US News

GOV RUNS INTO FOTO FLAK

ALBANY – Picture perfect, he’s not – and now Gov. Paterson is taking heat for posing in running shorts in his Manhattan office.

The photo, for Runner’s World magazine, led some to suggest the governor could be demeaning his office, but Paterson insisted he was OK with it “because it helps promote the importance of exercise and an active and healthy lifestyle.”

Paterson, 54, talked in the article about his late-blooming interest in jogging and marathon racing, and his membership in the Achilles Track Club, which encourages people with disabilities to engage in athletic pursuits.

The governor, who is legally blind, spoke further about his running experiences during an interview on Albany’s Talk 1300-AM, where he related his difficulty in finishing Utica’s 9.3 mile Boilermaker run last summer.

“I got to the six-mile point and I thought, to be perfectly honest to myself, I can’t finish this race,” he said.

“I started to get out and then I thought if I leave this race in the sixth mile in what was a 9.3-mile race, twice as much would be written about me than if I stayed in and absorbed it. So I stayed in.”

The governor , who took office last March after Eliot Spitzer resigned amid a high-priced hooker scandal, said he had no immediate plans to enter another race – except his own race for election next year.