An Update to My Supporters

Published by Ryan Hall on December 18, 2013

The highs of running 2:04 and making my 2nd Olympic team and the lows of having to DNF in the most important race and not making it to the starting line in others. I’ve gotten injured from training too hard while under a coach, and gotten injured from training too hard while being self (faith) coached. In some ways, it feels like much longer than 3 years with all I’ve experienced.

My recent injury, an overuse injury of bursitis in my hip, was the hardest one for me emotionally. After having injuries keep me from previous marathons, I really wanted to toe the line at the New York City Marathon and have redemption. If it was just a matter of losing some fitness I would have considered it, but the risk of further injury as my hip was not yet 100% made the decision clear. But I am trying to learn self-control- Sometimes you have to say no to good things in order to experience great things.

It’s in moments like these that your reasons and motivations you do what you do crystalize. I don’t run for a paycheck, for fame, or to meet others’ expectations. I run to test the limits of my God given ability and go after the dreams He has put in my heart- big dreams. I make choices in training that I believe are going to be the best thing for me to meet those goals- both in the short term and long term. But I also push the envelope, I’m not afraid to take risks. I’m not trying to train conservatively to run 2:09, I’m preparing to run 2:04. That has meant unfortunately I haven’t made it to the starting line of every marathon I was entered to run, just as the Kenyan guys who also train to run 2:04 experience. But the process has been needed to learn how hard is too hard. This is the balancing act of elite marathon training. Self-control is more needed when self-coached but I find it interesting that some of the best marathoners in the world are also self-coached (including previous World Record Holder Patrick Makau and fastest man ever at the marathon Geoffrey Mutai).