marathongate.
For anybody who has ever ran of jogged, this should be of some interest.
VP candidate Paul Ryan recently claimed the have ran a "sub 3, or 2:50 something marathon back in 1990. Turns out it was more like 4:01. Here is hoping for the future of the US, should he ever move up the political scale, that his budget math is better then his recollection of his time in his only marathon.
For those not familiar with running times, a sub-3 would be better than 7 minutes a mile. Quite a feat to anybody who achieves it. A time of 4:01 makes him little more than a weekend "jogger". Quite a difference.
Mainstream Media's Brilliant "Marathongate"
"Fast and Furious? Pish-Posh!
National debt? Balderdash! Obama's birth certificate? Silly ramblings.
Now we have something truly important, if not wondrous, that may even be operative within our national security, and it involves the GOP's VP candidate. Yes, indeed, contact Mossad and the CIA, and quickly, this could get out of hand.
The stunning word is that Paul Ryan may have exaggerated on the time he took to finish a marathon, and the Press is hot on the trail. Below is what could be a Pultzer-Prize winning article that will stun the nation's collective, and I do mean "Collective," from none other than the Huffington Post:
Paul Ryan's campaign walked back comments the VP nominee made about running a marathon.
"I had a two hour and fifty-something" marathon, Ryan said last week an interview. "I hurt a disc in my back, so I don’t run marathons anymore."
But the Ryan campaign confirmed to Runner's World that he has only run one marathon, the 1990 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, which he finished in just over 4 hours.
"The race was more than 20 years ago, but my brother Tobin—who ran Boston last year—reminds me that he is the owner of the fastest marathon in the family and has never himself ran a sub-three," Ryan said in a prepared statement. "If I were to do any rounding, it would certainly be to four hours, not three. He gave me a good ribbing over this at dinner tonight."
The admission comes after wide speculation that Ryan had exaggerated his marathon time. Running a sub-3 hour marathon means averaging under 7 minutes per mile for the entire race, a possible but extremely impressive feat. As the New Yorker's Nicholas Thompson put it, "It’s the difference between racing and running."
This isn't the first time Ryan has come under fire this week for stretching the truth. His RNC speech was chastised for misleading claims about Medicare and the 2008 closing of a Wisconsin plant.
The running fib "sounds trivial," wrote the New York Times' Paul Krugman. "But I remember the 2000 campaign, when Al Gore was constantly hounded by claims of fibbing on trivial issues — claims that, by the way, were all, as far as I could tell, fabricated. These alleged fibs supposedly showed some deep defect in his character. So if Ryan is making false claims about his physical prowess, this is absolutely fair game."
Indeed, and I hear he exaggerated even on the size of a fish he once caught while ice-fishing. Word is, from the Democrats, that Ryan even cheated by sawing a hole in the ice to catch it. National implications, to be sure.
More on this as it non-develops.
Barry Secrest, Charlotte Conservative Examiner
North Carolina native Barry Secrest is the owner of two successful small businesses of 25 years and the highly successful political website, Conservative Refocus. He is an Honor Graduate of the U.S. Navy Technical School, recipient of the National Republican Congressional Committee's National...
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