Runner who first questioned Paul Ryan’s marathon time speaks out

[cbdo2007]

Runner who first questioned Paul Ryan’s marathon time speaks out
By Chris Moody, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 24 mins ago..

When Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said during an August radio interview that he once ran a marathon in less than three hours, North Carolina runner Bill Walker was impressed, but wanted more details.

The 63-year-old attorney, who has run four sub-three-hour marathons since college, posted a simple question on a message board for LetsRun.com, a national online forum for runners. "In an Aug. 22 interview by Hugh Hewitt, Representative Ryan said he had run a marathon in 'two hour and fifty something,'" Walker wrote on the message board. "Does anyone know the marathon and the year?"

In little time, hundreds of skeptical runners on the message board started questioning Ryan's claim that his best marathon time was "two hour and fifty something." The thread went viral. The day after Walker posted his question, Runner's World writer Scott Douglas started examining it. Turns out Ryan never ran a marathon in that time; a campaign spokesman was forced to walk back the comment.

....."A Vice-Presidential nominee telling a verifiable lie about himself should attract a lot of attention. It speaks to his character, and that's relevant to the issue of whether someone should vote for Romney-Ryan in November."

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/runner-first-questioned-paul-ryan-marathon-time-speaks-155321505--election.html

[peace13]

1. The irony here is..

that most Americans would have been impressed with Ryan completing a marathon. The lying liar could not stop there. He had to dope the time! All it took was one fellow competitor to ask an honest question and...boom goes the dynamite.

[TuxedoKat]

3. Indeed

Last edited Wed Sep 12, 2012, 05:18 PM - Edit history (1)

and the fact that he finished in just over four hours is impressive too. Not much foresight to think he would get away with falsifying his time in this day and age. The GOP has gotten away with the media not fact-checking their "statements" for so long though, guess he was lulled into a false sense of security or something.

Edited to correct time!

[ljm2002]

5. He did NOT finish a marathon in "just over three hours"...

...here is a citation showing his real marathon time:

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

A spokesman confirmed late Friday that the Republican vice presidential candidate has run one marathon. That was the 1990 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, where Ryan, then 20, is listed as having finished in 4 hours, 1 minute, and 25 seconds.

(emphasis mine)

[TuxedoKat]

7. Oops, sorry!

I meant to write just over four hours - sorry alot going on today. Helping some family members get ready to go overseas among other things.

Edited to add:

I didn't know if I could still edit the original post but was just able to do so now.

[ljm2002]

9. No worries...

...your basic point is certainly valid, running any marathon in a respectable time like four hours is impressive enough for most of us.

[sad sally]

8. Add to that his "excuse" that it was over 20 years ago so how could he be expected to remember what

the "facts" were is also troubling. Somebody who claims to be so smart and so good with numbers now has a bad memory. And he's the guy who wants to be number two in charge of the country?

[tnvoter]

2. A Romney take-down by an older white male republican in a swing state!

So sweet.

[HopeHoops]

4. He had on new sneakers - they made Eddie Munster run faster.

[Angry Dragon]

6. I have come out with a new sneaker line

They will take hours off your running times ........ guaranteed