Professional
Hall has been sponsored by Asics since 2005. His coach at the time was Terrence Mahon, a former runner at Villanova University. In 2006 he won his first national title in the 12K cross-country championships, winning by 27 seconds.
On September 16, 2006, Hall won the Great Cow Harbor 10K in Northport, New York, setting a new course record of 28:22. Hall's road-running success continued when he broke the U.S. 20k record on October 8, 2006, running 57:54, 48 seconds faster than the previous record run by Abdi Abdirahman in 2005.
On January 14, 2007, Hall won the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon in a time of 59:43, which makes him the 49th fastest half marathoner in history as of February 2013. The performance also demolished the previous North American record of 1:00:55, set by Mark Curp on September 15, 1985, in Philadelphia.
On April 22, 2007, Hall placed 7th in the Flora London Marathon. His time of 2:08:24 was the fastest marathon debut by any American, and the fastest marathon ever run by a U.S.-born citizen.
On November 3, 2007, Hall won the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Marathon in a Trials-record 2:09:02 in New York City, New York. With this win, he, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Brian Sell qualified to run the marathon at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
On April 13, 2008, Hall placed 5th in the Flora London Marathon. Hall, 25, competing in only his third marathon, finished in 2:06:17. The only American to run faster is Morocco-born Khalid Khannouchi, who in 2002 ran 2:05:38 in London and 2:05:56 in Chicago.
Hall was featured on the cover of the September 2008 Runner's World magazine and talks about his "run for glory" in the marathon in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. On August 24, 2008, Hall was the second American to cross the finish line the 2008 Men's Olympic Marathon, placing 10th with a time of 2:12:33. He ran at a much more conservative pace than the lead pack did, and gradually moved from 21st place at the 15k mark up to 10th at the 40 km mark. His teammates Dathan Ritzenhein and Brian Sell finished 9th and 22nd, respectively.
Hall was chosen as the 2008 Road Runner of the Year in the Open Male division by the Road Runners Club of America.
On April 20, 2009, Hall participated in the 2009 Boston Marathon, finishing third overall in 2:09:40 behind Deriba Merga of Ethiopia and Daniel Rono of Kenya. Merga and Rono finished with times of 2:08:42 and 2:09:32, respectively. He returned to the race in 2010, but only managed fourth place, although his time of 2:08:41 was the fastest ever by an American at Boston.
In 2010, Hall finished fourth in the Boston Marathon, and fourteenth in the Philadelphia Distance Run half marathon. Due to fatigue, he withdrew from the Chicago Marathon. In October, Hall left his coach Terrence Mahon, and the Mammoth Track Club. He won at the 2010 USA 7 Mile Championships.
Read more about this topic: Ryan Hall (runner)
Famous quotes containing the word professional:
“So-called professional mathematicians have, in their reliance on the relative incapacity of the rest of mankind, acquired for themselves a reputation for profundity very similar to the reputation for sanctity possessed by theologians.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“... all professional ideologies are high-minded. Hunters, for instance, would not dream of calling themselves the butchers of the woods.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)
“We have been weakened in our resistance to the professional anti-Communists because we know in our hearts that our so-called democracy has excluded millions of citizens from a normal life and the normal American privileges of health, housing and education.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)