Jared Talks Subway, Celebrity, NYC Marathon and Training with "Famous Fans"

Today, I got a chance to talk with ING NYC Marathon participant and Subway icon Jared Fogel.

Jared talks about his decade+ role as the face of the restaurant and the celebrity it's brought him. We also discuss his Marathon training and that process, including tips he's received from a handful of other "Famous Fans" including Ryan Howard, Blake Griffin, Michael Phelps and last year's Marathon winner Meb Keflezighi.

On Howard: "So laid back. He deals with the pressure so well...geuninely a nice guy."

Griffin: "He stretches a lot now...He really wants to make sure he avoids injury."

Phelps: "...the number of hours he has to put into his training on an every day basis...8-10 hours in of swimming...He's really had to make huge sacrifices with his personal life."

Meb: "Very, very humble...What a great generous guy."

Jared relays some great advice for runners that Keflezighi gave him on enjoying the sport as well as this particular event.



Subway is a signature sponsor and "The Official Training Restaurant of the ING New York City Marathon."

Jared is running to support the Jared Foundation, the organization he founded in 2005 to eliminate childhood obesity.

Follow Jared at Facebook.com/Subway or on Twitter @thejaredfogle.

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Add Hypocrite to List of Michael Phelps Accolades

Alluding to the fact that the still-legal Arena X-Glide swimsuit (to be banned in 2010) was the main factor in his loss to German Paul Biedermann in the 200-Meter Freestyle at the world swimming championships, Michael Phelps whined, "It's going to be fun next year when swimming is back to swimming."

If true to his word in longing for purer, un-enhanced competition, Phelps, a paid endorser of Speedo and wearer of the company's LZR Racer, should simply return contract money and advocate for swimming naked.

US coach Bob Bowman observed, "The (polyurethane) suits make you go out with ... much less energy cost, so at the end you have a punch. Michael had to work so hard to stay with him for 150, then it's just not there at the end. That's what the suits do. The energy cost is reduced going out, so you finish a lot better."

Interestingly, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out last year, polyurethane was a noted component in the design of the LZR:

It featured a "compression zone" around the torso and other parts of the body that reduced muscle and skin vibration, allowing swimmers to conserve more energy. And Speedo engineers, aided by tests in NASA wind tunnels, applied thin polyurethane panels on the swimsuit to minimize drag.

Despite the fact that the LZR started this technological race, Bowman (a paid endorser for Speedo himself) bellows a cry reminiscent of the most ardent baseball purists, "We've lost all the history of the sport. Does a 10-year-old boy in Baltimore want to break Paul Biedermann's record? The sport is in shambles right now and they better do something or they're going to lose their guy who fills these suits."

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Video: Michael Phelps on Today Show Talks about his "Mistake;" Doesn't Actually Admit what "Mistake" Was

Michael the Merman was confronted by Matt Lauer for the swimmer's first televised interview since the pictures of him smoking the reefer surfaced.

Frankenphelps pulls a helluva "Giambi" by not actually admitting his what his "mistake" was.

Look, we aren't condoning illegal drug use by any stretch. But the kid's right. This is nothing compared to his DUI. He's the victim of someone who wanted to make a buck, and his own poor judgment in perpetrating a victimless crime in public.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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WIS 10 News: Eight arrested in Michael Phelps case

Sheriff's department determined to break as many balls as possible.

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Assassin Avenue: America's Chronic Problem

Ed Note: HHR does not condone illegal drug use unless it enables the user to hit lots of homeruns for our favorite baseball team. That said, contributor Assassin Avenue makes a strong case that we really need to stop the insanity perking up from the latest Phelpsian scandal.

Yes, I pulled a Costas and used the adjective "Phelpsian."

News broke today that Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott says he will charge Michael Phelps with a crime if he determines the Olympics hero smoked marijuana in Richland County.

Surely this has got to be the straw that breaks the camel's back as it relates to America's insane attitude towards Marijuana. We are retroactively going after Michael Phelps for a little harmless fun? You have got to be kidding me.

A brief bit of history: in 1937 the F.D. Roosevelt administration crafted 1937 Marihuana Tax Act the first national US law making cannabis possession illegal in the US via an unpayable tax on the drug. The real reason this happened was that blacks in the South were growing their own pot and smoking it instead of buying alcohol. The alcohol lobby banned together and whamo – now a plant that grows just about anywhere is illegal.

This prohibition regarding a plant (a plant!!) that makes the same amount of sense as prohibition for alcohol did (read: none).

You can't turn on the television in this country without seeing ad after ad re: pills. Drugs to make your dick hard, pills to keep your legs still, and sleeping pills with humorous (yet dangerous) effects just to make a few.

Yet we're going to retroactively prosecute the greatest Olympic Athlete of all time because a photo of him smoking a plant appeared on the Internet. The only rationale for this? Because that's the way we've always done things around here.

This is beyond insane. It's time for this Nation to grow up.

Maybe you disagree with me. If so, I just ask that you remember, come the 2012 Olympics, when you're cheering on Michael Phelps, you're watching a dope smoker kick everyone's butt. Reefer Madness indeed.

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Michael Phelps, Nastia Liukin & US Ryder Cup Team Star in this Year's White House Christmas "Barney Cam"

Seriously, is there anything the swimmer won't do for attention?

You can see Frankenphelps just before the 3 minute mark.

Michael Phelps: Butt Fondler

Star Magazine reports "Michael Phelps: Off the Deep End!" (Get it?):

"Just 11 days after a Disney World parade of honor, Michael was fondling the backside of a scantily clad dancer at the Las Vegas Playboy Club!"

With no justification whatsoever, HHR speculates that the dancer's name was "Lance."

Commercial CRitic: Guitar Parent Advisory

Did my eyes just fail me? Did I just see an accused rapist, drunk driver, accused adulterer, but definite stripper aficionado , and Tony Hawk dancing around in their underwear selling a product to children?



Proceeding from my awestruck, this commercial may have a reverse affect by providing thousands of kids an "oh shit" moment when they see Phelps riffing. "Is that what I look like?" "I rock the axe cooler than him, right?" "Maybe I should dust off Madden."

Let me explore the space a little more on Michael Phelps. I thought he was going to pull a hundred million in endorsements after his record breaking Olympic Games. All I have seen is a low budget AT&T commercial. Don't gold medals have a life expectancy of 3 months? I already see a gymnastics rock jam coming to a city near me. I know he is not struggling already pulling in over $5 mil a year and living with his mom, but he might want to stop scratching the dog and kick it up a notch.

Back to the commercial. Why is Kobe lip syncing? Does the game have an attachment that measures lip and tongue movement? Because the knockoff that Guitar Hero is knocking off requires actual singing. Come on Kobe, aren't you America's sweethheart again? Isn't that why you received a call to do this after being sent to the corner for 4 yrs, ehm Sprite, ehm McDonalds. I thought you were this great competitor? Let's hear those pipes.

Unfortunately, this commercial was set to fail the moment A-Rod pranced onto the screen. Everyone knows if an athlete is going to be the spokesman for Guitar Hero, the first call is to this guy:

Michael Phelps is Not a Sex Symbol, Has an Oedipus Complex, May Be Into Beastiality

Michael Phelps: I'm No Sex Symbol

World: No Kidding.

When speaking on his love life to People Magazine, the Olympian was more inclinded to "gush" over his English bulldog.

On female attention, Oedipus Phelps turned the conversation to his mother.

As for all the female attention he says, "I don’t really notice it. When I go out, go to dinner, I go out with friends, and we stay to ourselves. I don’t think of myself as a sex symbol. My mom is by far the most important woman in my life."

Oooooh What a Rush!

Flamboyant tag team of Michael "Hawk" Phelps and "Animal" Garret Weber-Gale successfully held off a couple of neo dweeb maxis from France to retain the gold at the Great American Bash.

They now got their sites set on a couple Russian comrades.

Insult to Injury

The MSM golden Olympic boy Michael Phelps is set to break Mark Spitz’s Olympic record of seven gold medals. To rub salt into Spitz’s tear-soaked eyes, Phelps has decided to steal his signature mustachioed look.

"So what is it baby? Spitz or swallows?"

-Posted by C.R. Dunbar

The Best the US Has to Offer

Last week when I received my Sports Illustrated in the mail, I noticed Michael Phelps was the cover athlete. Shortly after, I received this month's Men's Vougue which featured the swimmer in a fashion spread. I then saw a AT&T commercial with a "Phelp's Phan" and then Phelps practicing his Mandarin for Rosetta Stone.

Thinking back to when he dressed up as a merman for Disney, I began to wonder who thought this guy was such marketing gold. Forget the whole underage DUI thing. Let's look at the fact that he looks like a cross between the Oddities' Kurgan and Fred Gwynne and talks like he has a mouth full of cotton and pennies.

While I have no doubt Phelps is a world-class athlete, despite never seeing him compete, I'm not sure whether or not he is an upgrade from the last Olympic athlete that was shoved down our throat - ginger kid Shawn White who looks like a poor man's version of Budnick - the character Sam Drummond played in the Nickelodeon classic Salute Your Shorts.

Michael Phelps is a Beautiful Merman

Posing for Annie Leibovitz as part of the "Disney Dream Portrait Series, " drinking and driving enthusiast and Olympic hero, Michael Phelps, must be punch drunk mad in posing as a beautiful mermaid and becoming a "modern dancer."

Said Leibovitz:

"One of the most complicated shots I have ever done. I didn't know if it was going to work, what to expect. I have to tell you, he was beautiful. Michael put on that tail and ... he just became like a modern dancer. He just took to it and enjoyed himself and swam through this tank. I was blown away."

"It was kind of weird to be able to put on a tail and swim around in a tank," Phelps admitted. "To work with Annie and try these crazy sorts of ideas is really an honor and something I won't forget."

Neither will we.