On Sunday, Lance Armstrong ran the NYC marathon in 2:59:36, finishing 856th. Last year at the NYC marathon, I ran 3:06:47, finishing 888th.

This year, the 888th finisher came across in 2:59:59 and both years, there were about 37,000 people in the race. This conclusively proves it was a smidge too hot last year and I could have gone under 3:00:00 this year (or at least that's the story I keep telling myself).

Lance was widely quoted as saying after the race, "that was without a doubt the hardest physical thing I have ever done," but some media outlets left off the key first part of the quote: "For the level of condition that I have now,...."

If Lance had trained hard for the marathon, I'm sure he could have gone sub-2:40.

A fair comparison would be to take a triathlete with a base level of fitness and have them train three months for the Tour de France, and race the whole thing...and a few months later, train three months for a marathon, and then race the marathon. I can 100% guarantee you that for such a person, racing the entire Tour de France, (let alone winning it), would be *by far* the harder physical feat.

Put another way, when I have been in peak shape for marathons, including when in ran 2:59:50 in LA in 1995 (Do'h! Lance still would have beaten me!) I could have maybe ridden ONE stage in the Tour de France, (of course I couldn't have even qualified for it, I'm talking hypothetical here), finished dead last by an hour or so, and would not have been able to ride a tricycle the next day, let alone race a bike. Lance is superhuman.