Fifty percent of runners admit to occasionally fudging their
PRs, and the other half are liars.
Actually, I guess that makes all of us liars. Which is why
it should come as no surprise that my opening sentence was, in fact, a lie. I
totally pulled that statistic out of Sarah Palin’s brain thin air.
Some might argue that lying is simply part of human nature.
When was the last time you made an honest statement about your weight? What
about your age? Your salary? Average number of drinks per week? The number of
fun-size Milky Ways you’ve eaten today?
But seriously, how many times have you rounded down a race
time when someone asks you how you did? I remember the day I finally broke 2:14
in the 800 meters for the first time. Well, technically I didn’t break 2:14. I
ran an altitude-adjusted 2:13.98. But that didn’t stop me from telling anyone
who would listen that my PR was 2:13.
I ran my first half-marathon a couple of months ago. My real
time? 1:28:34. But that didn’t account for water stops. Or my infamous Porta-Potty fiasco. Or time lost on turns. So really, my time was closer to
1:28. And if you adjust for heat and altitude…
I’ve learned that all Facebook statuses relating to run/race
times must be taken with a grain of salt. I’m sorry, but when you claim to have
run three miles in 17 minutes when I know for a fact that you gave birth two
months ago, I’m going to call bullshit.
When I see you at a local 10K three weeks later, a
teeny-tiny-intsy-weentsy-itty-bitty part of me will wonder whether your claim
was legit, and I will momentarily fret over the possibility of being beaten by
someone who, mere weeks ago, was carrying a full-grown human infant inside of
her body.
Then I will beat you by four minutes and feel good about it.
Later, I will feel guilty and stupid for celebrating my victory. (Although the
real victory is that I can celebrate with a post-race beer without having to
worry about it tainting my breast milk.)
The bottom line is that numbers are a slippery slope. But
there are certain people in this world who aren’t afraid of testing that slope,
even if it means collecting a few mud stains along the way. And those people
are politicians.
Political figures are always up for a good lie. I think it’s
their way of gauging the intelligence of their constituents. Some lies are
vague and inconsequential. Nobody seems to care when politicians vow to “do the
right thing,” or “fix the system in Washington,” or “create new jobs.” We all
know that these guys, if elected, won’t make much headway on any of these
promises.
Instead, they will probably father illegitimate children,
misappropriate campaign funds or have extramarital relationships with White
House interns. And then they will lie about it.
So, by way of deductive reasoning, if runners are liars and
politicians are liars, then politicians who run must be
ultra-super-duper-mega-liars.
When vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan claimed that he
had run a “two-hour and fifty-something” marathon in a recent radio interview, runners
everywhere perked up their ears with great interest. And skepticism.
If you’re reading this blog, you probably know why Ryan’s
statement raised so many eyebrows: because running a sub-three-hour marathon is
hard. I mean, I barely dipped below 1:30* in my half-marathon, and I’m a pretty
good runner**.
Unfortunately for Ryan, confirming the falsity of his marathon
time was even easier than confirming the paternity of the Schwarzenegger
housekeeper’s son. If Ryan really were a sub-three-hour marathoner, he probably
would have been aware of a little thing called race results.
Why he thought he could get away with it is beyond me.
Contrary to popular belief, runners are interested in lots of things besides
running—including presidential elections. It didn’t take long for the
government watchdogs at Runner’s World
to call shenanigans on Ryan’s claim. All they had to do was dig up some old
race results.
What really gets me is the degree to which Ryan exaggerated
his time. Knocking off a minute or two is one thing. I could even
forgive rounding to the nearest five minutes. But misstating your PR by more
than an hour? That’s just plain dumb!
Ryan’s only saving grace is that (1) most Americans don’t
give a hoot about marathon times, and (2) his lie has been overshadowed by even
more egregious fabrications, such as Rep. Todd Aiken’s imaginative take on the
female reproductive system.
Ryan might lose a few supporters in the running population.
He might even inspire a new vocabulary word in the running jargon handbook.
(“You ran a 19-minute 5K last weekend? You’ve got to be Pauling me.”)
But, for most voters, Ryan’s stretch of the truth probably
won’t be the deciding factor when they cast their ballots in November.
* Has been confirmed by documented evidence.
**Questionable at best.
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