Did Paul Ryan pull a "Sarah Palin?" Update!

Courtesy of Runner's World:

In an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt last week, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said he's run a sub-3:00 marathon. 

In the interview, after Ryan told Hewitt that he ran in high school, Hewitt asked if Ryan still runs. Ryan replied, "Yeah, I hurt a disc in my back, so I don't run marathons anymore. I just run ten miles or less." When Hewitt asked Ryan what his personal best is, Ryan replied, "Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something." 

Runner's World has been unable to find any marathon results by Ryan. Requests for more information from Ryan's Washington and Wisconsin offices, and from the Romney-Ryan campaign, have so far gone unanswered. 

If Ryan has broken 3:00, he'd be the fastest marathoner to be on a national ticket. John Edwards has run 3:30; George W. Bush has run 3:44; Sarah Palin has run 3:59; (Still in dispute) and Al Gore has run 4:58.

Okay now I know that many politicians run more than just for political office.

But most of them, like Bill Clinton, just do it for exercise and without the need to make themselves seem like they are super athletes or anything.

However some, like Sarah Palin, have to create this ridiculous mythology about themselves, their families, and their athletic prowess.

Now did Ryan lie about his fleet feet? Well Runner's World dug a little further:

We have some new information on Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's claim in a radio interview of a sub-3:00 marathon. 

A spokesman for the Romney-Ryan campaign e-mailed Runner's World today to say Ryan ran Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, while a college student in 1991. 

When asked about Ryan’s finishing time, the spokesman said, "His comments on the [radio] show were the best of his recollection." 

Ryan's name does not show up in the 1991 race results provided by Grandma's. Runner's World checked 11 years of results for Grandma's Marathon, from 1988 through 1998, and found a finisher in the 1990 race by the name of Paul D. Ryan, 20, of Minneapolis. 

Ryan's middle name is Davis, and he was 20 in 1990. The finishing time listed was 4 hours, 1 minute and 25 seconds. 

We are awaiting confirmation from the Ryan camp that the vice presidential nominee is the Paul D. Ryan listed in the race results – and, if he is, whether he ran any other marathons faster than 4:01:25. 

What? Paul Ryan might be lying about his time? Who would do such a thing?

You know BESIDES a Republican whose convention speech was so full of lies that even Fox News could not let him get away with it.

Gee perhaps soon we will see a magical picture of Paul Ryan defying gravity as he runs in an out of the way foot race to prove HIS running bonafides.

Hey, it almost worked once before.

Update: Paul Ryan comes clean.

This according to the New Yorker:  

I contacted the campaign this evening about the discrepancy. Ryan, through a spokesman, responded that he’d just mixed things up: “The race was more than 20 years ago, but my brother Tobin—who ran Boston last year—reminds me that he is the owner of the fastest marathon in the family and has never himself ran a sub-three. If I were to do any rounding, it would certainly be to four hours, not three. He gave me a good ribbing over this at dinner tonight.”

Yeah, he forgot. I would be willing to bet that Ryan has been giving that "I ran a marathon under 3:00" his entire life. This is just the first time that he ever got called out on it.

From what we have learned about Paul Ryan since he was introduced as Romney's VP is that lying come very easily to him. (Indeed to the ENTIRE Republican party it seems.)

I think from this day forward I believe it is more than appropriate that we simply refer to the VP candidate as "Lyin Ryan."  And literally EVERYTHING that he and Mitt Romney needs to be fact checked up one side, and down the other.

Perhaps I was too quick to label yesterday's photo of Sarah Palin running as photoshopped.

Yesterday I posted a picture found on Gretawire of the Grizzled Mama running, that to be honest seemed very odd, which then led to many of us making the assumption that it was photoshopped.

Here let me show you the picture in question.

Now as the day unfolded numerous people rushed over here to correct my assertion that the photo appeared to have been manipulated. Other bloggers even wrote about how I had put my credibility in jeopardy by even suggesting that Sarah Palin had NOT run this race. And a few people whose opinion I respect said that they were not certain the picture was photoshopped either.

But you know sometimes I can be a real stubborn son-of-a-bitch so I was still pretty darn convinced that something hinky was going on here. But then I saw this picture:

Oh my god, what can I say?

Clearly this photo, which I am guessing was taken seconds after the first photo, shows Sarah "I am too a runner dammit!" Palin/Heath running so quickly that, not only do her feet not touch the ground, but she has just passed herself in the race. ("Laws of time and space do not apply to me, I am Sarah Palin bitchez!")

What can I say? Photos don't lie.

So let me take a moment to apologize.

First to Sarah Palin for assuming that just because she appeared virtually catatonic on Friday in Iowa, that she could NOT get herself healthy enough to place second in a half marathon, despite NOBODY in Wasilla ever seeing her running around town, nor on a treadmill at any of the gyms. Or that she would wait around for at least an hour after the race to have her picture taken with a Palin-bot (Who just happens to blog) to prove her participation.

And let me apologize to my visitors for automatically assuming that a woman who faked a pregnancy, substituted one baby for another, and whose daughter appeared on nationally televised dance contest while pregnant (Which she covered up for by claiming she was just more fit than the other contestants.), would EVER fake a marathon race.

I mean seriously, WHAT about this person would convince me to never take what she does at face value, and to always remain skeptical until I have proven to myself, without a shadow of a doubt, that we are NOT all being manipulated by somebody famous for her manipulative nature?

What was I thinking?