Alastair Campbell discusses FLM with Bush

Don't know how many of you get "The Times" paper, but in today's regular feature on Alastair Campbell's running diary he discusses how he was at a summit last week with Blair & Bush and amazingly FLM came up in the discussions:

"I should not be too sore that the emergency summit deprived me of the 22-mile Sunday run I had been planning all week.......

even in momentous times, when work presses in from every corner, there is a part of the would-be marathoner’s mind that is forever occupied with thoughts of running.......

President Bush ran the Houston marathon in 1993 as part of his efforts to get over his father’s election defeat the previous year ........

In our Azores discussion he moved on to times, a source of infinite interest to runners, reminding me (again) that aged 46 (a year older than I am now) he’d completed his marathon in three hours 44 minutes, having run his first mile, and his last, at eight-minute mile pace. “Will you break four hours?” he asked. “Maybe. But this Iraqi business is doing nothing for my training.”

What a conversation!

To read in full click here.

If he's still training it must be a sure sign that the FLM will go-ahead!!

Good luck to him as very good cause he is running for.

fascinating-but look how much he's raised! good on him! and with all that stress-can't believe it really, that's why the FLM must go ahead, so all of us and all the other runners can donate their money to all their chosen charities, and run with total pride-wicked i can't wait!

Even if he does do over 4 hours, he'll "Spin Doctor" it into a time under three 45.

Right, I now have a target to beat! I may quite seriously see him near the finish. Ideally I want to do under 3:30, but this may be a tad optimistic, and 3:40 may be more likely.

An excellenat article. good luck to him!!!!

This week's article is also pretty good, he name drops exotic places he's run in but while at a recent Camp David meeting when post Iraq they were discussing the marathon (like you do ;-) )

"talks post-conflict Iraq turned to renewed discussions on whether I would beat the President’s 3hr 44min in the Houston Marathon of 1993, those of us who run were able to converse fluently on times, diet, motivation and mental techniques. Those who don’t run chipped in the odd comment or question, including one (I won’t say who from) who asked whether the London Marathon was the same distance as the Houston Marathon. You either speak running or you don’t."

Classic!

Article from The Times in full here.

I know Mr Bush is a runner but that sort of question has to have come from him!!!

He recently did a press conference where he had no script and had to think up the answers spontaneously.

He talked like a muppet.

finding out that celebrities/authority figures are runners normally endears them to me and makes me think of them in a different light.

george w. bush, however, is an exception. marathon runner or not, i couldn't bring myself to like this fella.

harsh but fair.