Our First Lady, Mikey Hoeven, is a runner. She has been gracious enough to share a few of her thoughts on running with us:

Mikey: I've always had an interest in running. I first started out walking a little and then added running and found that I love to run.

Mikey: For me, it is a mental release. It's a quiet time for me to reflect, pray and meditate.

Mikey: Marcela plays tennis and volleyball. Our son, Jack is involved in many sports. He plays tennis, basketball, baseball and he plays golf. John exercises when he gets the chance. He does run some and we both feel that strength training is important and we do it on a regular basis.

Mikey: "To thine own self be true." To me, it means that you need to be true to yourself and your beliefs and try not to let outside forces influence you in a negative way.

The following is an excerpt from the Bismarck Tribune by Staff Writer Deneen Gilmour.

The nation's governors gathered in Boston earlier this week for their annual meeting. This item is from the July 18 Boston Herald:

"North Dakota Gov. Edward T. Schafer, the undisputed jogging champion of the National Governor's Association may get a chance to run President Clinton into the Ground this morning.

"Schafer, a 47-year-old Republican who has run eight miles around the Charles River for three consecutive mornings, left Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and Kansas Gov. Joan Finney in the dust yesterday.

"Also far back in the pack was Gov. William F. Weld's Chief Secretary, Marty Linsky, who fancies himself a speedster.

"Even the State Police trooper who rides a bicycle alongside the governors as a security precaution was huffing and puffing by the time Schafer finished with him. Incidentally, Schafer didn't run with Clinton on Tuesday. That's because Schafer left for his morning run at 6 a.m. and a Clinton staffer didn't call with the formal invitation until 6:15 Tuesday morning. Evidentally, you can't lie in bed if you want to jog with Governor Ed."

The Following is reprinted from the 11-28-98 Grand Forks Herald. Editorial by Ryan Bakken.

A popular T-shirt in Minnesota these days reads: "Our governor can beat up your governor."

There also is a nonsanitized version with basically the same message about the muscle of their governor-elect, Jesse "The Body" Ventura.

You see, North Dakota's governor, the honorable Ed Schafer, runs marathons. They're not fake marathons, either. And when he's running those 26-plus miles, he's not busting chairs over the heads of his competitors. Nor are feather boas dangling from his sneakers.

Sure, at 5 foot-11, 165 pounds (Ed's estimates), he's 5 inches shorter and 85 pounds lighter than Jesse. Granted, he would be at a slight disadvantage in a rassling match, even if he was packing "foreign substances" in his trunks for blinding purposes. But would he get beat up by Jesse?

We called to find out. Would "The Body" kick his, well, kick him? As is usually the case with politicians, we didn't get a straight answer. "I'm not so concerned about the T-shirts being sold in Minnesota", Ed said. " But I am about the ones floating around North Dakota that say 'Prove it'".

So much for going toe-to-toe. But how about heel-to-toe? Ed runs six to seven miles a day, six days a week. He's pretty good, too, having run a personal best marathon time of 2 hours 49 minutes in Grandma's Marathon in Duluth.

"We should form an alliance," Ed said. " I'll chase them down and he'll sit on them." It's unclear who our governor was referring to by "them", but suspicions are that they're Democrats.

Anyway, Ed played along in this silly exchange of who can beat up whom, but not for long. Actually, he sounded a bit miffed at all of Jesse's pub. "It's fun now with the big entertainment factor," Ed siad. "He was elected in part because of the entertainment factor. But I guess I'm hoping that it gets settled down, the jokes get told, the late night (TV show) appearances are done and he can focus on being governor.

"Being governor is a very difficult, intense job, with a broad range of issues to deal with. I'm hoping this stardom settles down and he gets his attention and focus on being governor, which I think he can do. He'll need to get out of the limelight and into the trenches."

Jesse's limelight has included appearances with David Letterman, Jay Leno and NFL game broadcasts. Our guy? He's on CNN a lot. And there was the time MTV enhanced some video to make it appear that Ed had to crawl over snowbanks to get to the state Capitol building. "I get a lot of comments on that one," Ed said. "The kids thought it was a lot of fun. The older people thought it gave North Dakota a crummy image."

Image is something Jesse understands from his wrestiling days. There's moreimmage-enhancing in sight. Yes, Jesse Ventura action figure dolls will be out soon, no doubt fighting Evil Special Interests Man.

We need to follow that lead with an Ed Schafer action figure doll. The doll would be made of teflon, of course, and would need to portray how handsome, wise, harworking and understanding he is. With three AAA batteries helping out, the Ed Schafer action figure would be able to travel 26 miles, 385 yards and still have enough energy left to fight for $52 million for a dike for the fine people of Grand Forks.

President Bush, who pounds out seven-minute miles as the nation's Jogger in Chief, says running helped him quit drinking years ago and now relieves the stress of waging war.

"It's interesting that my times have become faster after the war began," Bush said in an interview with Runner's World. "The were pretty fast all along, but since the war began, I have been running with a little more intensity. And I guess that's part of the stress relief I get from it," Bush Said. " You tend to forget everything that's going on in youru mind, and just concentrate on the time, distance or the sweat." "It helps me clear my mind."