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Boston Marathon serious for Will Ferrell BOSTON (AP)  Comedian Will Ferrell, known for his antics on Saturday Night Live, ran Monday's Boston Marathon with his wife and achieved two goals: He finished in under four hours, and he beat the guy dressed as Elvis. After saying at the start that he just wanted to finish, Ferrell did better than that with a time of 3 hours, 56 minutes, 12 seconds. The guy dressed as Elvis Presley — actually, a friend of Ferrell's named Bob Babbitt — came in at 4:28:33. "It's truly an amazing event. Along with the history and everything, it's a bit of a blur," Ferrell said. "Heartbreak Hill felt like a lovely summer day ... and then you get hit over the head with a hammer." A magnet for fans at the start in Hopkinton, including many teenagers, Ferrell declined requests to do his President Bush impersonation. "It got retired," he said. There were no jokes along the route either, reported 1968 marathon winner Amby Burfoot, who ran near the comedian. Burfoot finished in 4:03:37. "He was completely serious," said Burfoot, who runs every fifth anniversary of his victory. "His coach had him on a short tether. They had something left at the end. It's great to see celebrities come into the race and treat it seriously." Talking with reporters Sunday, Ferrell weaved back and forth between movie junket jocularity and earnest training talk. He knows that the half-dozen reporters allotted 10 minutes each were there because he is a comedian and movie star — perhaps the biggest non-sports celebrity to run the race (Michael Dukakis ran in 1951, long before he was governor). But when it comes to his running, Ferrell isn't kidding around. "Running a marathon is not a question of whether it will be painful, but when it will be painful," he says. "It does help to have a sense of humor, but I'm also respectful of the race." In his movie Old School, which grossed $73.9 million in its first eight weeks, there is a scene of him streaking down the street. "It might improve my time," he says when asked for assurances that he would not reprise the scene Monday in the oldest and perhaps most prestigious marathon in the world. "But it might upset people along the race course." Ferrell's wife, Viveca, is from the Boston suburb of Needham. The two started running seriously while on vacation on Martha's Vineyard. They decided since he was in New York for Saturday Night Live, they should try to run the New York City Marathon. They ran New York together in the 2001, finishing in 5 hours, 1 minute, 6 seconds; now, he's gotten faster ("but don't tell her," he whispers) so they run apart. They also ran the Stockholm Marathon last June, where he finished in 4:28:02. In November, he ran a half-marathon in 1:45:02. While running the New York race, Ferrell decided to play a joke on his coach by pretending he was stopping by a friend's apartment to say "Hi." That was in the first mile or so. "Then, I'm really playful," Ferrell says, "By the end of the race, I'm like, 'Ohhhhhh....'." Will and Viv Ferrell had bib Nos., 9999 and 9998, respectively. That might have been the only way to recognize the man who played a dingbatty George W. Bush on SNL. He's lost 25 pounds in the past 2 1/2 years, his hair is curly and he's grown a mustache for a role in a film set in the 1970s called Anchorman; in his next movie, Elf, he plays an overgrown elf in Santa Claus' workshop. As part of his training, Ferrell has also immersed himself in the latest running technology, from the heart-rate monitor on his wrist to the special testing he had done at Pepperdine University to check how his body burns sugars and fats. "He's very serious about doing it the right way," says coach Gary Kobat, whose other acting clients include Jim Carrey and Calista Flockhart. "He's such a student of the craft of running, and he's very coachable. Where a lot of marathoners are just interested in getting faster, he wants to know how it's done." Kobat runs alongside Ferrell during the races, telling him to speed up or slow down. "Probably speed up," Ferrell corrects himself. Despite having a mobile support staff not available to most runners, and a waiver from the qualifying standards as a "special invitee," Ferrell still has to do the hard part. "It has been really tough on him at times," says Viveca, who was also running the race. "When he had a 7 a.m. call (for Old School), he'd get up at 5. If the call went until 11, he'd be on the treadmill at midnight. But even if he got a little less sleep, it made him feel better." Ferrell spent seven years on SNL— not exactly a crowd known its healthy lifestyle. His castmates would go out most nights of the week until early in the morning. "I had to skip all that," he says. "People were actually mad at me, that I was doing the show and training for a marathon." But the work has paid off. He is now a thin 195 pounds on a 6-foot-3 frame. "It really does improve my energy level. I feel different. I feel better," he says. "And I just love having that part of the day, where you're going on a run and you don't have phone calls or mail to answer." Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.