They Know a Lot About Running and Races

It’s hard enough trying to keep up a swift running pace and speak at the same time, let alone form thoughts for a major speech.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), a marathoner, takes his office on the road when he runs, dictating speeches and letters into a recorder. That has made for some interesting listening for the folks back in the real office.

“The tapes are full of him talking, and heavy breathing,” Blumenauer’s press secretary, Kathie Eastman, told Runner’s World. “It’s sort of an initiation for our interns -- we’ll give them a tape when he’s done running and see if they can transcribe it.”

Runner’s World did a story on the multi-tasking politico runners in Washington.

Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) won the annual Capital Challenge three-mile race in 18 minutes 22 seconds, telling the magazine: “You’ve got to be mentally prepared to prefer dying of pain rather than losing.”

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Trivia time: In what year did Rep. Jim Ryun (R-Kan.) first set the world record in the mile?

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Growing pains: Minnesota Viking Coach Mike Tice didn’t take kindly to a reporter’s predicting in print that his team would lose to the New Orleans Saints last Sunday.

After the Vikings defeated the Saints, 38-31, Tice morphed into a “junior high kid” during a postgame diatribe, according to Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse.

Wrote Reusse: “Predictions are right, or they are wrong, but the cutoff line for them being taken as vitally important should be age 14.”

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Cardinals unplugged: A surprise hit after about three weeks on Vatican Radio is “Not Only Sports.” Listeners in Rome get to hear Catholic cardinals commentating on Italy’s leading sport, soccer.

“It’s not just by chance that the show is called ‘Not Only Sports,’ ” the show’s host and producer, Luca Collodi, told Associated Press. “Sports is very popular within the church. Go inside any church parish and you’ll always find a gym, a basketball court, people practicing sports.”

Of course, Pope John Paul II would be the ultimate guest on the show. Collodi was asked whether the pope was an AS Roma or Lazio fan.

“Rumors say he has a preference for Lazio,” Collodi said.

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Smock talk: Hospital smocks aren’t ordinarily found, well, at places other than hospitals.

But election officials in Tarrant County, Texas, are busy making sure that gowns are distributed before voting day.

The reason: There is a provision on the Arlington ballot involving whether taxpayers should help pay for a $650-million stadium for the Dallas Cowboys.

Fans are expected to cover up any logos on their clothing as they cast their ballots.

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Trivia answer: Ryun ran the mile in 3 minutes 51.3 seconds in 1966.

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And finally: Spain’s secretary for equality, Soledad Murillo, decrying the use of models as ball girls at a tennis tournament in Madrid: “Traditionally this work is done by the male and female students of tennis academies, which is an example of equal treatment