Leading up to the February 13th U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, FloTrack will highlight the storylines of the contenders on both the men's and women's side. 

Sara Hall: Will She Finally Make a Team?

Name: Sara Hall

Age: 32

Hometown: Santa Rosa, California

Marathon PR: 2:31:14 (Chicago 2015)

Best Trials Qualifier: 2:31:14 (Chicago 2015)

Previous Trials Results: track only - 11th in the 5K (2004), 9th in the 1500m (2008), 8th in steeplechase (2012)

Our Take: The 2016 Marathon Trials will be Sara Hall’s fourth attempt at making an Olympic team, which she has tried in four different events. But 2016 might be Hall’s year, and the marathon could finally be the event where she does it.  

In just one year, Sara Hall made her debut in the marathon, a tough opener in the heat at March’s LA Marathon (2:48), and returned just seven months later to set a personal best by 16 minutes at the Chicago Marathon (2:31). The performance in Chicago was a vast improvement from her debut and catapulted Hall to No. 11 on the U.S. list entered in the race.



Following Chicago, Hall finished second at the U.S. 12K Championships and notched a 10K personal best (32:35) at December’s Pacific Pursuit. She returned in January to finish fifth at the Aramco Half Marathon with a personal best of 70:07. 

2015 also included big news for the Hall family as Sara and her husband Ryan adopted four sisters from Ethiopia. Two weeks ago, two-time Olympian Ryan announced his retirement from professional running with plans to help coach Sara and raise their daughters. 

Nearly a year after making her marathon debut, Hall will toe the line in Los Angeles with the hope of finally making an Olympic team in her third marathon ever. Although her personal best is several minutes slower than the fastest ladies entered, Hall possesses untapped potential in the distance and could very well surprise some people. 

Below, Hall answered three questions leading up to the big race.

Give us the details of your best workout

It's hard to choose one, but one fun notable one was running a long run and ending up with my second-fastest marathon, in training shoes :) It wasn't hard to do as that bar was pretty low.

What do you need to do on race day to make the team?

Finish in the top three! But seriously, I'm just focusing on being the best version of myself I can be.

What’s been your biggest obstacle to overcome in your Trials prep?

I got a virus right around Christmas that knocked me out for a few days. Other than that, just the normal tiring moments of being a mom! Playing with my kids after long training when I just want to head for the couch, or being patient and not thinking about my legs aching if I'm standing in the kitchen and my daughter launches into a 30-minute long recounting of an Ethiopian soap opera (yes this happened last night)...choosing to love her by being attentive. There are little moments like that every day.