2006 Footlocker champ Chad Hall runs 2:12:48 FTW in his marathon debut

You are right, they don't help in the garage, but they do help while running. They help on every training run and every race. So he is in better shape because of them and he gets the X-seconds-per-mile effect. He ran well in the (downhill) race but external factors are still worth noting.

Would we have a thread about this if he ran 2:16 on a flat course and finished 9th? That kind of results is still very good but not "making noise at the Trials" good, right? That is all people are saying.

This result is great but now we would love to see him run Chicago and go 2:12 again. I think he can do it. We don't want to see him go to St. George though...

Waaah! Waaaaaah! Waaaaaaaaaaah!!

Let's be real, you need to be at least a 2:10 guy to be relevant at the front of the marathon. We've got 5+ sub 2:10 guys, a few of them firmly sub 2:10. And then 10 more in the 2:10:00-2:11:00 range. There are 20 guys in the 2:12's from the past couple years, this guy isn't any more likely than them.

People would still be talking. It is a blast from the past from a guy we haven't heard from in a decade. People would speculate what another year of training could do.

But yeah the odds of him actually being a contender are slim...

Anyone running 2:14 today in super shoes could run sub 2:19 in trainers. People hugely overestimate the amount of time improvements from different shoes. Someone running threshold pace around 4:50-4:52 in 6oz super shoes would be running at minimum 5:00 in 10oz trainers. And give them some old flats like the Streaks at 5.5oz and they're pretty darn close to their 4:50-4:52 pace from super shoes. And just so you know, two second difference is less than a minute in a marathon. So super shoes to trainers difference is only about 4 minutes difference in a marathon. You could throw some Nike Pegasus on Kipchoge and I'd bet a lot of money he's still running 2:05, maybe even 2:04. He does 25 mile controlled tempo runs at altitude in Pegasus running sub 2:18 pace.

Only if he turns up the volume on his AirPods

I've run the hill at las sendas hundreds of times. It's a staple for my hill training. It's just over 200 feet vertical over 1.5 miles. During the marathon you hit the bottom of that hill at about mile 4, having just lost 400 feet of elevation. As hills take more than they give(2:1 ratio) you break even at the top of Las Sendas. But after that the course gets very fast.

You drop 600+ feet from the top to the finish with essentially no uphill anywhere the last 20 miles. That gives maybe 45 to 60 seconds of advantage for the whole course.

The thing that makes Mesa very fast though, is the weather. Saturday was classic Mesa Marathon weather. Mid to high 40s in the shade/dark for the first 2 hours, low 50s for the next couple hours. There's also a slight tail wind typically. This past weekend it was 4 to 5 mph. Humidity is also almost always perfect.

He ran 63 in the half, last month...

The shoes choose the runner Harry

yjdie, please impress us with your marathon time and what grad school you learned these rudimentary concepts. i'm sure we will all be impressed.

This race doesn't qualify for the marathon, only half. I wonder if Hall knew this.

Legal limit 1m drop per 1k run. CIM skirts by, Boston does not

The Garrett Corcoran who played basketball was in MN. Different guy than the CA runner.

not 100% on this but think that you can qualify for the Trials at Boston but it is not world record eligible... please let me know if wrong though!