Last month, Miami mayor Francis Suarez announced his candidacy for president. Since then, his campaign has hit the ground running, including placing sixth in an Independence Day 5K.
Suarez, an avid runner, announced the start of his presidential run with a video of, well, himself running, and in keeping with the theme, he was happy to share his accomplishment on social media.
On Tuesday, the 45-year-old presidential hopeful tweeted, “Name another presidential candidate who can place 6th in a 5K with a 24-and-a-half minute run time,” along with a photo of himself running in the race.
However, that sixth-place finish was for his age group—out of 16 runners. That makes his overall finish 87th—not quite as impressive—but the 7:52 pace isn’t too shabby for a presidential candidate.
Suarez recently drew comparisons to fellow longshot candidate Gary Johnson after flubbing a question regarding Uyghurs during a podcast interview, and just like the candidates’ track record on foreign policy, their record on the track is comparable as well. Johnson also played up his running abilities, showing up for interviews while wearing his running shoes and hyping up his personal best mile time of 4:37.
So, how does Suarez stack up to other presidential hopefuls? Beto O’Rourke clocked in at 24:29 and 3rd in his age group in a 2019 5K, and he ran Houston’s 2022 Pride Run 5K in 21:44 (7 -minute pace). Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg claims a half-marathon personal best of 1:42 while stationed in Afghanistan, and Bernie Sanders’s first-ever mention in the New York Times was not due to his political aspirations but his involvement with the James Madison high school track team in 1956.
Of course, as we all know, the presidential race is more of an ultramarathon, so it is yet to be seen how far Suarez can go. As accomplished as all of the runners here may have been, none have yet been able to win the big race.
Laura Ratliff is a New York City-based writer, editor, and runner. Laura's writing expertise spans numerous topics, ranging from travel and food and drink to reported pieces covering political and human rights issues. She has previously worked at Architectural Digest, Bloomberg News, and Condé Nast Traveler and was most recently the senior editorial director at TripSavvy. Like many of us, Laura was bitten by the running bug later in life, after years of claiming to "hate running." Her favorite marathon is Big Sur.
