There have been a lot of good interviews and stories about Ryan Hall this week leading up to his racing the London marathon this weekend. He even posted a second video of a training run at GodTube (I love the Ocean's 11 music in the intro).
First off, Ryan writes about his experience last year and how he felt running his American debut marathon record 2:08:24. Ryan actually feels he made a mistake by not pushing from the front when he started feeling tired:
"I run well from the front so there was no reason to not do the very thing that I am good at doing, even if these were the greatest marathoners in the world. What I regret was that I didn’t stay at the front. Right around 23 ½ things abruptly got hard and I decided to try and relax in the back. The back is not the place for me to be if I am feeling bad because it is easy to fall off the back when everything is burning. It’s easy to come up with excuses but most of all it is easy to lose hope."
Champions focus on running their own races, on executing their race plan based on their personal strengths. And when they don't, when they make mistakes, they treat those mistakes as opportunities to learn from.
Ryan also did a Final Sprint podcast, and had a brief chat with Peter at Runner's World. Ryan is one of the more accessible distance runners in the US, despite his growing fame and passion for disappearing into the mountains and training out of the public eye.
So after watching and listening and reading all of this, what is my prediction for Sunday? Here goes:
Ryan Hall will take second place in the marathon on Sunday. Martin Lel will be the winner, and run under 2:06. Ryan will run 2:06:13, and outkick Wanjiru in the last mile.
***Update: The NY Times covered Ryan as well. Read the article here.***
Comments