The Oprah Limit
Recently I read a couple of article which complained that too many people are running in marathons. (article 1, article 2)
The second one (kind of) blamed Oprah Winfrey for this liberalizing trend that made everyone think they could run a marathon.
So I was curious as to how Oprah stacked up in the field of "celebrity" marathon runners:
RankNameTime (hrs)Pace (min/mile)MarathonYearAge (at time)
1Alan Turing2:46:036.33Leicestershire Marathon 194735
2Lance Armstrong2:46:426.36New York City Marathon200736
3Dana Carvey3:04:217.03Ocean to Bay Marathon197217
4Bjorn Ulvaeus3:23:547.78Stockholm Marathon198035
5William Baldwin3:24:297.80New York City Marathon199229
6John Edwards3:30:188.02Marine Corps Marathon198330
7Michael Dukakis3:31:008.05Boston Marathon195127
8Joschka Fischer3:41:368.45Berlin Marathon200052
9George W. Bush3:44:528.58Houston Marathon200347
10Pat Tillman3:48:008.70Avenue of the Giants Marathon200023
11Peter Weller3:51:268.83New York City Marathon198841
12Jorg Haider3:52:008.85New York City Marathon199949
13Alastair Campbell3:53:458.92London Marathon200345
14Anthony Edwards3:55:408.99Chicago Marathon200341
15Will Ferrell3:56:129.01Boston Marathon200335
16Michael Waltrip3:59:239.13Las Vegas Marathon200541
17Meredith Baxter4:08:309.48New York City Marathon198235
18Kerri Strug4:12:069.61Houston Marathon199922
19Sean Combs4:14:549.72New York City Marathon200233
20Kyle Petty4:18:349.86Las Vegas Marathon200544
21Lynn Swann4:26:2110.16New York City Marathon199341
22Oprah Winfrey4:29:2010.27Marine Corps Marathon199440
23Bill Rancic4:31:3110.36Chicago Marathon200130
24Lisa Ling4:34:1810.46Boston Marathon200228
25 Mike Huckabee4:39:0410.64Little Rock Marathon200550
26Bill Frist4:54:3611.24Marine Corps Marathon199745
27David James Elliot4:57:2311.34Boston Marathon200039
28Al Gore4:58:2511.38Marine Corps Marathon199749
29Tom Vilsack5:28:0012.51Little Rock Marathon200554
30Katie Holmes5:29:5812.58New York City Marathon200728
31Ali Landry5:41:4113.03Boston Marathon200228
31Mario Lopez5:41:4113.03Boston Marathon200229
33Freddie Prinze Jr.5:50:4913.38Los Angeles Marathon200630
34David Lee Roth6:04:4313.91New York City Marathon198733
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_marathoners
Method: I basically scanned through the list and ommitted any names I didn't recognize.
Context: The current world record is 2:04:26 ( 4.75 minutes per mile pace) set on September 30, 2007 by Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia.
Comment: Oprah is the fastest woman of her age (40 at the time). She also had a faster time than 8 younger celebs (some of them more than 10 years younger).
Conclusion: She did pretty decently, at least among celebs.
Note: The slowest runner (musician David Lee Roth) is younger than the fastest runner (mathematician Alan Turing) so he really can't use age as an excuse. Actually the 5 slowest are all younger than the top 2 (maybe these are the ones who didn't train very seriously).
The second one (kind of) blamed Oprah Winfrey for this liberalizing trend that made everyone think they could run a marathon.
So I was curious as to how Oprah stacked up in the field of "celebrity" marathon runners:
RankNameTime (hrs)Pace (min/mile)MarathonYearAge (at time)
1Alan Turing2:46:036.33Leicestershire Marathon 194735
2Lance Armstrong2:46:426.36New York City Marathon200736
3Dana Carvey3:04:217.03Ocean to Bay Marathon197217
4Bjorn Ulvaeus3:23:547.78Stockholm Marathon198035
5William Baldwin3:24:297.80New York City Marathon199229
6John Edwards3:30:188.02Marine Corps Marathon198330
7Michael Dukakis3:31:008.05Boston Marathon195127
8Joschka Fischer3:41:368.45Berlin Marathon200052
9George W. Bush3:44:528.58Houston Marathon200347
10Pat Tillman3:48:008.70Avenue of the Giants Marathon200023
11Peter Weller3:51:268.83New York City Marathon198841
12Jorg Haider3:52:008.85New York City Marathon199949
13Alastair Campbell3:53:458.92London Marathon200345
14Anthony Edwards3:55:408.99Chicago Marathon200341
15Will Ferrell3:56:129.01Boston Marathon200335
16Michael Waltrip3:59:239.13Las Vegas Marathon200541
17Meredith Baxter4:08:309.48New York City Marathon198235
18Kerri Strug4:12:069.61Houston Marathon199922
19Sean Combs4:14:549.72New York City Marathon200233
20Kyle Petty4:18:349.86Las Vegas Marathon200544
21Lynn Swann4:26:2110.16New York City Marathon199341
22Oprah Winfrey4:29:2010.27Marine Corps Marathon199440
23Bill Rancic4:31:3110.36Chicago Marathon200130
24Lisa Ling4:34:1810.46Boston Marathon200228
25 Mike Huckabee4:39:0410.64Little Rock Marathon200550
26Bill Frist4:54:3611.24Marine Corps Marathon199745
27David James Elliot4:57:2311.34Boston Marathon200039
28Al Gore4:58:2511.38Marine Corps Marathon199749
29Tom Vilsack5:28:0012.51Little Rock Marathon200554
30Katie Holmes5:29:5812.58New York City Marathon200728
31Ali Landry5:41:4113.03Boston Marathon200228
31Mario Lopez5:41:4113.03Boston Marathon200229
33Freddie Prinze Jr.5:50:4913.38Los Angeles Marathon200630
34David Lee Roth6:04:4313.91New York City Marathon198733
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_marathoners
Method: I basically scanned through the list and ommitted any names I didn't recognize.
Context: The current world record is 2:04:26 ( 4.75 minutes per mile pace) set on September 30, 2007 by Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia.
Comment: Oprah is the fastest woman of her age (40 at the time). She also had a faster time than 8 younger celebs (some of them more than 10 years younger).
Conclusion: She did pretty decently, at least among celebs.
Note: The slowest runner (musician David Lee Roth) is younger than the fastest runner (mathematician Alan Turing) so he really can't use age as an excuse. Actually the 5 slowest are all younger than the top 2 (maybe these are the ones who didn't train very seriously).