I envy people who get to run during their work.

One of them is Drew Arellano, who, while waiting for his turn on his show's tapings, gets to lace up and run.

I'm adding American journalist Lisa Ling to my list of people I envy.

I got to know her thanks to Oprah's shows. But I didn't know that she also runs.

Check what she said when I got my dose of Runner'sWorld.com's Daily Kick in the Butt:

When you're traveling for work, you spend most of your time in cars and on highways. Were it not for the runs, I wouldn't get the same feel for the places. I've run covered up in Afghanistan, dressed as a boy. I've run at 3 a.m. in China, before a billion people have woken up. I've run in Northern Ireland through Protestant and Catholic areas. And in the Gaza Strip, I ran with a 6'3" Serbian cameraman, because my crew wouldn't let me run by myself. 

Lisa Ling, journalist

Marathoner stripped of 3rd place title after taking the bus to finish the race

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56769475@N05/5269035962

by Chris Chase

Days after a pregnant woman in Chicago finished a full marathon before giving birth, a London man was stripped of a third-place finish in a marathon after it was discovered he caught a bus for the final five miles of the race.

Rob Sloan, a 31-year-old former army mechanic, stopped running 20 miles into the race and then jumped on a bus to ride out the final few miles. When he disembarked, he ran through a forest, joined the race route and crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 51 minutes, good for third place at the Kielder Marathon.

Though he initially denied cheating, Sloan was forced to admit his guilt following an investigation by race organizers, one of whom called Sloan's inaction "as bad as drug-taking."

Cheating is cheating and I'm inclined to agree that hopping on a bus for the five miles is as bad as taking any illicit substance. More concerning is that Sloan cutting off the last quarter of his race by jumping on a vehicle only improved his personal best by 21 minutes and that third place was the best he could manage. If you're going to cheat, make it count.

The worst part of the whole thing? Sloan took a goody bag for his efforts. Steven Cairns, the runner who came in fourth place thanks to Sloan's maneuver, wrote on Facebook:

"I was third the whole way but somehow I crossed the line and was given fourth! I started to doubt myself as he was adamant he had gone past me. I could understand him taking the goody bag and the T-shirt but to do the press interview claiming he was third?"

Somewhere, Rosie Ruiz shakes her head in disgust.


London man DQ’s after taking bus for final five miles of marathon

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Truly, a cheater will always be caught and apprehended. Why do some runners feel the need to cheat in a race? It's not what they trained for, right?