Personally, I don’t know how he mustered enough courage to appear on the streets of New York after displaying some, uh, highly questionable pre-marathon behavior. But, I guess when you are pounding the pavement with nearly 40,000 other runners you figure you’re just a number.
Only, Lance Armstrong was anything but just a number. In fact, the seven-time Tour de France champ wasn’t even issued a race number like the rest of the field. Rather, he ran with a bib that spelled out his famous first name. (Nothing like trying to stay inconspicuous.) But, at least this year the 36-year-old retired cyclist didn’t have to run in shame from news reporters post race.
Regular readers of this blog know that I took Armstrong to task last year for the flippant remarks he made about competing in a marathon. This year the cancer survivor was infinitely more humble about race day and as a result blazed through the 26.2-mile route in a highly respectable time.
“In all honesty, it’s a huge challenge,” Armstrong told local news reporters at the starting point of the race, near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on Staten Island.
That’s a far cry from his remarks at last year’s race when he told reporters that he had barely trained for the race and was relying on his natural born athleticism to help him cross the finish line.
Last November Armstrong finished in just under three hours and vowed to race again so he could get his time to around 2:50. As it turned out today, he came in at 2:46:42. (The marathon’s winner won with a time of 2:09:04.)
Nice to see Armstrong’s late night pre-race rendezvous with Ashley Olsen didn’t hurt his time. Let’s just hope that he doesn’t credit her with finishing in the time he did.
I must say, Armstrong did look good as he crossed the finish line. His image was broadcast on an enormous TV monitor that was perched over the finish line and the musical theme to Entourage played while he headed down the home stretch.
Wonder if Ashley was watching?