Conner Mantz is not resting on his NCAA xc title laurels. He appeared on the LRC Friday 15 SC podcast and not only revealed he may do this weekend's USATF Half Marathon champs, but that he may try and break Ryan Hall's 59:43 American record.

Ryan is bullish on Sara's fitness heading into the 2021 Chicago Marathon - "She’s definitely done workouts that she’s never been able to do before and [she’s] super confident, feeling great" - but acknowledges the warmish forecast may take the AR off the table.

Let this serve as your official "American record alert." While Ryan refused to use those words, he said he'd like to see Sara go out in 69:40 so we'll let you do the math. "This has been the fittest I've ever seen her. Every buildup she gets better and better," said Ryan.

Alan Webb, Dathan Ritzenhein and Ryan Hall had never sat down and talked about their careers until this week. Find out why Ritz had Webb's face on his dartboard as a high schooler, how Webb was able to beat Ritzenhein in their famous 10k showdown in 2006, which performances each believes was the best from their careers, their biggest lessons from the sport, their views on new shoe technology, Webb and Ritz's thoughts on their time with the Nike Oregon Project and Alberto Salazar's ban, and much more.

It's one of the great running debates: which one of the Big Three had the best career? With Dathan Ritzenhein, Alan Webb, and Ryan Hall all retired, Jonathan Gault breaks it down and picks a winner. *MB: Now that they are all retired, who had the better career - Dathan Ritz, Alan Webb or Ryan Hall? .

Our normal podcast returned but this was far from a normal podcast as podcasting history was made as for the first time in world history a six-day-old baby appeared on a podcast. Once we adjusted to our new female co-host, we spent most of the show debating who had the better career - Dathan Ritzenhein, Alan Webb or Ryan Hall? Along the way, Rojo ranted about the need for colleges to open up this fall, Tedd Ginn Jr was exposed as a liar, we wondered if World Athletics deserves more props for its anti-doping effectiveness, and much more.

Ten years ago this week, the running world lost one of its own when Ryan Shay collapsed and died 5.5 miles into the Olympic Marathon Trials. A decade later, his loss still hurts but his ability to inspire lives on.

We span the globe to get you up to speed on what's been happening in the track and field world the last two weeks.

While the mark obviously won't count for record purposes, if Hall is successful it will certainly steal a bit of thunder from Nike's Eliud Kipchoge-lead attempt.

This week we also compare the depth of the three Spring world marathon majors.

John Hancock rolled out the red carpet for some of America's best marathoners, past and present, and we got to talk to three of them today. Cragg and Linden talked their Trials recovery and Rio buildups while Hall spoke about what life is like with four young girls in the house and coaching his wife Sara as she prepares to run the London Marathon next week.

We span the globe of the world of running and have quite a few gems in this week's Week That Was, if we must say so ourselves.

Dubai is in the books, the indoor track scene started to heat up, Japan's dominance over America in the marathon is complete, a sub-4 isn't always a sub-4, and Mo Farah will take on Kamworor for the world title in March.

What a week. In the WTW, we give Ryan Hall some more praise, introduce you to Sammy Wanjiru's wife, who just ran one of the greatest races ever on US soil, tell you why Jenny Simpson's and Matthew Centrowitz's gold medal dreams just took a hit, and break down the fast and slow half marathons for Puskedra and Estrada.

David Monti writes that when he saw Hall get third in the 4K on day 1 and come back and dominate the 12K on day 2 that is when he "realized that Ryan Hall was a truly special athlete."

30 minutes of video with Ryan from December where he talks about his new family and his future. He said, "I'm not going to be someone who hangs on. When I know my body has had enough then (I'll retire). I'll always run and always love the sport."

Picking the greatest moments from his amazing career wasn't easy but we've got our six favorites. Ryan, you will be missed.

The high school season came to a close with a bang at Foot Lockers, Galen Rupp ran a really good half marathon at a holiday fun run, while the rest of the American pros congregated at the Dallas Marathon for the most impressive American starting line of the year. A holiday treat.