What would Ryan Hall have run in super shoes?

2:04.41

Faster than Mantz!

Plus, he doesn’t look like a Centaur. Ryan is not given anywhere near the respect he deserves(despite being a deeply indoctrinated religious freak).

About as fast as he did in Boston with a heavy tailwind, or: 2:04:58.

Also, he's an amazing runner who has had significant accomplishments without modern technology:

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Hall’s superb form boosted with super shoes would be something to behold! He would crush Mantz.

2:04:26

He'd run 2:02-high with the tailwind.

About the same. Why do we think Hall would be way better? Only way that would happen is if people have just gotten worse at running marathons in the past 15 years. Hall's best WMM finish is 3rd one time. And his best olympic finish is 10th. Mantz finished 8th at the olympics (better than Hall) and got 4th at Chicago and 4th at Boston, just a few seconds at each from getting a podium spot to match Hall's lifetime best finish at a WMM. So their WMM and olympic finishes are basically the same, but Mantz is running in a more competitive era 15 years later. So if Hall would have been way faster, then that means running has gotten less competitive.

The new road shoe technology is worth about one minute for the HM and two for the marathon. That would convert his fastest marathon time on a certified course, to 2:04:17

Based on his comment to Connor/Clayton before Boston, I'm sure he's wondering the same thing

Below are the results I was able to find on World athletics:

2015 - 1:04 / 1:09 half marathon

2014 - 1:06 / 1:02 halfs, 2:17:50 Boston

2013 - 1:04:10 half

2012 - DNF London Olympics, 1:05 Half (SD), 2:09:30 OT win

2011 - 2:08:04 Chicago (5th), 2:04:58 Boston (4th place), 1:02 / 1:03 / 1:03:50 halfs

2010 - 2:08:41 (4th place) Boston, 1:03:55 / 1:04:08 Halfs

2009 - 2:10 New york (4th), 2:09 Boston (3rd), 1:01:52 / 1:02:35 halfs

2008 - 2:12:33 Olympics, 2:06:17 London (5th place)

2007 - 2:09:02 OT win, 2:08:24 London (7th place), 59:43 Houston

I believe 2007 was his debut, before that we have a 3rd place finish at USA champs in 5k which ended in 16th place at worlds in Helsinki (his PR is 13:16 at 5k)

From these results I would look at this stretch from 2007-2011 where he is getting those 4th/5th place finishes to try and get a picture of where he would be at today. 4th/5th these days is worth 2:04 - 2:07 today based on a cursory glance of the last few year's worth of data (that 2:06 in london would have gotten him 5th in 2023, 3rd in 2024, and 8th in 2025).

I think that the 2:04:58 in Boston, the 2:06:17 in London and the 59:43 in Houston were definite outliers (seems like he was more of a 2:08/2:09 guy all things considered).

Probably the most likely benefit of super shoes would be more races below 2:08 or even 2:07, it's possible he wouldn't have been able to run much faster than those flash-in-a-pan performances. Maybe with a perfect storm (so, same level of outlier + super shoes), that 2:06:17 in London would become a 2:04:30, but would require a lot of things to go right on a given day

The difference is Hall had the cojones to take it out fast and lead from the front and push the Africans and made them really respect him as a runner.

Rupp was never on that level.

Mantz isn't on that level.

Ryan would have run slower!!!

Hear me out, the guy was already very on the edge with training. With super shoes he would have pushed himself even hard and broke even sooner.

Didnt he stop running due to exhaustion/ chronic fatigue?

When Hall ran 2:06:17 in London, the world record was 2:04:26. He was 1:51 slower than the world record. Running 1:51 slower than the current world record would put Hall at 2:02:26.

When Geb ran that 2:04:26, the third fastest man of all time was only 30 seconds back (also, before 2008 ended Geb dropped the world record another 27 seconds pushing Hall even further back). Today, the third fastest man is 66 seconds back (and happens to be Kenny B). In the years after Geb ran 2:04:26, guys routinely were within one minute of his best time (even after he broke 2:04). We’re now two years removed from Kiptum’a WR and no one is within 1:30 of his time. The comparison you are trying to make simply doesn’t hold true. Everyone today is way back of Kiptum. There is no reason to think Hall would still be closer to Kiptum than Mantz is.

1:56:57

Sebastian Sawe would have beaten Kiptum's record on a cool day. And Kiplimo could probably do it with even pacing. These guys are not way back from Kiptum

The clock says otherwise.

One of the biggest benefits of supershoes that would have helped Ryan Hall is improved recovery and ability to absorb training. Regardless of the benefits to racing, he probably could have squeezed out more years of his career with the recovery benefits of training in supershoes.

Okay, we can take the difference between Hall's 2:06:17 and Geb's 2:03:59. That difference is 2:18. If Kiptum is too much of an outlier, then add 2:18 to Kipchoge's 2:01:09. The result is 2:03:27.