You likely know that Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was fleet of foot as a youngster. He has claimed a personal best of 4:37 in the mile.
But another candidate, whose campaign is gaining steam, is no slouch himself.
“Any day that I am not campaigning, I train an average of two to three hours a day,” Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico and the Libertarian candidate for president, told Runner’s World Newswire by email. “Campaigning 6 a.m. to midnight—[training is] not happening, although I walk as often as is possible.”
Johnson appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert last week, sporting a pair of Nike Zoom Air Pegasus 32 running shoes—footwear highly unusual for a man seeking the highest office in the land, but completely appropriate for a lifelong athlete.
It hs been widely reported that Johnson is into extreme and endurance sports—he has climbed Everest and competed in the Ironman World Championship at Kona, Hawaii. But he was a speedy runner. In an email, he listed some of his best efforts at various distances:
“For starters—best marathon time, 2:48, Fiesta Bowl, 1984. Best 10K, 33:45. Best Olympic triathlon, 1991, 2 hours. Best Ironman Hawaii, 10:38, 2001. 16 marathons (Boston 2002 3:13ish). Leadville 100 mile run.”
A search for results from the 1984 Fiesta Bowl didn’t yield Mr. Johnson, but we did find a 29-year-old Gary Johnson from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who ran even faster—2:47:27 at that race in 1982.
And Boston’s official results have the then-49 year governor running a chip-timed 3:11:11 in 2002.
We also found results to support his Leadville performance. In 1989, he completed the rugged 100-miler in 29 hours, 45 minutes, 9 seconds.
Jeff is Runner-in-Chief for Runner’s World and the director of product testing. He has tested and reviewed running shoes, GPS watches, headphones, apparel, and more for nearly two decades. He regularly tests more than 100 pairs of shoes each year, and once had a 257-day streak running in different models. Jeff can usually be found on the roads, racing anything from the mile to a marathon, but he also enjoys racing up mountains and on snowshoes. When he’s not running, you’ll probably find him hanging from a ladder making repairs and renovations to his house (he’s also director of product testing for Popular Mechanics).
