# 18 North Carolina Moves Blue

...or not.  Here's what I hope will be the FINAL take on Ryan's Ruminations on His Run Time. It makes the point, though: if you can't trust a person on such a seemingly inconsequential "fact," what happens if he has to convey info on important matters?  It IS a matter of credibility. 
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When Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said during an August radio interview that he once ran a marathon in less than three hours, North Carolina runner Bill Walker was impressed, but wanted more details.

The 63-year-old attorney, who has run four sub-three-hour marathons since college, posted a simple question on a message board for LetsRun.com, a national online forum for runners. "In an Aug. 22 interview by Hugh Hewitt, Representative Ryan said he had run a marathon in 'two hour and fifty something,'" Walker wrote on the message board. "Does anyone know the marathon and the year?"

In little time, hundreds of skeptical runners on the message board started questioning Ryan's claim that his best marathon time was "two hour and fifty something." The thread went viral. The day after Walker posted his question, Runner's World writer Scott Douglas started examining it. Turns out Ryan never ran a marathon in that time; a campaign spokesman was forced to walk back the comment.
And it all started with one question on a message board.

"I just wanted to know," Walker said in an interview posted Wednesday on LetsRun.com. "If he had really run a marathon in that range, I would be impressed because I know the effort that goes into a sub-three-hour marathon. But, if he was lying or really stretching the truth, I thought that would be significant since he had just been nominated to run for Vice-President on the Republican ticket."   (emphasis added).

Walker says he is a registered Republican, but will be voting for President Barack Obama in November.