Please check out this link to an article (essay) in the New York Times entitled "The Honorable Clan of the Long-Distance Runner." The writers are Amby Burfoot and George Hirsch, two of the best and most esteemed scribes of our sport. The article deals with the fact that Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan misremembered his one and only marathon time. Ryan claimed to have run a 2:50-something marathon, when in fact he had run a 4-plus hour marathon.
Geez, let's see: A politician embellishing his past accomplishments. Wow! Stop the presses! Seriously, not exactly groundbreaking stuff here.
But clearly, long-time runners have little tolerance for this. Our times, our performances, our PRs ... they are a part and parcel to who we are as runners. In many ways, they define us. They define our efforts -- past, present, future. Although we are knee-deep in XC season, training and racing hard in the fall, there are several men's distance runners already putting their minds' eyes on the elusive prizes in track -- school records that are known simply by their times: 14:18, 8:05, 4:08, 2:28, 1:52, 10:04. There is no mistaking or misremembering these numbers.
Anyway, it's a good read and I recommend it. Check it out.
yes sirrrrrr
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