Marathon Runner Ryan Hall Earns Status as a 2008 Olympic Hopeful

Ryan Hall shocked the running community on April 22, 2007 when he finished 7^th at the Flora London Marathon. His time of 2:08:24 was the fastest debut marathon by an American, as well as the fastest ever marathon by an American-born citizen. This came just months after Hall set the American half-marathon record in Houston at 59:43. Following the half-marathon, he made the comment in an interview with MensRacing.com, "I think I can run at a really high level for longer distance races. I don't think too many of my goals have changed. I want to make the Olympic team and take a swing at a medal." While these two performances showed Hall's ability to run with the best in the United States, he has been running at a high level since high school.

While at Big Bear High School in California, Hall was the California state cross country champion in both his junior and senior years. In track, he set the 1600 meter state record at 4:02. He won the 2 mile his junior year in 8:55. At the Peregrine Systems U.S. Open at Stanford, Ryan ran the 1500 in 3:42.70, which was the third fastest high school time for that distance. At the national level, Ryan finished third at the Foot Locker Cross Country National Championships, behind current distance studs Dathan Ritzenhein and Alan Webb.

Ryan Hall went on to run for Stanford University, where he eventually ran some impressive times after some injuries early on that forced him to redshirt both indoor and outdoor track seasons in 2002. At the cross country NCAA Championships in 2003, Hall was the runner-up, leading his team to victory at the event. In the 2004 Track season, Ryan ran a 13:45.00 5000m at the Mt. SAC Relays, which was the 8^th fastest time ever for a Stanford athlete. He went on to become the NCAA 5000m champion in 2005, finishing just a few tenths of a second ahead of teammate Ian Dobson in 13:22.22.

With the help of a sponsorship from Asics, Ryan Hall left the college running life to run professionally. The year 2006 was marked with success for Ryan Hall as he dominated both the cross country and road racing venues. He began the year by winning the 12k race at the USA Cross Country Championships. Hall then went on to set the American record in the 20k at 57:54 in Hungary.

Ryan Hall seems to think that he has found his distance in the marathon, so he will rely on that event to bring him a trip to Beijing in 2008.