This past weekends marathon results puts Ryan Hall's chances of competing with the Africians out of reach

"Kibet's time also obliterated his previous best of 2:07:53"

Ref:

http://www.universalsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&ATCLID=3707920

Ryan Hall's Marathon PR: 2:06:17

Ref:

http://www.usatf.org/athletes/bios/hall_ryan.asp

Most everybody improves. Hall dropped from 2:08 to 2:06 on the same course. Could drop some more...who knows? Hall is a warrior.

No one's ever broken 2:07 in Boston, and gold medalists and world recordholders have tried. Not sure what a bunch of performances in Rotterdam and Paris really have to do with what Ryan might accomplish in Boston.

Track Fan wrote:

He pr is 2 min outside of what would have won Rotterdam. Boston is his best bet as the pace won't be too insane. On a flat fast course against a field from Sunday he will get his doors blown off. I wish him the best in Boston. Hope he wins, but this past weekends results probably had to make him come to some sort of reality check. Ritz too for that matter.

Your argument supports what Tergat is saying, that the Westerner's mental attitude is limiting them.

Watch the video with Kibet on the homepage. He was a 2:07 guy. He talks about hoping to run 2:06 on Sunday. Then what does he do? He goes out and runs 2:04.

During the race very early he wasn't thinking "2:06 is as good as I can do." He may have said that in an interview but he didn't follow it.

If Ryan tries to be one of the best in the world he has a chance. If he says "I can't run faster than 2:06", then you are right he is done.

From a recent interview:

Ryan: I feel that my biggest breakthrough race was my first half-marathon in Houston when I broke the hour barrier. After Houston, we knew that running sub 2:07 and even faster was possible in my future. I was pretty excited last spring when I ran 2:06:17 but I feel there is a lot more in the tank.

Does not sound like he's interested in putting limits on what he can do.

"out of reach", what insight do you have on ryan's training and attitude?

i wouldn't pretend to know if ryan hall believes he can't compete against the africans (or anyone for that matter). why limit someone just for the sake of getting attention on a thread?

Track Fan wrote:

He pr is 2 min outside of what would have won Rotterdam.

Almost everybody's PR is 2 minutes outside of what would have won Rotterdam - including the guy who won Rotterdam (and nearly one minute outside of Wanjiru's PR and Wanjiru is a studly marathon stud).

Hall may never run faster than 2:06:17 again (only four people have run that time or faster more than once, I think), but what sort of odds would you have given for a top 5 finish in London '08 if you knew that that would require 2:06:38 or faster? My God man! That would be nearly two minutes faster than his PR! He'll be crushed!

Americans need to stop worrying about time and place and just go out and run. The Africans run these crazy times because they go out hard and hang on. Alot of them fade badly, but when it all clicks the result is amazing.

One more thing to consider before writing Ryan Hall off... Both Kibet and Kwambai have half marathon PRs of 1:00:22. Kibet ran his at the Rock n' Roll Half Marathon (2006 edition) in San Diego. I'm not sure where Kwambai ran his. Hall's PR of 59:43 indicates that he has at least equal ability to pop a fast marathon, too.

I also agree with a previous poster who points out that Rotterdam performances have very little to do with Boston. The courses are completely different and Boston doesn't hire pacers who will establish a hard tempo from the start.

Its not about Hall , he will run well , he's world class and thats all fine. Its the whole of what the american men are not doing , getting to the next level. Look at Paris results , or just about any of this years years spring marathon times. The american marathoner is just that , run on the home turf and be content as first american.

Meb had a bright spot and then got greedy or poor advice.

I think westerners know too much about the actual physiology/limitations of distance running.

with this knowledge we have subconsciously set limitations on our performance of what we think we can do.

the Africans don't analyze the splits and meaningless details. they are in tune with how their body and mind feels.

they set their mind to it and just do it.

I'm not saying we should be unscientific, but we should spend more time running instead of discussing or reading about running.

the africans are all running 2:04-2:05 now cause they saw hall run 2:06 and were like, "if the white boy is running 2:06 we should all be running 2:04".

adihero wrote:

the africans are all running 2:04-2:05 now cause they saw hall run 2:06 and were like, "if the white boy is running 2:06 we should all be running 2:04".

it's not like hall was the first white man to run 2:06, remember stefano baldini?

he ran 2:07. still really, really fast.

http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/biographies/letter=0/athcode=9827/index.html