Best Quote from the NYTimes Ryan Hall article: "Hall has yet to win a major marathon."

The New York Times has yet to do a major investigative story on any of Barrack Obama's scandal-ridden President.

"his initial training strategy — to try to shatter the world record — did not work"

lol

QTPi wrote:

"his initial training strategy — to try to shatter the world record — did not work"

lol

This is a "strategy"?

This reminds me of that nutbag coach (in TX, was it?) who was coaching his athletes to break WRs, 50m at a time.

In any case, Hall is not actually an idiot--he may be *wrong* about some important things, but he's not an idiot--so I bet his earlier plan was probably a bit more nuanced than the article indicates.

hrt wrote:

This is a "strategy"?

This reminds me of that nutbag coach (in TX, was it?) who was coaching his athletes to break WRs, 50m at a time.

In any case, Hall is not actually an idiot--he may be *wrong* about some important things, but he's not an idiot--so I bet his earlier plan was probably a bit more nuanced than the article indicates.

it says later on his plan was to solo it at 3 seconds/mile faster than the world record

And was doing workouts based on 2:02 pace

Please remind us how many current Americans have won a major marathon? 1. You make it sound like every athlete who lives an atheistic type life is winning major marathons left and right and because Ryan Hall believes in God, he is the only one not winning. By the way, the only American who HAS a major marathon victory is also a Christian, he just doesn't receive the same type of media questioning or maybe not as outspoken. Also, I did notice the article talked about Wesley Korir worshipping too and I think he has done okay.

heavens wrote:

I wish God would take a bit of a break from coaching Ryan and give some tips to our world leaders on how we could perhaps avoid all these incessant wars, environmental catastrophes, famines, etc etc. I know the running thing is big in heaven, but maybe multitask a bit on Ryan's rest days.

LOL! And on the 7th day, Ryan rested.

ace in the troll wrote:

Please remind us how many current Americans have won a major marathon? 1. You make it sound like every athlete who lives an atheistic type life is winning major marathons left and right and because Ryan Hall believes in God, he is the only one not winning. By the way, the only American who HAS a major marathon victory is also a Christian, he just doesn't receive the same type of media questioning or maybe not as outspoken. Also, I did notice the article talked about Wesley Korir worshipping too and I think he has done okay.

You're not thinking.

It used to be that athletes of faith were of faith in a personal, mellow, private-ish way.

Then, god knows when (sic) some horses ass decided he needed to start yelling "Thank you, Jesus" into ever freaking sports camera -- as if "God," or "Jesus" would pick them or their team over other athletes.

Fine, point to the sky, but shut up already about your faith. Don't you have any other sides to yourself?

And it is not the religion, it is the TOO MUCH OF ANY ONE THING THAT CELEBRITIES FORCE INTO THE PUBLIC'S FACES.

It's the lack of balance.

ace in the troll wrote:

Please remind us how many current Americans have won a major marathon? 1. You make it sound like every athlete who lives an atheistic type life is winning major marathons left and right and because Ryan Hall believes in God, he is the only one not winning. By the way, the only American who HAS a major marathon victory is also a Christian, he just doesn't receive the same type of media questioning or maybe not as outspoken. Also, I did notice the article talked about Wesley Korir worshipping too and I think he has done okay.

A lot of the world's and America's best runners are Christians (Geb, Bekele, I think Alan Webb, many of the Kenyans) - why does Hall get all the hate?

Interestingly, many Christian-bashers seem to fawn all over Obama, which is a bit ironic as he is a very open Christian.

Why are they writing 7 pages about him. Everyone knows he will have 0 chance against KEN and ETH these Olympics.

He has the same chances of medalling as that Saudi Arabian girl. 0.

Stop the Obama bashing bllsht you idiot.

ryan believes his running talent was given to him by god so he could spread his faith through performance and charity work. douchebags like you have a problem with someone following what they believe, its not like ryan hall forced you to read an article or watch an interview. live and let live bro. lack of balance according to how?? you? is there some ratio or formula you have published?? i don't want to come off one dimensional.

I <3 Tacos wrote:

ryan believes his running talent was given to him by god so he could spread his faith through performance and charity work. douchebags like you have a problem with someone following what they believe, its not like ryan hall forced you to read an article or watch an interview. live and let live bro. lack of balance according to how?? you? is there some ratio or formula you have published?? i don't want to come off one dimensional.

Grow up, he should go be a nun then or a missionary.

He's the worst case of shoving your face in his religion ever.

It's like a gay person who says "Hi, I'm GAY, my name is Bob," instead of "Hi, I'm Bob, I'm Gay."

And really, the coloring the hair thing.

Get this: It is not because he is religious, it is because he is WEIRD about his religion.

I <3 Tacos wrote:

ryan believes his running talent was given to him by god so he could spread his faith through performance and charity work. douchebags like you have a problem with someone following what they believe, its not like ryan hall forced you to read an article or watch an interview. live and let live bro. lack of balance according to how?? you? is there some ratio or formula you have published?? i don't want to come off one dimensional.

Sounds like that more like a cult of people following some weird guy named Johnson who believes in Supernatural abilities.

And one of its chief members Andrew Van Mol, believes homosexuality is evil and people should try to undo it.

More from this nut Van Mol.

http://www.redding.com/news/2008/jul/10/same-sex-marriages-effects-are-everyones/

FCA wrote:

A lot of the world's and America's best runners are Christians (Geb, Bekele, I think Alan Webb, many of the Kenyans) - why does Hall get all the hate?

Interestingly, many Christian-bashers seem to fawn all over Obama, which is a bit ironic as he is a very open Christian.

Lots of people are Christians, but that doesn't mean they say they saw some angel's wings or they do a hard workout every three days to represent the resurrection or think about wearing a weight vest because some bible character carried boulders up a hill. Hall's devotion is extreme, and he's entitled to it. But the feeling I got from that article is he is essentially expecting a miracle -- that if he trains how God tells him, that can give him a win. That story made him sound legitimately crazy.

sanchobaile wrote:

FCA wrote:

A lot of the world's and America's best runners are Christians (Geb, Bekele, I think Alan Webb, many of the Kenyans) - why does Hall get all the hate?

Interestingly, many Christian-bashers seem to fawn all over Obama, which is a bit ironic as he is a very open Christian.

Lots of people are Christians, but that doesn't mean they say they saw some angel's wings or they do a hard workout every three days to represent the resurrection or think about wearing a weight vest because some bible character carried boulders up a hill. Hall's devotion is extreme, and he's entitled to it. But the feeling I got from that article is he is essentially expecting a miracle -- that if he trains how God tells him, that can give him a win. That story made him sound legitimately crazy.

Yup. Many of the Ethiopian runners are very religious. I remember watching "Endurance" with Geb. He prayed a lot in that film and went to get holy water in a scene.

But it seemed like it was more private for him.

What's most disgusting is that Hall gives all of the glory to his sky wizard when he does well and things are going his way, but when he fvcks up it's not the wizard's fault, it's his.

whatwhat wrote:

What's most disgusting is that Hall gives all of the glory to his sky wizard when he does well and things are going his way, but when he fvcks up it's not the wizard's fault, it's his.

It's also disgusting that a feature of this length was devoted to this topic. This is not news, it's not even interesting. Anyone who follows running knows about Hall and his strong beliefs, which he is entitled to. The general public knows there are religious fanatics on every street corner, so why the time, effort and cost of this very long story?