After today is Ryan Hall further away from an Olympic medal?

Much closer. The points about the limitations on runners per nation is one thing, but the confidence which must be there to compete at that level is essential.

Kindly remember Lydiard's quote to Moller before her bronze - 80% of the runners in the Olympic Marathon will not be able to perform at their best. Injuries. Nerves (just look at today's Masters to see what tension can do to an athlete) (and yes, golf is a sport, not as physical as running, but much more mentally demanding). Not running intelligently or as strongly as possible.

I firmly believe that based upon Hall's 3 marathons he will be able to perform at his best under pressure. He will not be the favorite (except on Letsrun.com) but if composed, will be there at 21 miles. More than nearly everyone on this board will ever accomplish in any part of their personal or professional lives.

I'd have loved to see Ryan win today, but the up side is that the men with the bull's eye on their backs for the OM will be the Lel's, the Wangiru's, the Goumri's, and such. Yes, he's going to get attention, but hopefully not so much to emotionally exhaust him beforehand. I'd have to believe the race will be like many unrabbited races, slow start, very fast finish, with the real racing after 30 to 35 km/20 miles, or so. He did pretty well in that scene when he won the Trials.

Mike Lundgren wrote: I'd have to believe the race will be like many unrabbited races, slow start, very fast finish, with the real racing after 30 to 35 km/20 miles, or so. He did pretty well in that scene when he won the Trials.

I believe Beijing will be more like every other hot weather race ever run; a slow start, a lone breakaway midway, and a death march for all to the finish.

Will be a while until he sees how much London affects him post race.

Might not have been a good idea--do two fast races in a year.

Why not put the whole thing on the line in China when it matters most?

just wondering--

Turku Wrote: "KN - having a bad life? or just a bad day?

Anybody who doesn't have total admiration for where Hall is in his running career, and what he accomplished in London, has no clue about distance running and Marathoning in particular."

No and no. Thanks for asking. Your questions puzzle me, though. You imply that I'm a loser having a bad day who doesn't know a thing about distance running, and "Marathoning in particular" (FYI, one doesn't usually cap that word, but maybe you know something I don't.) A previous poster has already called me an idiot for not joining the Hall worship this Sunday. Why so shrill, people?

Everyone on this board knows Hall is world class. As someone else pointed out in an earlier post, Hall's time today is the 23rd fastest marathon of all time. His career trajectory suggests he'll achieve more. Great!

But, people, you diminish Hall's achievements (and yourselves) when you start using phrases like "American born" "non-African" or "white" to describe Hall's accomplishments and future promise. Do you really think Hall himself would want his achievements measured in those terms? I think he showed today that he deserves to be measured by the same stick as the very best, and that's what I'm suggesting people ought to do. 23rd fastest time in history ain't bad. He showed he's pretty damn close to the best; maybe he'll catch them in Beijing, or in one of the marathon majors in the next couple years. I hope he will, but he hasn't yet.

Hey KN - Not a total loser :):) And I can choose to cap.

"Marathoning" to emphasize a point or not - it should not interfere with the basic message, at least to most.

I did not mention "American born", "non-African", or"white", but it's not so difficult to understand why that could be brought up as part of a reasonable discourse.

I know you must be aware that a huge majority of the World's fastest distance runners over the past decade or so have immediate or very recent, somewhat obvious African heritage. Is there something wrong with noting that, and recognizing that Hall is "different"? Clearly, that is of some interest to those interested in the physiological and sociological evolution of Distance Running. (in caps)

My only concern with your perspective, and it's no real issue in the big picture, is that your earlier comments seemed to be on the side of diminishing Hall's run in London, as opposed to celebrating it. And that's okay.

Inertia - Ryan Hall is an object on a path and he has two forces propelling him forward: his heart and his God.

January 17, 2007 - Hall runs a solo 59.43 to smash the US Half Marathon record, and over 2 minutes in front of second place. It ranks as the 9th fastest 1/2 performance in the world.

January 24-30 - Hall announces he will debut at 42k in London and the plan to run for gold in Beijing '08.

April 22, 2007 - Hall runs 2.08:24 to debut at London, setting the fastest marathon by an American-born male.

November 3, 2007 - Hall runs a solo 2:09.02 to win the US Oly trials, finishing over 2 minutes in front of 2nd place Dathan Ritzenhein.

April 13, 2008 - Hall runs 2:06.17 to finish 2 seconds out of fourth, in a stellar field of major marathon champions. His time is a 2 minute and 7 second improvement upon his debut marathon less than 365 days earlier.

August 24, 2008 - God willing, Hall will run and win the Olympic Marathon. As always, he will pour his entire being into the endeavor set out before him.

There is not a negative vibe or tolling comment that can stick on Ryan Hall. He is a man who believes in something bigger than himself and he is doing everything he can to show his God and the world that his heart is true. But he's still just a man...so his heart is simultaneously his greatest enemy. No doubt he prays for the trolls and vultures that have sadism in their souls.

I am closer than ever to being the first ninja to win a gold medal in track & field guys.

KN wrote:

Impressed, yes. Do I think he'll medal in Beijing? No. Do I think Hall is overrated on the LetsRun message board? Yes.

Ok dilweed...I'll play along.

How is he overrated?

The last three men to win the Olympic marathon all ran a spring marathon before taking gold. Abera ran Fukuoka in Dec 1999, Boston in Apr 2000, he won the Olympics on Oct 1, 2000 and then ran Fukuoka that December.

The majority of letsrunners have probably never heard of most of the guys on the poll, so obviously they are going to pick Hall when he is mentioned all over the front page, in message board threads, etc. You can't say he is overrated based on an internet poll.

The majority of LetsRun has never heard of Martin Lel, Samuel Wanjiru or Abderrahim Goumri? And they claim to follow the sport?

Who are "they" and when did "they" claim to follow the sport? Are you talking about the few people who wrote their predictions on the message board? There were over 3500 votes. I doubt that many follow it (outside the U.S.) enough to know all the athletes and their stats (which weren't included with the poll).

I don't know if the poll is the best evidence or not, but are you seriously gonna argue that the letsrun crowd does NOT have an inflated opinion about Ryan Hall? Get real. Most threads on here (and a lot of the editorial content too) make it seem like he's the top favorite to win Olympic gold, just like he was the favorite to win London until about 24 hours ago.

Hall is as overrated on letsrun as Webb is.

Abel Anton won the 1997 WC marathon, not Pinto.

You may or may not be aware of this (I'm guessing the latter) but when the supernova that created the Crab Nebula became visible to Earth in 1054, it was so bright that it could be seen during the daytime for more than three weeks, and it was bright enough to be seen at night for nearly two years. We have records of this from Chinese, Arab and Native American sources. But none from Europe because the Church taught that the Heavens were static and unchanging thus they simply ignored it.

And would you care to investigate how Africa arrived in its current state and which continent is responsible?

That's a good point about previous winners.

What about things like Salazar saying he totally wiped out his immune system with a supreme effort and then never regained that fitness?

just an example--food for thought.

Los Angeles 1984: heat and humidity. And who placed 2nd and 3rd? Two blokes from the land of rain and fog, the British Isles. Ryan has as good a chance as anyone in the field. And he now has the confidence to know he can run a truly world class time. His 2:08 debut was nice, this 2:06, and having been in the thick of the actual "racing" has got to make him feel 10 feet tall.

And as mentioned the Oly marathon will be like Athens and LA, slow and tactical with loads of surges in the latter stages. He's definitely well suited to this year's race.

Now, can he recover and remain injury free, is the question? Also, since he's in world class fitness what sort of training is he going to do to make himself even better prepared?

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

Who are "they" and when did "they" claim to follow the sport?

You don't think most people who voted in that poll claim to follow running as a sport? If you're right that most people here don't really know much about Martin Lel, then they're really no better than recreational runners who couldn't give two figs about the sport.