Olympic Marathon Runner Ryan Hall Interview Part 3/5

Competitor's Bob Babbitt interviews American distance runner Ryan Hall.

Interviewer: So when you go back to London to run that Marathon again and I mean at that point its not like you’re surprising anybody. They know who you are they know to look out for you a little bit but run even faster? Ryan: Yeah I was coming off you know a big one Olympic trials which is another one of my career highlights and I think a lot of these guys are running the New York City marathon next day and they kind of saw me around there and I think they kind of new that I was starting to come around a little bit and so yeah I wasn’t surprised and I just went with the pace and the pace was crazy it was way faster and we’re on world record pace through halfway or third mile it was 426 which was just stupid yeah. But it was like you just got to go with it you know because there’s 15 guys going at that pace and I’m like if you want to get on the top three, three of those guys are going to hold on like you said its very difficult to fall off and come back and that’s what I had to do and that race even they got away from me. I have 14 miles again my heart got the best of me. I go up to the pacer so the pacer goes to 20 miles which is really nice and I told them I just I wasn’t telling him because he didn’t speak English but I just go like this just tell him to keep the pace going. So I saw my watch and I saw like mile 14 was like 449 I was like oh its too slow I was feeling good so I was like just keep it going and its you know the same like crazy group of runners and then they throw down like a 430 mile and drop me and so I was like duh total stupid. Interviewer: Go faster pick it up. Ryan: And they drop me in and then back I worked, I worked my way back up in the- by the 20 mile mark and you know gave it another shot and then got away from me with like 3 miles to go and ended up beating me by a little bit by finish. Its funny when you’re running 206 and you have to convince yourself your running well because the guys are running away from you up front when yours passed up would have won the race. Interviewer: I’m going to say there’s not many races you can run to a 617 in that win. Ryan: Yeah I mean the marathon is really changing and I think its time for us as Americans either rise to the occasion or we’re going to have to start running US only races or something like that. Interviewer: Yeah. Ryan: Because these guys are putting it on to a different level. Interviewer: Well actually mentioning that the perception we’ve talked a little bit about hits before when there’s a perception at least it was a while ago that like you said A&B. The is you know the Ethiopians Kenyans and the Americans are maybe D&C and you’ve seen some of that I know you were at a race down in Puerto Rico and then even before Boston you just for the people have this perception that Americans can’t be competitive. Ryan: Yeah its like everywhere its on the radio like the day before Boston I’m getting therapy we’re watching the Boston Red Sox game and its just on TV just kind of background noise. We here the announcers say hey the Boston Marathon is tomorrow like who do you think is going to win? Like I don’t know but I’m sure its going to be an African and I was like come on man. Interviewer: How about a little something for the effort? Ryan: Yeah I know so I think we really just got to put ourselves in those races and keep going out with those guys that’s what a lot of these African guys do they go out. They put themselves in the race. They really go for it. It doesn’t work out 9 out of 10 times but then all of a sudden they hit it and then it becomes easier to hit it again and again and again and we just have to keep putting ourselves out there. Interviewer: In Boston this year you took third and had you know right from the gun you took the lead and pushed the pace and it is like I don’t know how much planning was in that but there was certainly a good message there that I’m not here just to sit in I’m here to show you what an American can do. Ryan: Yeah I think you know having watched the race last year. I noticed that everyone was just kind of watching one guy Robert Cheruiyot out I think 1 I think 3 or four times and they’re just watching to see what he is going to do and he’s just totally addicting racing him out if he’s sitting in the back or if he’s in the front there it is running his race and I think that’s a mistake. I think we all got to run our own race out there regardless of where we are in the competition. Like my coach gave me some really great advice. He’s like just be you out three and be the best view you can be on the day and everything is going to be fine and so it was like if my personality is to go out there and push the pace and make it hard from the beginning then go out and push the pace don’t worry about it if its Robert Cheruiyot and you know all these guys who run really well like go out and be you so that was I was trying to do. Interviewer: And throughout that race again it was one of those things where the surging seemed pretty intense in being a taller guy it seems like the wind was something that was a little bit of a problem out there. Ryan: Yeah the bummer about Boston is your still in one direction you know so if the wind is against you its against you the whole way so after you know 6-7 miles of taking the way I had decided it wasn’t probably a good idea to leave the whole thing into the wind so I had to kind of adjust my plants and then once you slow down it kind of puts juice back in everyone’s legs and allows people to do some surging the African guys in particular love to run that type of race so they threw down some crazy heart surging yeah. At times it felt like we’re running a mile race so it was intense. Interviewer: And you went out and pre-ran the course. You ran the last 20 of that course was it a couple of months before hand just to get a sense of it. Ryan: Yeah it was like a month before. Interviewer: And did that help you on race day. Ryan: It definitely helps to see a course before you race it. I think more from like the training standpoint probably the most from that, that’s important because I go back home and I run courses that simulate those last 20 miles and then just being able to visualize the course I think its huge so it definitely helps a lot to have run course. I mean its best to have race the course before so going back again you know hopefully next year whenever I end up doing it again it will all definitely run it a lot better I think having raced it before. Interviewer: You mentioned that for Americans to be you know consider the best its important for someone like yourself to be in the races that are under the biggest spotlight. They’re on the biggest stages and windows races. New York, Boston, Chicago, London. That seems to be your head that its yeah I can go you know jump into a Portland Marathon and win some stuff but you want to go head to head with the best guys in the world? Ryan: Yeah I just feel like it gives me the biggest platform you know to get to share with you guys. To get to make an impact with what I’m doing because at the end of the day I’m might win a few races maybe and you know like I want to leave a lasting legacy that’s what I’m trying to do so we’re trying to figure out both my wife and I how we can inspire other people to run for a cause you know. Interviewer: Right. Ryan: We love like team world vision. We got to be involved then. We’ve got to go to African and see the work they do over there and there’s tons of great charities out there you know so I’m like I’m just trying to encourage people and find a way to better do it but to run for a cause you know because it has brought so much more meaning to my running and I want to do the same for others.