Why is there Nothing but Criticism for America’s Top Marathoner?
Lloyd Levine
By Lloyd Levine, Special to the SRN
Ryan Hall seemingly draws more criticism than praise with each successive marathon he completes.
At the press conference after the 2011 Chicago Marathon, Phillip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune touched a nerve by saying to Ryan Hall, “Just being the best in the U.S. doesn’t mean much anymore.” It seems that Hersh was feeling a bit let down by Hall’s performance in the race.
While Hersh’s question was uncalled for and unwarranted, I can understand why he, perhaps, felt let down. Ryan Hall teases us with his results, talent and reports of his training exploits. Based on all of that people expect him to win, or at least contend for a win every time he runs.
Hall is the most talented U.S. born marathon runner in decades (and to a degree, being U.S. born matters in this discussion as the running community seems desperate for a U.S. born runner who can compete with the Africans).
In 2007, he burst onto the scene with the first sub 60:00 half marathon by a U.S. born runner. Then later that spring at the London Marathon he ran a the fastest debut marathon by a U.S. runner (it was also the fastest ever by a U.S. born runner). He followed that up by running the fastest marathon in the history of the U.S. Olympic Trials. He didn’t just set the record, he did it on a tough, rolling course in Central Park, and he destroyed the field, running alone for most of the last miles.
His time in the trials was only slightly slower than his London time, despite the tougher course, and despite the fact that he eased up and celebrated for the last several miles. And finally, he followed up the Olympic Trials with a 2:06:17 in the 2008 London Marathon. At that point he was just 25 years old, and had a series of world class races with impressive times and results, all with minimal experience. It looked like just a matter of time before he would start winning major marathons. That early success laid the foundation for him to receive so much criticism now.
Since 2008 his results have been solid, but his upward trajectory has flattened out. Discounting the freakishly fast Boston, he has not set a PR or American record recently, and he hasn’t contended for a win either. However, a closer look at the performances and results seem to indicate that the problem isn’t Ryan Hall’s running, it’s the outsized expectations. The American running press, and even Ryan Hall himself, hype his training, talent and preparation to the point where anything less than a personal best, American record, or a victory (or at least contending for one) is a huge disappointment.
Hall finished seventh in his first marathon, his worst finish in any marathon except the Olympics. Yet no one expressed disappointment. Nor was there an outcry of disappointment when Hall “only” finished fifth in his third marathon. Even after his 10th place (second American) at the Olympics there wasn’t much in the way of criticism. “It was a hot day.” “Wanjiru ran the greatest marathon ever run.” “Everyone has a bad day.” Those were the explanations.
However, in his next marathon, Boston 2009, Hall finished 3rd, his highest ever finish at a marathon. But that’s when the criticism began. And now with each subsequent marathon (except for the 2011 Boston), the criticism has grown. Most of the criticism after Boston in 2009 and 2010 seemed to involve his tactics (including not running hard at the end in 2010, and possibly forgoing a place).
Perhaps some of that criticism was deserved. From the outside he did seem to run a poor tactical race each year, and he definitely imitated an airplane while running down Boyleston at the end of the race in 2010. But who knows how he was feeling. Could he have run faster with different tactics? In 2010 he ran the fastest Boston marathon ever by an American. But he was still criticized.
In addition to the tactics, Hall was criticized for not contending. “He was never the one making the move with the leaders late in the race. His high places were a result of him falling back and then passing tiring runners late in the race. Sure he can run fast times, but he can’t handle the surges or tactics,” were the charges leveled at him.
But is that criticism warranted? Is it fair? Some yes, some no.
In major marathons (and he only runs majors, except for the Olympic Trials), Hall has finished 7th, 5th, 10th, 3rd, 4th, 4th and 5th. But here’s the thing… no other American is even close to that consistent. In fact, other than Meb Keflezighi who won N.Y. and got the silver in the Olympics, no other American even enters the discussion. And Meb is only there largely because of those two performances. When it comes to speed, the times show Meb isn’t in the same league as Ryan Hall or the Kenyans and Ethiopians. Abdi “Black Cactus” Abdirahman has a handful of top 10 finishes in major marathons over the past decade, but his best time was 2:08:56 (which is 19 seconds faster than Meb’s PR), good for fourth place, at the 2006 Chicago marathon (he also has a 5th, 6th and 9th in New York), and he is never in contention for the win late in the race. Abdi is fun to watch, has a good story, and is charismatic, with a great nickname, but he also isn’t on the same level as Hall and the African runners.
On Sunday Hall ran 2:08:04 in Chicago. The next fastest American time anywhere in the world was 2:18:07 (also at Chicago). On the same day, Kenya had 15 runners run faster than 2:18. (Counting only Chicago and The Netherlands marathons as the results from Vancouver, Twin Cities and the Denver Rock and Roll were either to slow to matter or unclear as to which country the runners were from. And regardless, the number of runners at those races running sub 2:18 was minimal anyway.) Perhaps instead of criticizing Hall by asking why he can’t win, we should be asking where is the depth and why can’t anyone else run faster? If Hall has a bad day there is no one else. If Geoffrey Mutai has bad day there is Mosop. If Mosop has a bad day there is Makau, if Makau has a bad day there is Emmanuel Mutai. And there’s Kibet, and Kwambai, and Kiproto, and the list goes on.
Since 2000 only 6 different Americans have run 2:10:00 or faster. In 2011 alone (not counting the freakishly fast Boston) 47 different Kenyans ran 2:10:00 or faster. The all-time U.S. marathon list is still populated by the names of runners from the 70s and 80s like Beardsley, Salazar and Rogers. The third fastest American of all time is Bob Kempanien who ran 2:08:47 in 1994. Again, discounting Hall’s exceptionally wind-aided time at the 2011 Boston Marathon, his PR is 2:06:17.
Since Hall burst onto the scene with his American record 59:43 in the half marathon in 2007, only two Americans other than he and Meb have run 2:10:00 or better; Abdi Abdirahman 2:08:56 at Chicago in 2006, and Dathan Ritzenhen 2:10:00 in London in 2010, and they did it exactly once each. And Meb has never run faster than 2:09:00.
So put simply, on Sunday Ryan Hall ran 40 seconds faster than any other U.S. born runner has ever run, and he got criticized for it. Why didn’t someone bring in the runner who ran 2:18:07 and read him the riot act for not running faster? Ryan Hall’s “problem” (I’m not actually sure it his problem, rather than ours) stems from sky high expectations every time he toes the line. Partly that is self created with his YouTube videos talking about how well his training is going. But it also comes from being the only U.S. born runner who has a chance to win. Maybe Ryan Hall will never win a major marathon.
He is the best U.S. born runner ever, but perhaps he is just a fraction of a percent slower than the fastest African runners. But we don’t and can’t know that. All we know is that he has shown potential, and run much faster and much closer to the Africans than any U.S. born runner currently running. That makes him tantalizing. But his inability to break through to the next level (if he has that ability) ultimately leads people to be disappointed in his results.
Finally, Ryan Hall aside, given the evidence, it seems like the declarations of a resurgence in American men’s marathon running might be a bit overblown.
Lloyd Levine is the President of Filament Strategies, a strategic consulting firm. He is a former California Assemblyman, where he represented the San Fernando Valley. He is also a runner.
Hi, Loyd. Nice piece, and you’re absolutely correct to question the hype about a U.S. marathon resurgence.
1I’m certainly not here to defend Phil Hersh, a fellow journalist, but I’d like to express my opinion on your final statement, calling Hall “the best U.S. born runner ever.” First, I assume you meant “marathoner.” Second — and here’s where my opinion diverges with yours — Hall might have the fastest TIME of a U.S.-born marathoner ever, but I believe Frank Shorter has to be considered the best U.S. marathoner ever, given his Olympic gold and silver in the event. Shorter was a bad-ass runner who never backed down to challenges. He certainly wouldn’t say he was “pleased” to finish fifth in a race like Chicago.
You also can make a case for Rodgers or Salazar, with their Boston and NY wins. Yes, their times were way slower than Hall’s. But you can’t compare eras. Shorter raced against the best in the world at that time and beat them all. If you give those ’70s guys the training advancement, etc., of today, their times would presumably be faster (Geez, I sound like an old fart.) But by saying that, I guess I’m comparing eras and contradicting myself, aren’t I.
Anyway, fast times are great and all, but I think people get peeved at Hall because “time” seems to be what matters most to him in races — not beating the competition. At the elite level, as you well know, it’s about winning — and, unfortunately, Hall has yet to come close to winning a marathon and seems content with that. Yet, the running press in general fawn all over him. That’s what rankles some anti-Hall folks as well as veteran Olympic journalists like Hersh, who have covered the likes of Shorter, Lopes, de Castella, Geb and Sammy Wanjiru — you know, guys who actually won big races. Personally, I think Hall’s a talented runner — but not the best U.S. marathoner ever by a long shot.
My wife, actually, makes a lot of sense in saying this — Joan Benoit Samuelson is the best U.S. marathoner ever!
Sorry, Lloyd, for misspelling your name in response above. Where are my editors when I need them?
2Sam, first off no problem with the misspelling. Second, thank you for the well reasoned response. You are absolutely correct about the difficulty of comparing across eras. But I do agree with you, and shouldn’t have declared Ryan Hall “the best” U.S. born marathon runner. He is the fastest…but not necessarily “the best”. (And I am referring only to men…because across genders you certainly have to put Deena Kastor and Joan Benoit up there, with Joan getting the nod between those two.)
In terms of results you can obviously make strong cases for some of the runners you and I named, Salazar, Rogers, and Shorter. However those three, as with the rest of the runners from that era didn’t have to compete against the Africans in the same way as the U.S. born runners do now. Yes, there were African runners, but the depth was not there the way it is now. It doesn’t mean Salazar etc weren’t great runners, but would they have won as much if they were competing against 5-7 (or more) Kenyan and Ethiopian runners every race, and who were just as talented as they were (or more talented).
It seems like Hall’s times and results might be what you would expect of Shorter, Rogers and Salazar if they had the advancements in training you mentioned and were in their primes today. But whereas there were several guys all running around the same marathon times in the 70s and 80s, there was no improvement in the times until Hall came onto the scene. Basically, the progression of U.S. marathon times stopped, and except for Hall (and the non-U.S. born runners Abdi and Meb), the U.S. men’s marathon times are slower now than they were 15+ years ago.
I do agree with your assessment about Hall’s competitive edge when compared to the others. Hall just doesn’t seem to have that killer instinct…and it is most evident to me when he says things like he knows he needs to do speed work and intervals, but doesn’t like them so he isn’t sure if he will end up doing them. To me if you want to win…you do the work. Period. Unlike you and I who are not racing and therefor train to run a consistent pace and run as fast as we can to set a PR, Hall needs to train to respond to surges and recover without getting dropped if he wants to win (assuming he has the same talent level they do and isn’t just a half a percent behind in potential). Either that or he needs to train to run at a consistent pace that is so much faster than everyone else that they can’t stay with him.
He tantalizes us with his speed and potential, and frustrates us with his tactics and lack of drive. But, among U.S. born runners, if it weren’t for Hall we wouldn’t have anyone to talk about. And it is because of that I feel the criticism of Hall might be a bit unjustified, and why I said the talk about the resurgence of U.S. distance running over the last several years was overblown.
If you take out Bernard Lagat, who was born in Kenya, Meb, who was born in Eretria, and Abdi, who was born in Somalia, the only middle distance runners who enter the conversation are Dathan and Alan Webb (who are injured more often than not). Sure people like to talk about Rupp and Solinski..but until their times or results are even close to the top performances by the Ethiopians and Kenyans we really can’t bring them into the conversation. When Dathan set the American record in the 5k last year he was so far back from the winner you couldn’t get them in the same camera shot even with a wide shot. Rupp recently set an American record by 11 seconds, which was only good for 3rd place, and 5 seconds behind the winner. Maybe he will get better, but his current PR (And AR) is still not going to get him a medal in a world championships or Olympics. And really Dathan is only up there because of his 60:00, third place at the world half marathon championships, followed by his AR in the 5k….after which he promptly got hurt and missed all of 2011 (and remember his marathon PR is 2:10 on a flat, fast course…which is 2 min slower than Hall just ran in Chicago).
And in regard to the marathon, as much as Dathan ran a good race at the trials and Brian Sell was a great story, the fact is that Meb, Abdi and Kannouchi were all injured…and even then Kannouchi almost ran Sell down for 3rd place despite recovering from injury.
Anyway…you get my point and agree with it, and I agree with your point about Hall not being the best U.S. marathon runner of all time. I will admit that his tactics and lack of drive frustrate me as well, I just don’t think he deserves the criticism he gets.
Not sure why I went on so long when I agreed with you, and you agreed with me for the most part. 😉
3Congratulations, Lloyd, for a record long post!
4I’ll give Hall this much: He’s provocative. His unusual approach to training and his attitude is different than any other elite marathoner I’ve followed. People are either avidly pro- or anti-Hall. No inbetween. Kind of like Justin Bieber, according to my 14-year-old daughter. Me? I’m anti. Anti-Bieber, that is.
5Hall is better measured by the young fans he has, not the media. He is a major idiol to our next great US born male and female runners. Well for his videos, he is just marketing himself now while he is at the top of his game.
6You said that Hersh’s “question” was uncalled for. Well, it wasn’t a question. It was a statement. BIG difference. What Hersh should have done after Hall commented that not many Americans can run 2:08 is that he should have then ASKED a question. That question should have been, “What do you do, or what do other American runners need to do to be the best in the world and not just the best in America?”
Not only does that question get him to answer Hersh with something he might actually be able to use, but at the same time it lets him and everyone in the room know that Hersh didn’t accept his attitude that just being the best in America is ok. It also makes the SMART people in the room think he’s pretty smart and quite the professional.
Instead, Hersh decides to make a comment that does not inspire Hall to answer in any way that give a good quote. You have to ASK A QUESTION to get someone to answer. Can’t really do anything with a snarky comment.
Bad form from Hersh, and this is not me defending Ryan Hall. It’s me defending journalism. With all his years of experience, Hersh should have been better. He was an amateur on that day.
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