Ryan Hall pulls out of 1/2 marathon in Holland

That was reported yesterday afternnon.

Funny you make this comment. You would be the same guy to blast him if he ran great and then didn't win Boston. You would say that he raced too much. Give the guy a break. They obviously know something we don't.

The phrase is "talk out of both sides of his mouth". Just so you know.

I tuned in to Hall's record run half marathon in mid race.

Back then the first thing I noticed was the look on his face. He had that totally confident, mean aggressive face as he tore thru the final miles. Kind of like I got this shi#t down baby! Just so happened I tuned into his last race on the TV the other day. About 3 miles to go. A WAY DIFFERENT LOOK ON THAT BOYS FACE! He looked to me, my opinion, like he was just hanging on. Like he did not want to be here. He had a weak different look. I don't know I was really surprised when he said he was gonna run with Haile. So this pull out fits for me.

stop drinking the hatorade! This is Ryan hall, he is far from mentally weak. Lets just hope he is not injured, if healthy he will win Boston. Do you recall what races he did before the trials? he would of won NYC that day!

Testosterone teddy wrote:

This was reported on RRW.

HALL TO BYPASS CITY-PIER-CITY HALF-MARATHON

American marathoner Ryan Hall has decided to bypass the Fortis City-Pier-City Half-Marathon next Saturday in The Hague. Hall, who ran a personal best 2:06:17 at London last April, decided with coach Terrence Mahon to remain at his training base in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., and continue to focus on his preparations for the Boston Marathon on April 20. Hall was to face Haile Gebrselassie in that race.

This guy talks out of both ends of his mouth. First he is pumped to be running against a great field. Now he pus*ys out. What's his excuse now for not doing Gate river this weekend. I'll tell you, if he loses his marketability drops. Hall will not win Boston this year. Too weak mentally.

his marketability would not drop if he lost to geb, losing to geb is expected by the fans, but if he won his markability would skyrocket. as long as he went 61 minutes even if it only got him 10th place he could say everything is fine boston is what he is preparing for.

that said the fan in me was looking forward to him maybe getting pulled to breaking his own half marathon record.

Anyone who calls Ryan Hall "too weak mentally" is an idiot of massive proportions.

There are all kinds of reasons for deciding that traveling across the ocean in the midst of your marathon training is not a rise thing to do.

i am glad he isn't running the 1/2. it seemed more of a business decision rather than a race that would help him prepare for boston. that said, i hope all is well in the mammoth camp.

That's too bad, I was looking forward to seeing in that race.

It's funny, I remember that after his AR 59:43, he was quoted as asking his agent to try and set up a 1/2 marathon race, or find a 1/2 marathon race where Geb was running. He said he wanted Geb. I guess he changed his mind.

( I'm KEEEEDING. One could flip it around and say Geb was scared of Hall by dropping out of London the year they both ran, and obviously that is not true either. Shit happens. In fact, the people who like to give Geb a hard time on only doing time trials lately might have this take on Hall skipping this race: Geb paid Hall not to run, because having a competitor with him would distract him from chasing the record by himself. Hey, maybe that's it!)

Mentally weak at 2:06:17 and 59:43? Amazing!

For Hall to get to The Hague, he would have to drive 3 hrs to an airport, the get a connection (just one, if he's lucky) to a major int'l hub from which he can fly direct to Amsterdam or Rotterdam, probably. Then acclimatize and race, then reverse the process to get home. That's a heck of a training interruption. Whereas Gebreselassie has a house in the Netherlands.

When you're a marathoner, the marathon is EVERYTHING, and any other races are merely "marathon preparation." With less than 6 weeks to go (and that's only 3 weeks fo "real" trainign time left), if there was any doubt, he made the right choice in staying home.

As usual, as it has been over the years, Joseph McVeigh IS the voice of reason on this forum. Thanks Joe.

If that's the case, then why would they have not thought this through prior to announcing they would make the trip to race ? Their initial planning suggests they had every intention to make the trip, but on the basis Ryan ran well during US 15K time trial...

I think the reason for backing out might have more to do with where Ryan feels his fitness level/sharpness is at after his 15K result, which probably did not meet his expectations in terms of both time and how he felt !

Scrap the racing and get back to the drawing board to try and find his 2:06 fitness level !!

Joseph McVeigh wrote:

For Hall to get to The Hague, he would have to drive 3 hrs to an airport, the get a connection (just one, if he's lucky) to a major int'l hub from which he can fly direct to Amsterdam or Rotterdam, probably. Then acclimatize and race, then reverse the process to get home. That's a heck of a training interruption. Whereas Gebreselassie has a house in the Netherlands.

When you're a marathoner, the marathon is EVERYTHING, and any other races are merely "marathon preparation." With less than 6 weeks to go (and that's only 3 weeks fo "real" trainign time left), if there was any doubt, he made the right choice in staying home.

In other words, it was probably a bad idea to run try to run that half in the first place. I'm glad Ryan wised up. His main priority is to do what's best for Ryan, not to please some anonymous Let's Run posters by traveling half way around the world in the middle of a marathon build-up to race Geb.

In the time prediction thread I pointed out that Hall ran sub 60 in Houston while focusing fully on being in Half Marathon shape. Geb is focusing his training on the half as well and won't be running another marathon until Berlin most likely.

Hall didn't have a great day at the 15k and everything I saw basically said he was looking forward to the half but didn't expect to set a PR or be up front.

I think he realized that there was no reason to miss that training time (travel, taper, recovery) just to go to Holland and come in 5th. Might as well keep the focus on Boston. I don't think you can knock the guy for this. I'm sure at some point he will take a break and focus all his efforts on a half.

Hall dissapoints in a short race yet again. Oh well, he has been money in the marathon so as long as he wins Boston it's all good.

You miss 100% of the shots that you don't take.

Hall should never have even considered running in Holland. With the travel time it takes to get there and then tapering for the race you lose too much valuable training time, so his decision not to go is a good one. However....

going into Boston with only a time trial victory at Gasparilla is not too smart either. He should line it up at either Gate or Cherry Blossom and face real competition before going up against the field at Boston.