Lance Armstrong: Champion And Marathon Man

Lance Armstrong is one of the most honored athletes of our time. He beat cancer and won the Tour de France seven straight times. He's retired but several months ago he started training to run in this Sunday's New York City Marathon.

Lance joined Harry Smith on The Early Show plaza on Friday to talk about his active retirement.

In an interview some years ago, Armstrong said that he looked forward to having a potbelly and sitting there coaching his kids' soccer games. Obviously that hasn't happened.

"You know, you decide you don't want to sit around and get a potbelly, so try something different, a new challenge," Armstrong said.

Watch the interview

"I feel okay," he told Smith. "You know, we have two days to go so there's nothing you can do. The shin splints sort of snuck up on me when I did my last long run. I have been icing them and taking ibuprofen."

Armstrong said he does have high hopes for the marathon, but he's not sure what is going to happen.

"I would like to break three hours," he said. "I have never done a marathon so I don't know. I could be crawling at the end. Maybe I will have a great day and do 2:45, but I think the reality is three."

This October was the tenth anniversary of Armstrong's cancer diagnosis. He said the day itself was pretty uneventful, but it meant a lot to him.

"That morning was a simple morning in my life – in the sense that when I woke up, I had my kids that day, I took them to school, fed them breakfast. It was not exactly a wild morning," he said.

"I just took the day to reflect on what it means to be a cancer survivor, how quickly, yet how long ten years has taken, and then that night we had a get-together with friends."

"It's interesting, I guess ten years ago I didn't think I would be in this place. I didn't think I would be sitting here. I didn't think the burden of cancer would be what it still is in this country or all over the world. I look forward to ten more years fighting the disease and trying to make a difference."

Armstrong has taken his fight against cancer on the political trail. He appeared this summer in Iowa with Sen. Tom Harkin (R-Iowa) and some other senators, trying to get the U.S. government to spend more money on fighting cancer.

"Money is clearly important," Armstrong said. "Money is good for funding research, funding the institutes that we need so much, but more importantly, the country and its leadership needs to have a focus on the disease."

Armstrong said funding has started to go down for cancer research, and, even though he understands that budgets are tight, he hopes to help re-focus attention on the fighting the disease.

"This is going to become the number one killer in the country," he said. "It's complacent. It's an old problem. We forget about the disease a lot of the time. We are focused not on just the current administration but the future administration, just knowing that disease needs to be focused on."

And, is Lance Armstrong missing professional cycling? The former Tour de France champion said he didn't watch a minute of this year's race.

"I am 35 years old," he said. "I know that my time has come and gone in cycling. It's time to do other things and time to focus on the issue of cancer and other little goals and objectives, like running a marathon, being a father – the things that the sport of cycling and the tour would take me away from. No. No. Never again."