Welcome to the official blog of top U.S. distance runner Ryan Hall as he begins his quest for Olympic gold! Check back every other Friday for Ryan’s latest entry at http://ryanhall.thefinalsprint.com/
As I laid awake last night trying to fall asleep, I did what I have a tendency to do once training is clicking well and I feel my legs beginning to feel “alive” again after the initial callusing is complete from the first month of marathon training; I began the countdown. Only a little more than two months until I run in the Olympic marathon.
Countdowns are nothing new for me. When I was a little kid my siblings and I used to fight over who gets to open the next day’s door on a Christmas countdown board. I am not going to lie, it was the chocolate behind the door that we were really fighting over, but it did make Christmas all the more special once it finally arrived.
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Welcome to the official blog of top U.S. distance runner Ryan Hall as he begins his quest for Olympic gold! Check back every other Friday for Ryan’s latest entry at http://ryanhall.thefinalsprint.com/
Eleven weeks to go. I go back and forth between thinking I have too much time before the games, and then feeling like there is not enough time. Eleven weeks sometimes feels like a long time to train at the intensity that I am now daily putting forth, but then when I think to myself that in two months I will be heading out to Beijing, I wish I could sneak in a few more weeks at altitude before then. I have found that it is usually a good sign to feel like I wish I had one or two more weeks of training. It is a sign that I am still fresh, still hungry, and still moving forward. Contrast this with my first marathon run at the 2007 London Marathon when I had been hanging on for a month after training for what seemed like an eternity.
Today I will be repeating the same workout I ran two weeks ago before I left for Bolder Boulder—a ten mile tempo run. Last time out it didn’t go so well. Waking up to snow was my second sign that I was going to have a tough day, with the first sign being my cranky ankle that had been bothering me after doing an hour and a half run on a rocky—yet beautiful—single track trail in Big Bear. So between my cranky ankle, snow falling, and being out there all by myself without my shuffle (which I forgot at home) I set myself up for a long day. Let’s not get too much into the specifics; we can just leave it at that I went out slow and came back even slower. Not to mention picking up my bottles off the ground didn’t seem to speed things up any. I left for Boulder concerned.
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Welcome to the official blog of top U.S. distance runner Ryan Hall as he begins his quest for Olympic gold! Check back every other Friday for Ryan’s latest entry at http://ryanhall.thefinalsprint.com/
While on a run a couple of days ago I found myself laughing at Kai (our miniature Siberian Husky) as she tore off through the woods in hot pursuit of yet another squirrel, only to be left at the bottom of the tree peering up as the hot- tempered squirrel rattled off some expletives in its native tongue. I thought to myself, ‘why does she keep wasting her energy flying after squirrels when she has chased thousands of squirrels during her short life, yet has never, ever, even been close to catching one?’ But as I contemplated her spirit I realized that our spirits aren’t really any different. I have been trying to run with the best runners in the world ever since I was able to enter the same race in which they were competing, and while I have never won a race that would give the honor of being crowned “the best in the world,” I still find myself tearing off after the world beaters as if I have never been unsuccessful in beating them. When I watch Kai’s eyes as she spots a Squirrel I can see her come to attention as I though I put a fat sausage in front of her nose and then I see her wheels turning. I know exactly what she is thinking because I have thought the same thing a million times, “I am going after it.” Then the trigger is pulled and we are off to the races. I think this is what Coach Vigil means when he says that all that matters on the starting line is having big eyes. I love that saying. All that matters on race day is being ready to go after it, to go to war.
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Welcome to the official blog of top U.S. distance runner Ryan Hall as he begins his quest for Olympic gold! Check back every other Friday for Ryan’s latest entry at http://ryanhall.thefinalsprint.com/
With three months to go before the Olympics begin I am now putting the finishing touches on a vision that birthed 10 years ago during a long, slow, painful, fifteen-mile run around the lake. Now, after all I have been through I have just 105 days to pour myself into my training and prepare for the biggest opportunity of my life. All the training, all the discipline, all the depression, all the sacrifice, all the joy, it was all part of the journey that has prepared me for August 24th.
I love the Olympics. I always have. Growing up I had Olympic rings scribbled all over my text books. I find the symbolism of the rings to be quite dramatic with the five rings representing the unity of man from each of the five continents. There is something powerful about the unity of man.
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TheFinalSprint.com (TFS) is honored to present our monthly Success Story award to individuals who have overcome tremendous obstacles, changed their own lives and/or the lives of others through running, sports or fitness.
I am proud to announce that TFS’s January 2008 Success Story, and my guest on Episode 119 of The Final Sprint Podcast is courageous survivor and hall-of-fame track & field coach BEVERLY KEARNEY, head coach of the University of Texas women’s track & field team and founder and president of “Pursuit of Dreams,” a non-profit organization comprised of leaders from athletics, business, and medicine whose mission is to provide the necessary assistance and guidance to individuals in order to fulfill their total mental, physical and spiritual goals.
Coach Kearney uses those same principals in her coaching. Her success in track and field is almost unprecedented. In her distinguished career, she has led her Longhorns to 6 NCAA National Championships and 14 top-three team finishes, She is 3-time NCAA Outdoor Coach of the Year, 2-time NCAA Indoor Coach of the Year and 15-time Conference Coach of the Year. She has coached 14 individual NCAA Champions who have earned a total of 28 NCAA titles, 36 different student-athletes to 51 NCAA national titles overall (individual and relay) and 15 relay-team NCAA Champions.
To top it all off, she recently was inducted to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame. She has accomplished all of her remarkable achievements despite having to overcome incredible adversity, including losing her mother in high school and becoming homeless, and suffering a near-fatal car accident that killed two of her friends. Using her own principles, she is walking now and has coached her young ladies from her hospital bed, a wheelchair, a walker, and now stands and walks on her own. In our interview we talk about all of this and much more!
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Host: Jimmie R. Markham | Guest: Beverly Kearney
Producers:Greg Cherniet, Jimmie R. Markham
Music: Ryan Ahlwardt & Darnell Perkins
File size: 16.4 MB | Length: 23:58
Episode Sponsored By: Nike +
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Episode 115 of The Final Sprint Podcast, the most listened to running podcast in North America, features my two-part interview with JAY JOHNSON; middle-distance track coach at the University of Colorado, Director of the Boulder Running Camps and now the producer/editor of a new DVD series for runners.
In part two of the interview Coach Johnson talks about his current middle-distance track team at CU and their chances of making the U.S. Olympic team, the resurgence of distance running in the U.S. and how we can compete with the Kenyan runners.
Download the podcast to hear Coach Johnson discuss these topics, what he thinks about Ryan Hall’s recent performance at the Olympic Trials marathon and much more!
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[PLAY] (To Download: Right click and select “save as”)[RSS] Add The Final Sprint Podcast RSS feed to your RSS reader to have the show delivered to you
Host: Jimmie R. Markham | Guest: Jay Johnson
Producers: Greg Cherniet, Jimmie R. Markham
Musicians: Ryan Ahlwardt, Darnell Perkins
File Size: 19.6 MB | Length: 21:27 MIN
Episode Sponsored By: Nike +
Nike Plus will improve the way you run. Get feedback from your iPod on pace, time, distance and calories burned.Log into Nikeplus.com to track your progress,
set goals and challenge friends.
Interested in featuring The Final Sprint Podcast on your site, blog or My Space page? Click here to learn how!
Episode 114 of The Final Sprint Podcast, the most listened to running podcast in North America, features my two-part interview with JAY JOHNSON; middle-distance track coach at the University of Colorado, Director of the Boulder Running Camps and now the producer/editor of a new DVD series for runners.
In part one of the interview Coach Johnson talks about his role on the 1998 Colorado Buffalo cross-country team that was featured in the cult running classic Running with the Buffaloes by Chris Lear. He also discusses why runners need to be better prepared nowadays than they were when he ran and how his new DVD Building a Better Runner: Building from the Ground Up can help runners do that. He is offering this DVD to readers of The Final Sprint at a 20% discount (see code in graphic at the top of this post).
Download the podcast to hear Coach Johnson discuss these topics, describes the fantastic experience young runners can have at his running camp, Boulder Running Camps, and much more!
Listen In
[PLAY] (To Download: Right click and select “save as”)
[RSS] Add The Final Sprint Podcast RSS feed to your RSS reader to have the show delivered to you
Host: Jimmie R. Markham | Guest: Jay Johnson
Producers: Greg Cherniet, Jimmie R. Markham
Musicians: Ryan Ahlwardt, Darnell Perkins
File Size: 22.4 MB | Length: 24:31 MIN
Episode Sponsored By: Nike +
Nike Plus will improve the way you run. Get feedback from your iPod on pace, time, distance and calories burned.Log into Nikeplus.com to track your progress,
set goals and challenge friends.
Interested in featuring The Final Sprint Podcast on your site, blog or My Space page? Click here to learn how!
TheFinalSprint.com (TFS) is honored to present our monthly Success Story award to individuals who have overcome tremendous obstacles, changed their own lives and/or the lives of others through running, sports or fitness. Past recipients of TFS’s Success Story award include female running pioneer Kathrine Switzer, father-and-son team of Rick and Dick Hoyt, and amputee athletes Oscar Pistorius and Rudy Garcia-Tolson.
I am proud to announce that TFS’s November 2007 Success Story, and my guest on Episode 110 of The Final Sprint Podcast is courageous survivor and running hero GILBERT TUHABONYE.
Born to a Tutsi tribe farming family in Burundi, a small mountainous country in east central Africa, just south of Rwanda, Gilbert grew up in the midst of the centuries-old war between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes. In October 1993, the Hutu classmates at his school, their parents, some teachers and other Hutu tribesmen forced the Tutsi teachers and children into a room where they beat and burned them to death. After nine hours of being buried by the burning corpses of his beloved friends, and himself on fire and seriously injured, Gilbert jumped free of the burning building and ran into the night, the sole survivor of one of the most horrible massacres in the long Tutsi-Hutu war.
Gilbert, who now lives in Austin, Texas, has continued his efforts to try and compete in the Olympic marathon and is the award-winning coach of Gilbert’s Gazelles, a training group consisting of hundreds of dedicated runners of all skill levels. Gilbert has also created the Gazelle Foundation, with the mission of improving life for people in Burundi and offering educational assistance to children in Austin, Texas, where Gilbert, his wife Triphine and daughters Emma and Grace reside. His life story is captured in his book, This Voice in My Heart, a testament to the triumph of the human spirit as Gilbert emerges from the scars of his unimaginable ordeal to live a life of optimism, grace and victory.
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Host: Adam Jacobs | Guest: Gilbert Tuhabonye
Producer:Greg Cherniet
Music: Ryan Ahlwardt & Darnell Perkins
File size: 19.8 MB | Length: 26:53
Episode Sponsored By: Nike +
Nike Plus will improve the way you run. Get feedback from your iPod on pace, time, distance and calories burned.Log into Nikeplus.com to track your progress,
set goals and challenge friends.
Interested in featuring The Final Sprint Podcast on your site, blog or My Space page? Click here to learn how!
Episode 109 of The Final Sprint Podcast, the most listened to running podcast in North America, features my interview with marathon legend BILL RODGERS; four-time winner of the New York City and Boston Marathons, 1976 Olympian, former American-record-holder in the marathon and winner of an astounding 21 marathons.
Rodgers, along with his friend and long-time rival Frank Shorter, was instrumental in the creation of the American distance running boom. Although he is about to turn 60, he has no plans to quit running, may run the Boston Marathon again next year, and even wants to be able to emulate his running hero Johnny Kelley by running into his 80’s.
In the interview, Rodgers talks about the early days of his career when he would come home with under-the-table appearance money stuffed in his shoes, his feelings about boycotting the upcoming Beijing Olympics and what he thinks should happen with the World Marathon Majors. He also tells us who is the faster runner nowadays whenever he races Frank Shorter. Download the podcast to hear “Boston Billy” discuss these topics, what he thinks about hot-weather running even after all these years and much more!
Listen In
[PLAY] (To Download: Right click and select “save as”)[RSS] Add The Final Sprint Podcast RSS feed to your RSS reader to have the show delivered to you
Host: Jimmie R. Markham | Guest: Bill Rodgers
Producer: Greg Cherniet, Adam Jacobs
Musicians: Ryan Ahlwardt, Darnell Perkins
File Size: 17.8 MB | Length: 25:59 MIN
Episode Sponsored By: Nike +
Nike Plus will improve the way you run. Get feedback from your iPod on pace, time, distance and calories burned.Log into Nikeplus.com to track your progress,
set goals and challenge friends.
Interested in featuring The Final Sprint Podcast on your site, blog or My Space page? Click here to learn how!
Episode 108 of The Final Sprint Podcast,
the most listened to running podcast in North America, features my interview with ANNA WILLARD; a standout at Brown and then the University of Michigan as well as one of the U.S. favorites for the first ever women’s Olympic steeplechase.
In the interview Anna talks about her exceptional year, record-setting performances at the Penn Relays, her first IAAF World Championships and the fatigue caused by the spring track season at Michigan.
Download the podcast to hear Anna discuss these topics, as well as, why she believes winning the steeplechase at the U.S. Trials may require an American record, how special it would be to compete in the first ever Olympic women’s steeplechase, waiting until to March to begin her 2008 season, and much more!
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[PLAY] (To Download: Right click and select “save as”)[RSS] Add The Final Sprint Podcast RSS feed to your RSS reader to have the show delivered to you
Host: Adam Jacobs | Guest: Anna Willard
Producers: Greg Cherniet, Adam Jacobs
Musicians: Ryan Ahlwardt, Darnell Perkins
File Size: 13.7 MB | Length: 20:02 MIN
Episode Sponsored By: Nike +
Nike Plus will improve the way you run. Get feedback from your iPod on pace, time, distance and calories burned.Log into Nikeplus.com to track your progress,
set goals and challenge friends.
Interested in featuring The Final Sprint Podcast on your site, blog or My Space page? Click here to learn how!
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