Running for Presidents
Running for President?
When you are making your decision about who to vote for President of the USA, you may not consider whether your candidate is a runner in this calculus.
A recent email from Sam M. reminded me of that our presidents have a history of being runners.
Way back in 1979, President Jimmy Carter made news by collapsing during a 10Km road race.
While he was mocked for this “failure” it turns out Carter was a pretty decent cross country runner as a freshman at Annapolis Naval Academy.
President Bill Clinton was famous for his jogging to McDonalds and his creamy white thighs showing beneath short, shorts. (No, really. You want to click on that link.)
President George W. Bush was a pretty serious runner–probably the fastest we’ve had in my lifetime. While he didn’t have Clinton’s penchant for driving the Secret Service crazy by running in public places, Bush made trouble for the Secret Service by being fast enough that it was hard for them to keep up.
It’s pretty well known that President Barak Obama has a pretty sweet 3-point jump shot, but it turns out he was a runner too. He wrote about it pretty eloquently for a young writer.
You look down to watch your feet, neat unified steps, and you throw back your arms and run after people, and run from them and with them, and sometimes someone will shadow your pace, step for step, and you can hear the person puffing, a different puff than yours, and on a good day they’ll come up alongside and thank you for a good run, for keeping a good pace…
It makes me want to go for a run.
I wasn’t surprised to learn that Mitt Romney ran cross country as a high school student. Sadly, I can’t find out if he ran well or not.
While neither major candidate seems to be running currently, whoever wins this presidential election will know what it’s like to get out there and run.
While it is impossible to say whether the experience these men had as runners would in any way make them better at running the country, it’s nice to see they share an appreciation for this sport I cherish. In some way, it humanizes them. It makes me imagine we’d had something to talk about if we found ourselves standing together awkwardly at a cocktail party.