Grassley likely to “run again”

As noted last week, I have a friend in DC who ran in the Capital Challenge and saw Senator Charles Grassley cross the finish line.  Yesterday, at the conclusion of Grassley’s weekly conference call with Iowa radio reporters, I asked him about the race and Grassley expressed some discomfort with not improving his time.

"You know, after nine years of doing (that race) I should do better than the first year and I’m not doing better because my first year was 27 minutes (and) 20 seconds," Grassley said, "and now this one was 29 minutes and 29 seconds." Grassley ran the three-mile course this year with a faster time than in 2007. "By about half a minute, so I’m not as bad as I was last year," Grassley said.  "If I had a little more discipline and coaching I could probably do a lot better but I tend to do it myself and I need to be a lot more professional as I approach it." 

I got about six minutes on the phone with Grassley today and wrote a story for our Radio Iowa listeners. Grassley is 74 years old and runs four or five days a week.  He began running at age 65. Listen to the full interview (mp3 runs about 6 min). Grassley strongly indicated he’ll run for reelection in 2010:  "If I can get up and run three miles in the morning a year from now I’m going to be running for reelection because I think it’s a symbol of being healthy enough to serve another six years, you know," Grassley said.  Grassley, who won his current six-year term in the U.S. Senate in 2004, ran an ad in that race which featured video of Grassley literally running.

As we concluded our conversation today, I said: "Remind me not to run with you."

"I’ll slow down so you can keep up," Grassley replied, laughing.