Paul Ryan likes to keep fit. He hopes you can tell. *wink* So it is only natural that he would be an awesome marathon runner. So awesome that in a recent radio interview he claimed to have run a marathon in under 3 hours. Via Runner’s World:

“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.”

Being a running magazine, Runner’s World went about verifying the claim. Cue the sad trombone.

It turns out Paul Ryan has not run a marathon in less than three hours—or even less than four hours.

A spokesman confirmed late Friday that the Republican vice presidential candidate has run one marathon. That was the 1990 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, where Ryan, then 20, is listed as having finished in 4 hours, 1 minute, and 25 seconds.

His camp claims it was an easy mistake.

“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.”

Oh ho! A good ribbing! Seriously though, the Ryan brothers turn into Tommy Flanagan when they talk about sports.