Ryan Hall Excuses

Just a disaster for Hall today. He was clearly looking for a certified-course PR, and was way off of that. After this, it's hard to think he has a legitimate shot at a medal in London.

Why he thinks "faith-based coaching" is working is a mystery.

You guys are idiots. He ran 2.08.04!

Exactly. Two minutes slower than his London PR. Two years later. Fully tapered. Targeting a fast time. This would be like Makau doing a 2:06 in Berlin. Sorry you're a fanboy, but you can't pretend this bodes well for Hall.

Scotty quit hating on Ryan Hall. Quit worry who coaches Ryan. Ryan hall is the best US marathon ever. Scotty focus on your own running, Adidas does like 8th place finishers

Or if Hall had won, here would be the letsrun bashing:

"Mosop was only 80%"

"Hall is still not that good. He never would've beaten Wanjiru"

"The better runners ran Berlin."

Point is that no matter what Hall runs, jerks like you will bash him.

Fortunately, Hall is open and honest about his training and racing and doesn't make excuses. And most importantly, he's learned how to ignore anonymous critics who couldn't run a single one of his 5K splits from today.

or this...

That is letsrun.com...NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE...idiots on this board will bash even the very best runners.

Seeking Knowledge wrote:

You guys are idiots. He ran 2.08.04!

Exactly......At this point, I'd put money on Ryan Hall in his prime in the marathon versus AlSal in his prime at the same distance.

mammoth track club wrote:

Ryan hall is the best US marathon ever.

No. Frank Shorter is. Two olympic medals.

I think a lot of the disappointment in Hall goes back to his debut. Traditionally there is a lot to learn from and improve after your first marathon, and everyone got excited about what Hall was capable of. However, looking back, it is starting to look like from his debut to now he has been consistent, and may have just happened to run extremely well in his first one. Is he still a good runner? Yes. Is he a Olympic medal quality marathoner? No. If we can just revise our over zealous expectations, we can appreciate Ryan as a good 2:05-2:08 marathoner who if he keeps his nose in it long enough might eventually win a big marathon in an off year.

dinoooooooo wrote:

I think a lot of the disappointment in Hall goes back to his debut. Traditionally there is a lot to learn from and improve after your first marathon, and everyone got excited about what Hall was capable of. However, looking back, it is starting to look like from his debut to now he has been consistent, and may have just happened to run extremely well in his first one. Is he still a good runner? Yes. Is he a Olympic medal quality marathoner? No. If we can just revise our over zealous expectations, we can appreciate Ryan as a good 2:05-2:08 marathoner who if he keeps his nose in it long enough might eventually win a big marathon in an off year.

+1

You need everything explained to you? Hall's shown to be a 2:05, 2:06 guy on fast courses, who could hang with Mosop on a day like today. Finishing mins behind in 2:08 is good, but not typical Hall. And when racing only 2 marathons/year, you'd better believe we're going to hang onto the effort and wonder what's going on. Or do you need tutoring that 2:08 on a fast course is very unlike Hall?

I think that Hall would have been bashed by some regardless of whether he won or didn't win.

I still think that 2:08 is disappointing for Hall- IIRC, he stated in some of the pre-race interviews that he now considered himself a 2:04/2:05 guy. Considering that, 2:08 is disappointing.

Hall did okay. It's hardly a "disaster." He ended up berating half of the guys in the lead pack. He's got another race to do in January. He's consistent now, he's not bombing out anymore. He'll probably win the Trials by at least two minutes.

Ryan looked like a linebacker out there compared to the guys he was running against. Sorry, but he is always going to lose races in the heat when up against that many guys who are that good, that small and who have spent the majority of their lives in equatorial Africa. If the weather had been 10 degrees cooler Ryan would have run 2 minutes faster and beaten at least one or two guys who beat him today. No one on Earth could have beaten Moses.

How many good marathons does a runner have in him?

Hall is good and had run well for a few years in the marathon, not sure how many more good years he has left? Not sure how many hard marathons he can run?

Time to get it done, if he is capable.

My thoughts were he would stay with the pack in hopes of bettering his 30Km NR and warmdown the last 12KM. Giving himself a sharpner race a couple months before the trials.

The getting a paycheck aspect might have been a teenytiny factor also.

Does anyone know who is the Official Deepdish Pizza sponsor of the Chicago Marathon?

I don't know who the OP is but it is definitely not Scott Bauhs or anyone else at Mammoth Track Club.

Monitor Lizard wrote:

"at least no one else in the US can run 2:08 at the moment"

I haven't watched the post race interviews, but if these are true quotes then this one is the most disturbing. It's only marginally different than me running a 37 min. 10k, but saying afterwords "At least I won my age group."

bootsie wrote:

mammoth track club wrote:

Ryan hall is the best US marathon ever.

No. Frank Shorter is. Two olympic medals.

against lesser competition.