Sarah Palin: Still Runnin'

The Wheatsheaf had the opportunity to sit down talk with the now former governor of Alaska and talk to her about running.

Wheatsheaf: Honestly, did McCain’s people screw you over? Remember, I ask this on behalf of runners everywhere and not for any partisan reasons or to smear your good character.

SP: A great frustration I had during the campaign was when the McCain staff wouldn't carve out time for me to go for a run. The days never went as well if I couldn't get out there and sweat.

Wheatsheaf: How do you really feel about chocolate caramel ice cream bars after a long hot run?

SP: I knew my thighs were going to just throb and my lungs were going to burn, and that's what I crave.

Wheatsheaf: I have heard that you have a thing for Moose?

SP: On the routes I run in Wasilla and Anchorage, I see moose all the time. I've just learned to leave them alone.

Wheatsheaf: I hate to ask this, but since your life in now completely public and my readers want to know: your husband gave you sexy lingerie last Christmas, have you ever worn them?

SP: I've never worn them. I get spooked once in awhile when I'm running a trail and I hear a rustling in the woods, but it just makes me run faster and get the heck out of there.

Wheatsheaf: Intelligent design or Evolution?

SP: I see God's hand all over this place. As I get out there and run, I see the most beautiful signs of this evolutionary process that has created the mountains and the glacial retreats that have left the valleys and the rivers

Wheatsheaf: You pretty much prefer to be alone?

SP: I do, I do.

Wheatsheaf: John McCain completed after the November vote that you although you agreed to run with him, but then you single handily undermined him – how do you respond to this allegation?

SP: If I do a race with friends, they know I'm not going to run alongside them, but it's fun to start and finish together.

Wheatsheaf: Is your eldest son a big sissy boy?

SP: But the most precious experience I've had running was a few summers ago when I was training for a marathon and my son Track—and I named him Track for running—would drive out in front of me and plant water bottles along the route. I felt so spoiled, like the queen of the running world to have a kid who was all cool with his pickup truck, dropping off water for me on my long runs. And he'd put a note on the bottles, saying, "Love you, Mom" and "Run hard, Mom."

Wheatsheaf: I will take that as a yes. Do you think it is because you gave him a really lame name?

SP: I do, I do.

Wheatsheaf: Did running give you appropriate experience to be governor of a state?

SP: Looking back, I'm really thankful for all my less-than-pleasant running experiences because I learned through each one, and I can put it all to good use being the CEO of a state full of diverse views and personalities and issues.

Wheatsheaf: Was John McCain too old to be President?.

SP: I used to joke around with John McCain during the campaign about coming jogging with me. And once I asked him what his favorite exercise was, and he said, 'I go wading.' Wading. He lives on a creek in Arizona, so he goes wading. That cracked me up.

Wheatsheaf: Have you yet read the briefing materials on Russia?

SP: I have not because I usually sneak out to go running, or if someone offers I usually shoot straight with them and say, "I gotta go run by myself, I'm sorry."

Wheatsheaf: If you had to leave Alaska, what would you want to do?

SP: Alaska would be hard to give up because it is such a part of who I am. So much of my life revolves around the great outdoors that that would be kind of tough. But on the other hand, I think of being in D.C. and in a position to promote physical fitness and the benefits of making good decisions healthwise and being an example to others, and I know that could do some good for our country.

Wheatsheaf: Your opponents, including some in the Republican party, have called you a frigid cow – how do you respond?

SP: I'm always running about 10 degrees colder than everyone around me; I'm always cranking up the heat. I think because we do have so many cold days here, it's such a luxury and a pleasure to go somewhere warm. I think you guys who get a lot of warm weather take it for granted and you shouldn't. I thought that was a great part of the campaign—we'd be out there at events or up there on stage just sweatin' like pigs, and I loved it.

Wheatsheaf: My mistake, you are a sweaty pig and not a frigid cow. You always struck me as being twenty-five years behind the times.

SP: I have a nice routine: I kick off my runs with the old Van Halen and AC/DC, then I get into my country music, then I always wrap it up with a couple of mellow Amy Grant songs.

Wheatsheaf: Could you beat the president?

SP: I betcha I'd have more endurance. My one claim to fame in my own little internal running circle is a sub-four marathon. It wasn't necessarily a good running time, but it proves I have the endurance within me to at least gut it out and that is something. If you ever talk to my old coaches, they'd tell you, too. What I lacked in physical strength or skill I made up for in determination and endurance. So if it were a long race that required a lot of endurance, I'd win.
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All answers are excerpts from an interview with Sarah-with-an-H Palin in Runners World. Aside from a few amusing phrases, she comes out pretty good in the interview. She may not be knowledgable about international affairs, the economy or public policy in general, but she is great at talking about herself.