Posted on 10/01/2004 7:18:05 PM PDT by Land_of_Lincoln_John
Not a day goes by when you don't think about running, right?
How many pass this fall when the all-out media blitz doesn't lodge the presidential race in your frontal lobe?
So why then were we a little surprised when the latest issue of Runner's World magazine hit the mailbox with Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards on the cover.
There was an informative Edwards profile/interview inside, but the article which caught my eye was headlined "Capitol Gains: Why Runner-Politicians are Better at Running the Country.''
That's news to me.
It turns out that both presidential candidates, President Bush and Democrat John Kerry, are runners.
Each has run a marathon. Bush had a treadmill installed on Air Force One. Kerry spent $8,000 on a Serotta race bike (triathlon, perhaps?).
But does this sort of avid physical fitness behavior make for better leaders?
According to the article, yes.
The magazine contends that all our national leaders, including the 75 members of Congress who consider themselves runners, benefit from the sport by having better drive and focus than their non-exercising counterparts.
As we know, leading a country can be a stressful job. Most runners have found running to be a great stress manager. After a good, hard, long workout, we're thinking a little more clearly ... or ready to take a nap, whichever comes first.
Carter Eskew, a consultant for the Democrats, claims that the brief break (often midday) running allows from the daily grind can result in better judgment and decision making.
"It allows them to step out of that [stressful environment] and into something more contemplative and reflective,'' Eskew told the magazine.
Isn't that what a lot of us common folk derive from running, too?
With the exception of Ronald Reagan, every president since the mid-'70s has been a runner. George W. ran a 3:44 marathon at Houston a decade ago. Kerry says he completed a Boston in the '70s but forgets his time (Question: Did he forget his qualifying time, too, or didn't he have to qualify?).
Even 2000 Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore finished a marathon once.
But it's Eskew's belief that George W., who was running six times a week during the 2000 campaign, did a better job of holding his weight down while Gore couldn't find time to run and puffed up.
Hanging chads or 20-pound weight gain? You be the judge.
Anyhow, just about any way you cut it, running can be good for a politician's career. Even if Bill Clinton did finish his daily run at McDonald's, it still sent out a positive message.
"The very act [of running] is one of determination,'' Democratic National Committee communications director Jano Cabrera told Runner's World. "That's a quality you look for in a leader. Running says that person is focused on an objective and has discipline, both physically and mentally, to get it done.''
You are a serious runner. The sport was looser, the Boston Marathon was looser, less formal in the 1970s. Many ran unofficially who couldn't make the cut to qualify as a registered runner. Kerry could have been one of them, not that I place trust in anything he says.
QUALIFYING TIMES*
AGE GROUP MEN WOMEN
18-34 3hrs 10min 3hrs 40min
35-39 3hrs 15min 3hrs 45min
40-44 3hrs 20min 3hrs 50min
45-49 3hrs 30min 4hrs 00min
50-54 3hrs 35min 4hrs 05min
55-59 3hrs 45min 4hrs 15min
60-64 4hrs 00min 4hrs 30min
65-69 4hrs 15min 4hrs 45min
70-74 4hrs 30min 5hrs 00min
75-79 4hrs 45min 5hrs 15min
80 and over 5hrs 00min 5hrs 30min
*An additional 59 seconds will be accepted for each age group time standard. For example, a net time of 3:50:59 will be accepted for a 42-year old woman.
Post #22 are the qualifying times for the 2005 Boston Marathon.
The qualifying standards were tougher when Kerry "qualified" for his Boston Marathon in the late 1970s. There still pretty tough, according the the Boston Athletic Association site. For the 2005 Boston Marathon, male runners have to be 45 years-old to slip in with a 3:30 qualifying time. And Kerry, as I mentioned in a previous post, turned 35 in 1979. (And if you believe his biography, he was working 25 hour days in the DA's office while also training for marathons in the late '70s.)
Running is by far the BEST thing any individual can do. Running just a few days a week gives you so much more motivation and energy to do things. Compare any runner vs a non runner and i would place money that the runner accomplishes far more and is more productive with their time.
That being said. I don't think I can every run a marathon. I mean damn, I hate running. I cap myself at 5 miles.
I was there. I never saw him. Believe me, after trashing the troops on TV and making me spit, I would have recognized him.
Can I do a commercial for the "Massachussettsians For Truth" 527 now?
Not so. See my post #6. You just had to show that you could run the marathon in less than four hours. As the Marathons get bigger, more restrictive qualifying standards are developed. The organizers try to restrict the numbers for a variety of reasons, particularly logistical. Even the Marine Corps Marathon in DC is done through a lottery system.
Every few years someone runs part of the race, hops onto a street car or subway or the T and rides and then crosses the finish line.
I would expect that JF'ingK would have had someone with a video camera taking pictures of him for posterity or at least of his posterior.
Found this book in a storage box, took a while to find it...From Hal Higdon's "Boston: A Century of Running":
1975-1979, Men's qualifying time, 3:00.
In 1980, That was dropped to 2:50.
Kerry's "Marathon Experience" took place at the peak of the running boom. The standards from 1970 on got tougher and tougher, only to be gently relaxed, make that very gently relaxed, since.
I ran Boston in the early 80's. I remember my qualifying race and time (Jersey Shore Marathon, 2:48:45) my finish place and time at Boston (2257 of 6664 in 2:56:59)and still have the finisher medal you only get by crossing the finish line. I'm sure that finisher lists are archived somewhere; maybe I'll google one up to cross check my memory!
If Kerry did run, he's on a list unless he ran "bandit" (unregistered).
I find that hard to believe that that standard applied to all runners regardless of age or sex. Women were allowed to run in the race in 1972. Nina Kissick won with a time of 3:10. In 1975 there were 2,395 entrants, which grew to 7,897 in 1979. There is no way that a blanket qualifying time of 3:00 could be applied and have that many runners in a field, which had women and older runners. In 1975 a German woman, Liane Winter, won with a women's world record time of 2:42.
In 1979 the Boston Marathon had a record of 3,031 runners breaking 3:00, which means that 4,861 finished above three hours. There is no way that a qualifying time of three hours could have been used to screen all entrants. 1980 was the famous Rosie Ruiz race. There were only 5,471 entrants, which could explain a tightening of qualifying times for the elite runners to 2:50. Higdon must have refering only to a certain male class of runners and not the entire field in terms of a qualifying time.
Kerry turned 36 in 1980. What 26.2 mile race did Kerry qualify in to get accepted into the Boston Marathon? And why is he so evasive on what year he ran it it, and what his time was. As a prior poster chimed in, it just doesn't smell right. Also, during this time period, Kerry, if I'm not mistaken, was the number 2 at the Boston's DA office. (Not sure of the exact jurisdiction). The local press might've mentioned something about his marathon ru at the time. And he was a two-time congressional candidate, plus the VVAW stuff...Hard to believe he slipped under the radar, since even then he was a celebrity of sorts....
You are preaching to the choir. John Kerry never ran the Boston Marathon.
Agreed.
Kerry was following Rosie Ruiz in the 1980 Boston Marathon before he learned that she wasn't rich.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.