What You And Sarah Palin Have In Common

In his now famous comment, Matt Damon said that Sarah Palin’s bid for the vice-presidency is like watching a bad Disney movie in which the plot involves an everyday soccer mom who ascends to the presidency, baking cookies and exclaiming ”You-betcha” all the way.  Bad news Matt.  This ain’t no movie.

But I have become fascinated with Sara Palin.  This is a woman whose thinking and belief systems are so different from my own, I just had to learn a little bit more about her.  Oh sure, I’ve heard all the yap about hunting moose from helicopters, secret pregnancies, exorcisms of evil spirits as a crime prevention tactic, speaking “in tongues.”  But what I really want to know is, is Sarah Palin really a runner?  Is this the one place at which I could actually connect with this  

Image: Sarah Palin running alongside
the Mendenhall Glacier Outside Juneau,AK
WSJ Online

woman?

Turns out, Ms. Palin is indeed a runner.   She ran a sub-four some years ago in the Humpy’s Anchorage Marathon, beating the times of Oprah Winfrey, Katie Holmes and even Sean (Puffy) Combs in their respective marathon bids. 

In an article on the Wall Street Journal Online, Palin reports that she was running 7-10 miles daily before she became pregnant with her fifth (!) child.  After giving birth, she has now worked her way back up to running 3 miles every other day.  Of course, in Wasilla where she lives, it’s perpetually light in the summertime and she sometimes runs at midnight (now, this is cool).  Side Bar: Palin and her husband Todd (who is a champion of the Tesoro Iron Dog) named their first son Track because he was born during that sport’s season.

Palin is evidently a Nike girl, running in Air Structure Triax and lots of fleece as protection from the harsh elements in her northern clime.

And what about nutrition? The vice-presidential candidate reports that she doesn’t eat much breakfast, “A skinny white-chocolate mocha is my staple in the morning.”  And here’s a champion’s diet: “My family and I eat a healthy diet heavy in Alaskan wild seafood, moose (presumably fresh ;-), caribou and fresh fruit.” Mmm…I don’t think I’ve ever read a Liz Applegate column mentioning game animals as a basic food group, but OK, if it works for Sarah who am I to criticize?

Ms. Palin’s workout pitfall according to the WSJ article is “Being pregnant every few years.  If I get lazy and go weeks or months without exercising it’s not because of circumstances but because I’m being less disciplined.  Shame on me.”  Gotta admire the honesty.

So it sounds like Sarah Palin is just a “regular gal” like you and me – struggling to keep up with the kids, the husband and her job. 

Does this make her a little easier for me to take?  “You betcha!”  But personally I’d like to continue to know that Ms. Palin is happily running along the Mendenhall Glacier than down K Street over the next 4 years. 

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