It’s good being Ryan Hall. He is the hottest thing on the American distance running scene after his 59:43 half-marathon American record in Houston in January and American Debut Record in April at the London Marathon after his 2:08.24. He has a beautiful wife who is also a very accomplished American distance runner. His brother is a Footlocker Cross Country Champion and now at Oregon with Ryan’s college coach, Vin Lanana. Now less than a month away from the Olympic Marathon Trials in NYC he is one of the top seeds and fitter than ever. He is currently tucked away in the mountains of Mammoth, California training hard and focused on a goal. Even if it is snowing so hard you can’t see outside. Over the past few months he has appeared on the cover of the nations two premier running magazines and now with the trials hype heightening he is in the papers often. He is a religious man and very modest. Not often does a 2:08 and sub-60 guy say he is an underdog in ANY race. But he said it, and quite a bit more in our interview. Whether he thinks he is an underdog or not, he is one to watch come the 3rd. All this of course is why it’s good to be Ryan Hall. Josh Neyhart: So Ryan, the last time anyone has seen you in action was the 10k at USA Track and Field Nationals, but since then you’ve only been seen at meet’s with your wife Sara. How has the summer been and what have you been up to? Ryan Hall: Well, I went over to Europe with Sara and I was planning on doing some races over there, but I wasn’t feeling like I was in top form, I mean good shape, but not like I was ready to pop one. So I just traveled around with her and trained over there in Lueven (Belgium), it’s fun being over there with a bunch of American’s guys. Just kind of enjoying the running scene without competing. I was starting to gear up mentally, physically, and emotionally to start my preparations for the trials. So with a big emphasis on the trials it was kind of hard to come back from London so quick and be excited about a big track season. It was just filler time for me. Josh: So all summer then your focus has been on this ONE single race and that is the marathon trials in New York? Ryan: Yeah. When I went out there and saw the course and you look down the list of American guys competing, I have definitely been taking it very seriously and I know that I am going to have to be on and have a great day out there to make this team. I wasn’t willing to sacrifice anything to not be as prepared as I could be on November 3rd. Josh: In 2005 you were NCAA Champion in the 5k and went on to run 13:16 that year and were ranked as one of the top 5k guys in the country. Then do tested that waters at the IAAF World Road Championships in 2006 where you finished 11th in he 20k. Now 2 years after the 5k successes you are one of the countries top Marathoner’s, how did this shift in focus come about? Ryan: Yeah, it was a pretty quick transition. A big thing was the 2006 track season didn’t go very well for me. The more I was over in Europe, the more races I saw, the more I just kind of was challenged to take a good look at my talents and abilities and the lead up for the 2008 Olympics. The Big question was what event would I have the best shot at getting a medal in. Honestly, I was watching these guys run 5k on the track and I was thinking you know I got to be able to close races in under 4 minutes and I still haven’t even broken 4 minutes for a mile. It’s not necessarily like I don’t believe that I can, you know, run a great 5k, but I just think I am more suited for the longer distances races. So as I experimented at that more and more I became surer of that and it became a pretty quick transition to the marathon. Simply because 2008 was close on the horizon I felt like I needed to give it a go, check out the event and see what event I was going to focus on in 2008. Josh: 2007 for you has been a pretty incredible year and it started with the Houston Half-Marathon where you broke the American Record. How did you decided on Houston and then London and what was the thinking behind the races? Ryan: The original plan was just to check my fitness to see where I was at in terms of progressing towards a spring marathon. At that time I was thinking about running something a little bit earlier, something not quite as big as London, like not a World Marathon Major race. But after Houston some doors kind of opened up for me with London and we saw that I was in really good shape and I was responding really well to the training I was doing. Going into Houston I was honestly right in the thick of marathon training and we really didn’t back down too much at all for that race. But it was one of those races where everything just clicked perfectly and I was feeling really good at that point in my training and everything was just right on that day. Josh: That race was a huge boost for what I guess you could call your “PR”. You’ve been on magazine covers and have been talked about non-stop all over the running community. Has that American Record run changed things for you and if so how are things different? Ryan: I think I knew that I had a great half-marathon in me and after the Hungary (IAAF Road Championships) I set the goal of trying to break an hour at some point in my career. I was obviously thinking years down the road. It was just a big confirmation of where my talent lies. It gave me a lot of confidence that I have a real shot to, if I make that Olympic team, to make that podium. Running under an hour it just gives you a lot of confidence that you’ve been there before and done it and that you have it in you to run some pretty special times. It was another big confirmation that I was doing that right event. Josh: Following Houston you went to Jacksonville where everyone expected major fireworks, but that didn’t quite go as planned. Then came London, where expectations from the American track fans were very high and you not only met them but set an American marathon debut record. How was it meeting those expectations and running that first marathon? Ryan: I really enjoyed that race. I will always look back that race as one of those special races of my career. Everything from the environment to how well they took care of us in London, and I’ll never forget all the crowds going along there and I’ll never forget catching up to Gebresslassie and Tergat and their group running next to those guys. It was kind of surreal at first and then a couple miles went by and I was like all right I belong here. I believed for a long time God has given me the talent to run at a world-class level and there was a lot of hard years there at Stanford where it was looking like that wasn’t going to happen. So it was the beginning of the realization of a dream and a vision that I have had for a long time. So it was a really special race and I think I had or have the ability to run even faster that day. I think I could have run really quick, but the conditions and how the race played out, it turned into more of a tactical race. Still just the way the race went and being up in the front and leading was something I had been thinking about out in the woods running by myself 6 months prior to that. So all that made it a really special race. Josh: You graduated in the class of 2001 with guys like Webb, Ritz and others. You watched them go pro while you stuck with it in college. Ritz recently said Webb, whom he doesn’t race often, was his biggest rival. He obviously feels pressure to be the American on top. How does that pressure affect you and do you ever view things in those terms? Ryan: I think it was a really special thing to have me, Alan, and Dathan coming out the same year together like that. I was kind of riding the fumes on the tail end of those guys, not in the lime light like those guys, which was good for me because it took off a lot of pressure and I got to see a lot of the amazing stuff they were doing and I knew that was in me too and it was just a matter of time. I saw Alan going through his troubles in college and Dathan definitely had his rough spells in college as well. We all kind of went through our own journey there and it’s neat to see how we’re all developing. I think there is going to be an exciting 4-8 year to follow. In terms of the rivalry, I don’t really see it as a rivalry and I don’t really see American runners as big rivals. Rivals always change, like when I was in high school there were some good California guys and then I though more about running with Alan and Dathan and those guys and after running in London I am thinking about Gebresslassie and Tergat, thinking about Ramaala. So you know your expectations of who you can run with are always changing. I think we’re going to have some really classic American distance races and I think it’s going to start with the Trials because there is such a stellar group of guys running it. It’s going to be a battle out there. But I really think we have to start looking to the world scene and thinking who can we run with. Josh: So you just gave an idea about how American distance running is right now. Do you ever feel like you are helping to bring it back and when you are out pounding the mile is that a though that motivates you? Ryan: Honestly the most I probably think about it is when people ask me about it. Mainly because I don’t see us as different as the African’s or anyone else, maybe in the past we haven’t been as competitive with them, but I feel like Alan (Webb) is showing we can run with anyone in the world in the mile so why can’t we do it in other events. You know Deena getting a medal; Meb getting a medal in 2004 was huge. I don’t really see us different and I know that if I hit a good day I can run with anyone. Josh: You’re based in Mammoth right now. What is it like living and training up there and who else is up there to train with? Ryan: It’s so awesome up here and I love being here. Of all the places I’ve been in the world I’d say Mammoth was my favorite. So I feel very blessed to live in my favorite place I have ever been to. Right now it’s snowing really hard, so you have your days where it’s cold and nasty. It’s actually almost a white out right now. So it presents its own challenges in its own ways, but it’s so beautiful up here it just makes the miles go by really easy and I think high altitude training is the way to go for marathon training. That’s my own personal belief. So up here we have that part of it. Then we have our team up here, which is such a great support network. My coach Terrence Mahon, who coaches Deena Kastor, who is so experienced on the world level, has been there to help support Deena throughout her career and has done such a great job, coaching her through American records, Half-Marathon and Marathon records. So he obviously knows his stuff and he does a great job with us. Then just learning from some of the older teammates we have up here, Deena, Meb, and Jen. They’ve been where we want to go and done some of things we want to do. I just try and absorb as much as I can from them. Recently, we’ve had the addition of Dan Browne and Josh Cox to come train up here with us for the Trials and that’s been great because they’ve been like older brothers to me and it kind of made the family bigger. I’ve really enjoyed just running day in and day out with those guys. Josh: What has been the structure of the training this season? Also, what is a normal day in the life of Ryan Hall during the heavy part of marathon training look like? Ryan: So, like I was saying I had the recovery time after London and then kind of a mock track season where we were kind of working on some speed stuff and getting back on the track. Then it came time in the beginning of August to get down to business and that’s where we started our marathon build up, which has actually been much shorter than before London. Which excited me because it’s going to leave me fresher and I am just starting to get to my peak fitness now, whereas before London where I was hitting my peak fitness at Houston and the weeks before London where I was playing the waiting game and waiting for the race to come around. This time around has been slow building and I feel like each week I am getting stronger and stronger and my confidence is getting better more and more. I think I am going to be ready to go as I can possibly be in a month’s time. In terms of day-to-day life, it’s pretty simple we meet twice a day with our team, 8:30 in the morning and then at the gym at 5:00. We’ll do our primary run or workout in the morning and that usually takes until like 11 and then we come back and there’s stretching and doing some ice baths and therapy and stuff like that. Then we have lunch and then honestly usually I take an hour to two-hour nap in the afternoon. Then I get up and I have an hour to pay the bills and to do stuff like that. Then we go back out for the afternoon run before we meet at 5 to go to the gym. Then at the gym we’re doing core and then either leg or arm weights. This is about until 6:15 or so and then I might hope in the pool and do a little bit of kicking stuff like that. Then I come back about 6:30 and have dinner. Sometimes we have church at night or church in the morning or a Bible study. After that it’s pretty much going to bed around 10. It’s a pretty simple life, but it is definitely busy. You know I used to think that as a professional runner I’d have hours and hours with free time, but with marathon training you really don’t. I mean even the nap is part of the job. Josh: You’ve mentioned your religion a few times now and you are know to be a pretty religious person, so how does that tie into your running and is that another motivation for your success? Ryan: Yea, It’s impossible for my faith to not come into my play in my running. I always love to talk about it because it’s a part of me. Sometimes when I am doing interviews and stuff like that for me not to share my heart almost cheats the person who is interviewing me, cheats the reader because they’re not really getting to know me. I feel like I have a responsibility just to be honest about why it is that I run or whatever question they may ask about motivation or handling the ups and downs of running. I try not to go off about it because I don’t want to press it on people; I don’t want to be outright putting it on them. But, if people want to know about it I’d love to talk about it, and if they’re not interested that’s ok. For me though, it’s the reason why I run and it’s what allowed me to handle the hard times in my life at Stanford. It allowed me to continue to run and continue to do what I do now and have those Houston and London experiences. I would have never had those if I had turned in the towel and honestly I was really close to doing that. At Stanford I left school, left it for a winter quarter my sophomore year. I was really struggling because running was my life and it wasn’t going well so that meant I was depressed. I had my faith then, but it wasn’t the most important part of my life. I had to kind of make that right. During my time at Stanford my faith started to become number one in my life and that allowed me to handle to ups and downs of running better than I had done in the past. Whether I make the Olympic team in the marathon or not, it would be a super exciting thing and I’d thrilled to make the team, but if I don’t make the team it’s ok because at the end of the day there are more important things in life and fame is fleeting, but your relationship with the Lord is something that lasts your whole life and after life. It’s something that has allowed me to be more balanced because I tend to get really focused on what I am doing and it can almost turn into an obsession, but my faith allows me to keep things into perspective. It’s something I’ve been thinking about, with the trials and the Olympics and everything, there are just so many American guys out there busting their butts and that the end of the day there are only 3 guys who are going to make it. At Mammoth up here we have 5 guys training and its like I would love to have all 5 of us to get on the team, but two of us aren’t going to make it. So then how do you define success, is success all about making them team, definitely not because some guys are going to run the race of their lives and they’re not going to make the team, but they should be just as proud as the guy who wins the race because they poured it out just as much as that guys. Josh: I heard you go to go see the NYC Marathon from the pace car last year, how was that? Also, what are your thoughts on the Trials course? Ryan: The New York Road Runners were gracious and brought a lot of guys out there that were running the trials in 2006 and so we got to preview the course and I was able to ride on the lead car and that really spurred me on to the marathon. Watching those guys pound it out and seeing the crowds at New York and how special of an event it was quite an experience and that made me really excited to try a spring marathon. I’ve been back out a couple times since then, when Sara was running in Millrose Mile and going out there to watch her I checked it out then. I’ve previewed the course I think, three times and I’ve done some tempo runs on there. It’s been good because now I am able to visualize the course and now I am able to get on courses here that are very similar to that course. Having run it I know that’s its going to be a challenging course, there’s no major hills in it but it’s always your either up or down. I’ve tried to condition my legs just get really strong and to get used to the pounding of an undulating course. I know it’s going to require a really smart race and the person who runs well there is going to have to be really mentally tough because there is going to be tough spots in the race for everyone regardless of how you are feeling. Josh: This race, as you have alluded to, is really stacked, probably one of the best America distances races in a while. What are your goals in a race this stacked and who is the big challenger? Ryan: Yea, it would be obviously very exciting to win this race because this is one of the best marathon Trials in a long time. To come out on top there would be very special. For me I am just trying to fix my eyes on those top three spots and anywhere in the top three is a success. So the goal first is to put myself in the top three and if I can win it I’ll take it. The field really is just incredible and most of these guys and way more experienced and I see myself as a big underdog and I have my work cutout for me. I haven’t really been thinking too much about my competitors I am really just trying to get myself as ready as I can be, because at the end of the day I can’t control how fast Abdi, Meb, Alan, Dathan, Khannouchi, or any of these guys, I can’t control how fast any of them run, I can only control how fit I get. So I’ve been just tucked up here in the mountains just doing my own thing. In terms of favorites, Khannouchi, I am not sure what his foots likes what his health is like, but if he gets healthy, he is the most experiences marathoner out there and has had the world record. So with his credentials he is one of the guys I am going to look to follow out. Josh: So finally, do you ever plan to go back to track again? Maybe run that sub-4 mile you spoke about before or is this it, roads for life? Ryan: Haha, I definitely want to break 4 minutes for the mile, that’s a career goal, something I feel like I really need to do. I mean 3:42 (1500) in HS and not any faster since, I should be able to. So for sure that is one of my fun little side goals. I am still really excited about my prospects in the 10k and I think I can run a really fast 10k if I am prepared for it and I am really gearing up for it. A lot of its going depend on how it goes in November, because if I don’t make the team obviously I am going to turn my head to track and I am going to be going for that 10k full steam ahead. But, if I make that team most likely I won’t get on the track again until 2009. I definitely feel like there is some unfinished business and I’d like to test my body out and see what I can do over 5k and 10k. Josh: Thanks a lot for your time and best of luck up in NYC Ryan! Ryan: Thank you very much. * Picture Thanks to Victah Sailer/Photorun.net