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Ryan Hall Makes History in Olympic Trials Marathon ‘07

Posted November 3rd, 2007 at 9:47 AM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Olympics, Special Features, Live Race Coverage

Ryan Hall, having come into the Olympic Trials Marathon with a solid 2-year aerobic base behind him, was reaping the benefits of having trained at 9,000 feet in the Sierra Nevadas. Once he decided to break free from the other favorites in the middle section of the race, there was no stopping him. He cranked out miles of 4:32 to 4:50, looking silky-smooth the entire way. Even at that pace, he looked like he was on a training run. This type of speed boded well for an American medal in the Beijing Olympic Games.

Dathan Ritzenhein, not to be denied, was keying off of Hall. When Hall took off his stocking cap and threw it down on the road, Ritzenhein threw his down, too. It seemed as if they were throwing down gauntlets, because soon afterwards, they had broken free of pre-race favorites Abdi Abdirahman and Meb Keflezighi.

Brian Sell had never been in the lead pack. He knew this race would determine his future. He had decided to quit competitive running and go to dental school if he didn’t make the Olympic team.

Dan Browne, the final key player in this American drama, fought valiantly but was finally overcome by a cramp that forced him to give up the 3rd place spot on the team to Brian Sell.

But this drama was all about Ryan Hall. In the final miles of the race, he was waving to the crowd and high-fiving them occasionally, reminding some of the women’s race in the Chicago Marathon. The marathon has a way of humbling runners who get too confident.

That didn’t matter to the usually-humble Hall, who could not be stopped today from being coronated as the new king of American marathoning. He demolished the Olympic Trials record of 2:10:19 by a minute and 17 seconds, winning in 2:09:02.

Dathan Ritzenhein finished in 2nd, making his 2nd Olympic team with a solid time of 2:11:07. A 5:00 per mile pace, it was a PB by over 3 minutes.

Brian Sell completed the U.S. Men’s Olympic Marathon team by finishing third in 2:11:36. Never having run among the leaders, his patience proved to be the key to his making the team.

Here are the final results:

2008 Olympic Marathon Team
1. Ryan Hall (Mammoth Lakes, CA) 2:09:02
2. Dathan Ritzenhein (Eugene, OR) 2:11:07
3. Brian Sell (Rochester Hills, MI) 2:11:40
__________________________________________
2008 Olympic Marathon Team Alternate
4. Khalid Khannouchi (Ossining, NY) 2:12:34
__________________________________________
5. Jason Lehmkuhle (Minneapolis, MN) 2:12:54
6. Daniel Browne (Beaverton, OR) 2:13:23
7. Nathaniel Jenkins (Lowell, MA) 2:14:56
8. Meb Keflezighi (San Diego, CA) 2:15:09
9. Josh Rohatinsky (Portland, OR) 2:15:22
10. Jason Hartmann (Boulder, CO) 2:15:27
11. Matthew Gonzales (Albuquerque, NM) 2:16:14
12. Mike Morgan (Rochester Hills, MI) 2:16:28
13. Fasil Bizuneh (Flagstaff, AZ) 2:16:47
14. James Carney (Boulder, CO) 2:16:54
15. Steve Sundell (Redwood City, CA) 2:16:54
16. Christopher Raabe (Washington, DC) 2:17:01
17. Nick Arciniaga (Rochester Hills, MI) 2:17:08
18. Clint Verran (Rochester Hills, MI) 2:17:10
19. Matt Pelletier (Warwick, RI) 2:17:17
20. Chad Johnson (Rochester Hills, MI) 2:17:58
21. Joshua Ordway (Dublin, OH) 2:18:10
22. Jacob Frey (Oakton, VA) 2:18:19
23. Joe Driscoll (Blowing Rock, NC) 2:18:22
24. John Mentzer (Monterey, CA) 2:18:23
25. Allen Wagner (San Diego, CA) 2:18:25
26. Patrick Rizzo (Rochester Hills, MI) 2:18:30
27. Sergio Reyes (Los Osos, CA) 2:18:31
28. Patrick Moulton (Rochester Hills, MI) 2:18:35
29. Mikhail Sayenko (Bellevue, WA) 2:18:35
30. Donovan Fellows (Woodbury, MN) 2:18:45
31. Miguel Nuci (Turlock, CA) 2:18:47
32. Michael Reneau (Rochester Hills, MI) 2:18:51
33. Macharia Yuot (Chester, PA) 2:18:56
34. Dan Sutton (Madison, WI) 2:18:59
35. Nicholas Cordes (Ashland, OH) 2:19:01
36. Teren Jameson (Taylorsville, UT) 2:19:05
37. Chris Lundstrom (Minneapolis, MN) 2:19:21
38. Eric Post (Centreville, VA) 2:19:25
39. Matthew Folk (Canfield, OH) 2:19:47
40. James Lander (La Habra, CA) 2:20:09
41. Michael Cox (Princeton, WV) 2:20:12
42. Greg Costello (Chicago, IL) 2:20:28
43. Luke Humphrey (Rochester, MI) 2:20:34
44. John Lucas (Eugene, OR) 2:20:48
45. John Service (San Jose, CA) 2:21:12
46. Adam Tribble (Fayetteville, AR) 2:21:21
47. Todd Snyder (Shelby Township, MI) 2:21:30
48. Nick Schuetze (Portland, OR) 2:21:36
49. Alan Horton (Knoxville, TN) 2:22:03
50. James Nielsen (Palo Alto, CA) 2:22:11
51. Robert Cannon (Toms River, NJ) 2:22:23
52. Daniel Ellis (Birmingham, AL) 2:22:26
53. Paul Petersen (Logan, UT) 2:22:34
54. Steve Meinelt (Winchester, MA) 2:22:40
55. Christopher Zieman (Chapel Hill, NC) 2:23:04
56. Justin Young (Superior, CO) 2:23:06
57. Nathan Wadsworth (Andover, KS) 2:23:08
58. Konrad Knutsen (Carmichael, CA) 2:23:31
59. Steven Moreno (Oakland, CA) 2:23:34
60. Ryan Meissen (Mukwonago, WI) 2:23:38
61. Terrance Shea (Cambridge, MA) 2:23:44
62. Matt Levassiur (Alamosa, CO) 2:23:58
63. Zachary Schendel (Minneapolis, MN) 2:24:10
64. Aaron Sharp (Port Hueneme, CA) 2:24:15
65. Corey Stelljes (Madison, WI) 2:24:19
66. David Williams (Milwaukee, WI) 2:24:57
67. Cecil Franke (Dublin, IN) 2:25:01
68. Eric Heins (Cape Girardeau, MO) 2:25:01
69. James McGown (Sidney, NE) 2:25:10
70. Marzuki Stevens (San Francisco, CA) 2:25:18
71. Lance Parker (Austin, TX) 2:25:32
72. Jason Delaney (Golden, CO) 2:25:57
73. Michael McKeeman (Ardmore, PA) 2:26:15
74. Andy Martin (Los Osos, CA) 2:26:23
75. Trent Briney (Rochester Hills, MI) 2:26:29
76. Thomas Kutter (Loganville, GA) 2:26:34
77. Edward Baker (Palo Alto, CA) 2:26:37
78. Nick Stanko (Haslett, MI) 2:27:23
79. Chris Wehrman (Chicago, IL) 2:27:33
80. James Jurcevich (Columbus, OH) 2:27:33
81. Thomas Greenless (Walnut Creek, CA) 2:27:44
82. Pete Gilman (Rochester, MN) 2:28:09
83. Casey Moulton (Pelham, NH) 2:28:29
84. Matthew Byrne (Philadelphia, PA) 2:28:40
85. Danny Mackey (Portland, OR) 2:28:45
86. Brad Poore (Davis, CA) 2:29:14
87. Karl Dusen (New York, NY) 2:29:31
88. David Danley (Roosevelt, UT) 2:29:32
89. Christopher Banks (Albuquerque, NM) 2:30:22
90. Sean Sundwall (Snoqualmie, WA) 2:30:41
91. Jeff Jonaitis (Tinley Park, IL) 2:30:45
92. Michael Wardian (Arlington, VA) 2:30:54
93. Marc Jeuland (Carrboro, NC) 2:31:31
94. Kyle Baker (Grand Rapids, MI) 2:31:37
95. Donnie Franzen (Chicago, IL) 2:31:53
96. Jason Ryf (Oshksoh, WI) 2:32:26
97. Jonathan Little (Kansas City, KS) 2:33:03
98. Martin Rosendahl (Rochester, MI) 2:33:58
99. Nicholas McCombs (Toquerville, UT) 2:34:56
100. Ben Rosario (St. Louis, MO) 2:36:09
101. Justin Patananan (Palmdale, CA) 2:38:36
102. Antonio Arce (Santa Clarita, CA) 2:39:20
103. Steven Frisone (Placentia, CA) 2:39:32
104. Thomas McGlynn (Burlingame, CA) 2:42:41

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Follow along with TheFinalSprint.com’s LIVE coverage of the 2007 U.S. Olympic Men’s Marathon Trials, listen to interviews, watch press conference videos, and much more at:

http://newyork.thefinalsprint.com

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Event Coverage Sponsored By:
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Photographs courtesy of: NYRR

Related Stories:

• Note on the News: Ryan Hall Hoping to ‘Run Free’ in Boston
• Ryan Hall to Make Boston Marathon Debut Next April
• USATF Unveils Tougher Men’s Olympic Trials Marathon Qualifying Standards
• Ryan Hall: Post-Olympic Blog
• Ryan Hall: Olympic Memories
  (Elite Athlete Blog Entry 15)

Tags: beijing olympics, central park, live, live race coverage, loop course, marathon, marathon coverage, mensmarathontrials2007, new york, New York City, news, Olympic Trials, pro, pro athlete, pro runners, professional, professional athlete, results, running, summer Olympic trials, Team USA, u.s. olympic marathon trials, u.s. olympic mens marathon trials, U.S. Olympic Team, U.S. Olympic Team Trials Mens Marathon, u.s. Olympic team trials mens marathon, updates

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4 Responses to “Ryan Hall Makes History in Olympic Trials Marathon ‘07”

1. Tim Driscoll said:
   

   I managed to watch the last half of the OTM, but only after tracking down an old Windows computer (thanks for not supporting Mac and Linux AGAIN this year, guys - c’mon, it isn’t difficult to do).
   The video was exceptionally POOR in quality, and in a TINY window surrounded by a stupefying amount of blank space. A huge THUMBS DOWN to nbc, mediazone, and ing for an extremely POOR offering.
   It turned out to be a fascinating and fantastic race, history in the making. Sure wish the coverage had been 1% as good.

   November 3rd, 2007 at 10:24 am
2. Brad said:
   

   Great blogging coverage from TFS! I was only able to get java servlet exceptions from mediazone.com so I wasn’t even able to see the ‘poor’ quality video. It’s a shame macs and linux were left out but I don’t think they missed much.

   November 3rd, 2007 at 11:34 am
3. Niki said:
   

   Wonderful coverage of the race!!

   November 3rd, 2007 at 12:01 pm
4. Zero to Boston - Run to the Light. said:
   

   […] I faded a bit at the end, but nothing beyond reason. I could have had a high 3:18. But once I knew 3:15 was not in the cards, and that I’d need a Ryan Hall special to qualify, I relaxed and cruised in. […]

   December 17th, 2007 at 11:07 pm

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