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WaPo Lawmaker Rankings
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The Washington Post has ranked the athletic feats of various lawmakers according to a "panel of experts." Personally, I think Bart Gordon's 3 mile run in 16:59 (5:40/mile) at age 46 should rank higher than Jean Schmidt's 3:49:05 marathon at age 54. And both of those performances should be ranked much higher than Kyrsten Sinema's 12:59:57 Ironman at age 42.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/...m_term=.57de4ae71a2e
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Re: WaPo Lawmaker Rankings [Celerius] [ In reply to ]
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That's pretty funny. Too bad they didn't include Paul Ryan's "I had a two hour and fifty-something." marathon. To this day I refer to https://paulryantimecalculator.com/ to inflate my athletic accomplishments.
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Re: WaPo Lawmaker Rankings [T-wrecks] [ In reply to ]
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T-wrecks wrote:
That's pretty funny. Too bad they didn't include Paul Ryan's "I had a two hour and fifty-something." marathon. To this day I refer to https://paulryantimecalculator.com/ to inflate my athletic accomplishments.

I just used it to qualify for Boston!!!(pink)
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Re: WaPo Lawmaker Rankings [T-wrecks] [ In reply to ]
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T-wrecks wrote:
That's pretty funny. Too bad they didn't include Paul Ryan's "I had a two hour and fifty-something." marathon. To this day I refer to https://paulryantimecalculator.com/ to inflate my athletic accomplishments.

Wow! I just ran sub 1-hour half marathon 2 weeks ago!

808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo
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Re: WaPo Lawmaker Rankings [Celerius] [ In reply to ]
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Celerius wrote:
The Washington Post has ranked the athletic feats of various lawmakers according to a "panel of experts." Personally, I think Bart Gordon's 3 mile run in 16:59 (5:40/mile) at age 46 should rank higher than Jean Schmidt's 3:49:05 marathon at age 54. And both of those performances should be ranked much higher than Kyrsten Sinema's 12:59:57 Ironman at age 42.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/...m_term=.57de4ae71a2e

Agreed, Sinema really should be on the "High but not next level" meaning the experts probably have the same understanding of an Ironman as my coworkers. i.e. 24 miles of swimming, cycling the tour de france and then running a 2:05 marathon.

If they included Sinema's recent opponent who did I think around 11 hours in Kona in the early 90s, I would have voted her into the top group.

Aside from that, I am impressed with Neil bench pressing 272 at 72. Not very impressed with those times for the JFK 50 milers (10+ hours is certainly not "speedy") not that I could do faster but my wife did 9:18 on poor training and a hip injury.

808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo
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Re: WaPo Lawmaker Rankings [Celerius] [ In reply to ]
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As a life long rock climber and also endurance athlete, I think Katie Hill lead climbing 5.12a (I don't know that specific route but let's assume the grade is accurate) is WAY better than running a 3:49 marathon, even at age 54. Just for comparison's sake, the very first 5.12 in the world climbed by a man of any age was around 1960 (this could be argued but approximately), and only a handful of men in the world had done that by 1975 so it's not like it was suddenly everyone doing it. Meanwhile, a 3:49 is so attainable (relatively speaking of course) that I'm sure we don't even know the first time that was run - likely a thousand years ago or more. Lots of people (mostly Kenyan) could run a 3:49 off the couch, and many many people could train and run 3:49.
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Re: WaPo Lawmaker Rankings [Celerius] [ In reply to ]
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My vote is that they all could train more and be on TV less.

Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.
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Re: WaPo Lawmaker Rankings [lanierb] [ In reply to ]
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lanierb wrote:
As a life long rock climber and also endurance athlete, I think Katie Hill lead climbing 5.12a (I don't know that specific route but let's assume the grade is accurate) is WAY better than running a 3:49 marathon, even at age 54. Just for comparison's sake, the very first 5.12 in the world climbed by a man of any age was around 1960 (this could be argued but approximately), and only a handful of men in the world had done that by 1975 so it's not like it was suddenly everyone doing it. Meanwhile, a 3:49 is so attainable (relatively speaking of course) that I'm sure we don't even know the first time that was run - likely a thousand years ago or more. Lots of people (mostly Kenyan) could run a 3:49 off the couch, and many many people could train and run 3:49.

Ah, it was a sport climb, and sport areas are often overgraded, sometimes pretty substantially.
Plus - she was NOT in office yet when she did that.
So, while it is VERY impressive, should it even count?

If some former Pro athlete or Olympian then ran for Congress or Senate, would you count their pre-office achievements for this list?
I don't think so.

That dude benching 272 at age 72 is impressive as hell.

While the runner guy's 3m time was very speedy, he was also in his 40's when he did that.
I used to be able to run that fast in my 40's also, and I'm "just a guy" in the grand scheme of things, running-wise.

But, to your point -
I think a lot of the panel of judges (not unlike most of the population) was swayed by the longer events being "unbelievable achievements", even though the actual results were fairly pedestrian.

And almost nobody knows jack about rock climbing, so they would also undervalue that achievement.


float , hammer , and jog

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Re: WaPo Lawmaker Rankings [Murphy'sLaw] [ In reply to ]
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Murphy'sLaw wrote:

Ah, it was a sport climb, and sport areas are often overgraded, sometimes pretty substantially.
Plus - she was NOT in office yet when she did that.
So, while it is VERY impressive, should it even count?

If some former Pro athlete or Olympian then ran for Congress or Senate, would you count their pre-office achievements for this list?
I don't think so.

That dude benching 272 at age 72 is impressive as hell.

While the runner guy's 3m time was very speedy, he was also in his 40's when he did that.
I used to be able to run that fast in my 40's also, and I'm "just a guy" in the grand scheme of things, running-wise.

But, to your point -
I think a lot of the panel of judges (not unlike most of the population) was swayed by the longer events being "unbelievable achievements", even though the actual results were fairly pedestrian.

And almost nobody knows jack about rock climbing, so they would also undervalue that achievement.


Great mansplaining on the climbing grades. Is there any instance where you'll refrain from downgrading a woman's performance?
Last edited by: T-wrecks: May 15, 19 9:14
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Re: WaPo Lawmaker Rankings [T-wrecks] [ In reply to ]
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Sport climbing grades are often soft.
They just are.

And they change not one iota based on the reproductive organs of the person climbing them.

(Hint: I’m being a Trad snob, not a sexist.)

And the person in question achieved this athletic feat PRIOR to running for office.
Whereas, every other example referenced in the article occurred DURING their elected tenure.

Did I mansplain that well enough for you to understand?


float , hammer , and jog

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Re: WaPo Lawmaker Rankings [Celerius] [ In reply to ]
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Pfft, Nixon's toe is over the line.

What a crook....
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Re: WaPo Lawmaker Rankings [T-wrecks] [ In reply to ]
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T-wrecks wrote:
Murphy'sLaw wrote:

Ah, it was a sport climb, and sport areas are often overgraded, sometimes pretty substantially.
Plus - she was NOT in office yet when she did that.
So, while it is VERY impressive, should it even count?

If some former Pro athlete or Olympian then ran for Congress or Senate, would you count their pre-office achievements for this list?
I don't think so.

That dude benching 272 at age 72 is impressive as hell.

While the runner guy's 3m time was very speedy, he was also in his 40's when he did that.
I used to be able to run that fast in my 40's also, and I'm "just a guy" in the grand scheme of things, running-wise.

But, to your point -
I think a lot of the panel of judges (not unlike most of the population) was swayed by the longer events being "unbelievable achievements", even though the actual results were fairly pedestrian.

And almost nobody knows jack about rock climbing, so they would also undervalue that achievement.


Great mansplaining on the climbing grades. Is there any instance where you'll refrain from downgrading a woman's performance?

Jesus Christ, seriously? Good lord, it seems like everyone’s new hobby is to find something to be outraged at, no matter the context.

Get over yourself.

___________________________________________________
Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.
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Re: WaPo Lawmaker Rankings [Celerius] [ In reply to ]
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Celerius wrote:
The Washington Post has ranked the athletic feats of various lawmakers according to a "panel of experts." Personally, I think Bart Gordon's 3 mile run in 16:59 (5:40/mile) at age 46 should rank higher than Jean Schmidt's 3:49:05 marathon at age 54. And both of those performances should be ranked much higher than Kyrsten Sinema's 12:59:57 Ironman at age 42.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/...m_term=.57de4ae71a2e

Using this age-grading calculator from the World Masters Athletics based on world best times at each age - http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/...etics/wmaroad15.html - Gordon's time (converted to a 5K of 17:34) is 81.3% of the age standard, while Schmidt's marathon time is 70.75% of the age standard, so I agree that Gordon's performance should be ranked higher than Schmidt's (go Ohio!). BTW, Sinema's 3M time from last year converted to a 5K (22:50) was 66.8% of the age standard.
Last edited by: Mark Lemmon: May 15, 19 19:04
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