Thursday, July 25, 2013

Who wants to Beat a Celebrity? Run Edition.


Today: A brief review of a WSJ article, and then....Celeb marathon times!


In this morning's edition of the Wall Street Journal there is an article entitled "Beating America's Fittest Mayor in a Triathlon" by Kevin Helliker

Basically the article talks about how the mayor of Chicago(Rahm Emanuel), is a super fit 53-year old who is "unbeatable" in the political world, and does the Chicago Triathlon each year placing well in his age group. But of course they take shots at him- he ONLY competes in the sprint (versus the Olympic/Intermediate distance), he HAS to start in the first wave to avoid standing around in the cold with everyone, and because of his position he can afford a "super-fast road bike". I don't agree with acting like it is less of an accomplishment because he "only" does the sprint, what about the billions of people who don't even do that? I also don't agree with "celebs" getting special treatment like early starts at races- you want to be "a normal person" but yet you can't start at same time as everyone else?

After taking shots at him, they allude to the fact that his triathlon times are even more impressive as his training time is limited being mayor of a big city and having a family- like there are no other full-time professionals with families out there that compete in triathlons? Let's see here, according to USAT the average income of a Triathlete is $126,000...I'm pretty sure that means they work full time and have busy schedules. Even more so, 74% of triathletes are married or in a committed relationship with 44% having children who live at home. So they work hard AND have families and can do various distance triathlons (including full Ironman).....Imagine that!!

Okay now for the fun stuff--
here are some celebrity marathon times...
see where you stack up!

George W. Bush 3:44 (Houston '93)
[Prior to his "run" for presidency]

Will Ferrell 3:56 (Boston '03)
[Did Mister funny man laugh his way into Boston...?]

Sarah Palin 3:59 (Anchorage '05)
["Buck up or stay in the truck"]

P.Diddy 4:14 (NYC '03)

Oprah 4:29 (MCM '94)

Drew Carey 4:37 (MCM '11)
[I'm really confused as to why he didn't run the Cleveland Marathon like I did... I mean..."Cleveland Rocks"]

Gordon Ramsay 3:36 (LA Marathon '10)
[I couldn't verify this one, but I'd like to run a race with him because we would win, he would yell at everyone in front of us to GTF out of the way]

Katie Holmes 5:29 (NYC '07)

Paul Ryan 4:01 (Grandma's '90)
[who can forget this whole ordeal! 
Don't forget to plug your time into the Paul Ryan Marathon calculator!]

Ryan Reynolds 3:50 (NYC '08)
This one made me sad- Men's Health reported his time as 3:20 and since we all know breaking 3:20 is my goal right now I really wanted to enlist this handsome man for help. After doing a little digging, I found his time was really 3:50 which is an incredible time but won't help me get my goal because if we ran together I'd want to be running behind him.
  For obvious reasons.


How do you feel about Celeb's getting special treatment?
[Early start times, special entries, etc.]

Should Celebs be allowed to buy their way into a race(such as Boston or NYC)- which they usually do? Why shouldn't they have to earn a BQ or wait in NYC lottery like everyone else?

Google celeb race times, or pick one from here...
What celebrity would you most like to beat?
(This doesn't have to be because of their time, maybe you just really want to show a celeb up?)

WHY is there a Wikipedia page for "Non-professional marathon runners" that is for celebs--what about the other billions of normal people that aren't "professional" that run marathons? Thoughts?



This is another edition of "reading the WSJ at work sparks a blog post idea" [Edition 1 here]


P.S. Don't forget you can follow me on BlogLovin :)

17 comments:

  1. I don't agree with celebrities being able to buy their way into Boston! That's a bunch of shit in my opinion but it probably gives the Boston Marathon more money for things, so I guess it all comes out even in the end. I hope. I'll just keep telling myself that anyway. And I don't agree with celebs getting special privileges either, WTH? And I believe the average person has a full-time job, family, and doesn't get maids/butlers/lawn people/etc. to do half of their dirty work... Just sayin'. LOL

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  2. Personally I don't care if celebs get an entry into certain races (not Boston...)...even NYC I wouldn't really care. But Boston, well you know my opinions align with yours in the whole ordeal. I think it's obnoxious how much they are praised for running a marathon. Seriously anyone can attempt to run a marathon with a prestigious coach and perfect training plan. It just annoys me how much the media covers that sort of thing.

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  3. I think it's total BS that celebs are allowed to buy their way into races. They should have to earn it or get picked through a lottery just like everyone else.

    The special treatment is also BS. Suck it up and tough it out like everyone else. I'd like to think I could beat Diddy's time in a marathon. I would also love to run with Gordon Ramsay or run behind Ryan Reynolds :)

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  4. Since I'm not a marathoner you can take my opinion with a grain of salt. I do agree that not enough credit is given to others who work full time, raise families, and train HARD. But I do think they let the celebrities buy their way in for a reason. Advertisements. If I run the Boston it's not going to be in Star, US Weekly or touted on Hilton Perez's blog. Now not only do they have the cash from the celeb but also a good three months worth of free advertising -- or more. So while it's not fair from an athletic perspective, from a business perspective it's extremely logical.

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  5. I might end up being in the minority here, but I don't necessarily disagree with celebs getting special treatment or being able to "buy" their way into a race. It all depends on the circumstances though. Is the celeb actually saying to the race organizer, I'll give you $x.xx to run your marathon, or are they "buying" their way in by going through a charity, which plenty of other people also do. Also I suspect that in many cases no money even needs to change hands and the race organizer is happy to have a celebrity at their race for the marketing opportunities. In terms of special treatment, I think avoiding the cold is a lame excuse, but I'd be okay with special treatment for safety or security reasons. It really doesn't bother me if Katie Holmes or Will Ferrell isn't standing in the port-a-potty line with the rest of us. After all, it's not like Ryan or Kara are either.

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  6. I don't think they should get buy ins or have early starts... Now if they want to donate some of their money to what ever charity the race is for then ok but start with the rest of us...
    Boston is a race you qualify for and if they don't qualify their big money shouldn't get them an automatic slot.....

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  7. I think I might be able to go sub-3 if Ryan Reynolds was being dangled in front of me, in running attire. Yum.

    I would should like to try and find out, anyway! :)

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  8. I don't agree with "special treatment"...but from a business standpoint I do...since the fact of the matter is - if you have a celeb at your event...that's going to generate alot of press for you

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  9. Honestly, I kinda think celebrities can buy their way into any race, even Boston or NYC. Yes, there are those who qualify with times, but there are plenty of people who run those races for charity and who raise money for charity. I admire them because they're working for that charity money by having car washes, doing Team in Training, fundraisers, etc- but I suppose a celebrity could do that and just pay the minimum for charity to run the marathon without doing the lottery or qualifying time. I guess anyone who has the money could do it that way, whether it's a celebrity or not. If you have enough money, you can buy or "fundraise" your way into anything, I guess.

    I don't think celebrities should get special treatment though, like a guaranteed early start time, etc- but then maybe some things they get special are for safety and for crowd control, not so much because of them being a celebrity, but to ensure their safety and the safety of other participants.

    I love the marathon times. Now I'm wondering whose time I should aim to beat in my full, haha. I've been wanting to beat Oprah's time but now I may set my sites on a little bit faster and aim for P.Diddy's, hehe. Gordon Ramsey is a lot fitter than I thought he would be, maybe I need to "carb-load" with crab cakes or something since that's what he always orders on Kitchen Nightmares.

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  10. You should check out Kirk Acevedo and Jonny Lee Miller's marathon times. They are both great actors and close to 3 hour marathoners. They are also both running NYC marathon this year.

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  11. This was a fun post to read!!! But I definitely don't think it's fair for celebs to have early start times and be able to buy their way into a race. I think they should have to work just as hard at it as the rest of us!

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  12. Honestly, when Oprah ran her marathon, that was the first time I REALLY thought that I could run one too. I know that she used the walk/run method, and there was something about watching her train (on TV, of course) and achieve her goal that inspired me. I didn't start running until years later, but I still remember that when I'm feeling discouraged.

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  13. My marathon goal is a 4:30, but we might need to change that to a 4:28 so I can beta Oprah.

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  14. I was talking to my dad the other day because they said that Hines Ward is doing the Kona Ironman. It bothers me that because he's a pro athlete he doesn't have to qualify for the Ironman National Championships, he can just pay his way in, where, regular people have to either qualify or hope they get in on the lottery.

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  15. Who knew GW Bush had that much speed in him? Fun facts!

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  16. I am with Abby. My goal for Toronto Waterfront Marathon (my first)is 4:30. But how can I let Oprah beat me??? I don't normally compare myself to other runners, but if I can't beat Oprah I am not going to be a happy runner.
    Just saw on Karla's blog you might be in Toronto too for the Waterfront race - have you done it before? I hear it is a great race.

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  17. This is hilarious. And, also sad. I would prob never be able to beat Oprah! Why would I target her?? I guess because I remember watching her train in her TV season before.
    Katie Holmes, don't forget, had Suri like 6 weeks before that marathon... she got a lot of flack for that, but it's ultimately freakin' amaze-balls.
    As for Ryan Reynolds, I whole heartedly agree. You tell him to buck up and get faster so he can be your rabbit ;) And take a pic for us ;)

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