There is alot of uncalled-for criticism here.
First of all, for everyone here who claims that the only worthwhile goal in running is to go for a win or to be the best-why do any of you run?
sure, some of you may win a couple turkey trot 5ks in your lifetime, but are any of you going to be the best of the best? so that means you're running with SOME goal in mind OTHER than winning.
Are you making fun of Ryan Hall for joining your crowd? how about you turn the finger back around at yourself as you criticize him.
Secondly, running what are the odds that any american wins a major road marathon? if all of them only set their goals on winning, they would all be failures. For Ryan Hall to run to try to be his best, well yes, that is a good intention. If running to be his best puts him in the position to win Boston with 5 miles to go, you can bet he won't be doing airplanes to finish.
Thirdly, this guy is a Stanford graduate with an NCAA track championship, a team CC championship, an Olympian, and rakes in a six figure salary. I would consider him pretty successful, and compared with 98% of the junkies on here, he is legendary. Don't lie that almost all of us would switch places with him in a heartbeat if we got the chance. So how is it fair for you to say his religion is the source of all of his failure? If we use your preconception that his religion is the cause of his success/failure, and his religion has given him the above mentioned credentials, and your lack of religion has you being the spectator that buys shoes to fund his lifestyle, I would choose his religion over your lack of it anyday.