Forgetting Your Finishing Times

During the last half of Wasatch (100 Mile Endurance Run) this past weekend, my goal was to finish under 30 hours.  This wasn't just an arbitrary goal involving the tens-place minute digit of my finishing time, but backed tangibly by a buckle with a different design.

actually NOT what I was shooting for-- out of my reach,
but I don't have my sub-30 hour buckle yet and couldn't find a photo on the web

In between short conversations with other runners and their pacers, thoughts only half coherent due to fatigue and hypoxia, and nonverbal appreciation of the fantastic scenery, I tried to remember my finishing times of my other races this year.  I realized that none of my times stuck, especially my three earlier 100 mile runs.  Perhaps because it took me so much longer to finish than I had expected.  Or maybe I have now completed so many ultras (I think I am over 120 now, depending on how you count) that I don't really fixate over my times so much.

If someone asked me how long it took me to finish Bighorn (100 mile) this past June, and I answered "I think 27-something, pretty slow" when it actually took me almost 29 hours, probably an excusable factual error.  Plus with appropriate accompanying self-deprecation.

But saying your best time in a marathon (and the only marathon you've ever run in your life at that) was under 3 when it was actually over 4?  And then to pat yourself on the back publicly for being so fast?  Despicable!  This pathological liar wants to be our vice-president.

Paul Ryan, self-touted sub-3 marathoner and vice presidential candidate

I almost missed all this while I was camping and without good web access.

August 22, 2012, The Hugh Hewitt Show:

Hewitt: Are you still running?

Ryan: Yeah, I hurt a disc in my back, so I don’t run marathons anymore. I just run ten miles or less.

Hewitt: But you did run marathons at some point?

Ryan: Yeah, but I can’t do it anymore, because my back is just not that great.

Hewitt: I’ve just gotta ask, what’s your personal best?

Ryan: Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something.

Hewitt: Holy smokes. All right, now you go down to Miami University….

Ryan: I was fast when I was younger, yeah.

Ludicrous!  If I made a similar PR (double meaning intended) "oversight," I would answer, "I think I finished just under two hours.  Yeah, I was faster than the world's fastest."  Note he even lied about running more than one marathon by his use of plural/habitual.  He is reeking!

Whatever respect I can muster for his right to hold his conservative political views, I can't hear such a blatant lie without a deep-seated feeling of revulsion arise from the pit of my stomach.  There is a large pit in running hell for people who lie about their athletic accomplishments.  This dude is a self-aggrandizing, untrustworthy liar.  He is not to be trusted.  If he becomes my country's vice-president, I will be really pissed off.  Consider moving to Canada.  (Would be quite inconvenient, but great trail running there!)

If I ever saw him running, I might accidentally trip him.

Enough of my ranting, better to make fun.  This is hilarious, in case you haven't seen it yet.

Stephen Colbert's coverage of Ryan's one-hour post-race sort of course-cutting

God Bless America and Stephen Colbert!

And just saw this one:

The Original Paul Ryan Time Calculator