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hey Runners only with dime Harley hey team welcome to the podcast as you can see from the banner behind me we
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embossed it for the Boston Marathon 2023 and very special guest on today's podcast Ryan Hall uh the fastest
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American runner ever fastest half marathon time under under one hour and uh fourth place at the Boston Marathon
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in 2011 in under two hours and five minutes this is a phenomenal guest for the show and I'm thrilled to bring you
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Ryan Hall on Runners only with dom Harvey from Boston run is only with Don Harvey and running
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royalty Ryan Hall g'day mate hey how you doing I'm doing great thank you so much
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for meeting up with us today in Boston um this isn't good this is like your your your home ground in a way I guess
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uh every weekend here in Boston is just special you know if people haven't had a
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chance to be out here it's just like it's probably the only place you go to
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the only weekend you go to where like Runners really do feel like rock stars you know like everyone knows everyone
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and it's just a big a big party you know the excitement in the city and stuff is
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just contagious yeah yeah and and today of all days um I need to extend an extra thanks to
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you for meeting up with me because um it's your your wife uh who you coach as
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well Sarah Hall it's her 40th birthday yep today she's 40. so she's uh upstairs
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getting a massage right now so you know she's not missing me too much a little um a little present Mom do you
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want to bring those flowers in got some flowers thank you that was very nice of you pass on pass on to your wife
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just for giving you an hour out of your special day thank you very much so um so we're doing this on a Saturday
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afternoon so we're two days away from um this year's Boston Marathon where she's
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um she's racing um so how does the next couple of days look like for Sarah Hall
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and her coach Ryan Hall yeah I mean try and just lay low as much as you can you know I mean obviously you're here to
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support the race and they want you to do some events to to promote the race you know so she'll be doing a little bit of
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that but they try to do a lot of that stuff up front so she already did all her press stuff so so let's be laying
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low eating a lot and um honestly we always say it's just trying to not go crazy the last couple
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days you just it's really easy to get really far in your head so almost trying
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to not think about it until you uh you know get out to the start line start warming up and you start to engage and
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kind but you don't want to you don't want to be like a warrior trapped in
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your room you want to wait to become a warrior until you get out to that start line so right now it's all about just
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like low positive yeah so your role as a coach in these um final hours before the
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Run um does it become like a like a like a counselor a therapist a mentor what is
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it honestly a lot is just reminding your athletes of what they've done um who they are reminding them to trust
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themselves like we're just out on the on the riverfront here doing a run together
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and I was biking next to her and I was talking to her about different scenarios that could play out what she might be
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nervous about and I was just like listen just you just need to trust yourself you
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know because you the thing is it feels good having a race plan brings security right because it's real firm you're like
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this is what I'm gonna do this is exactly how it's gonna play out but that
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is not life and that is not the best way to go into a race in my opinion the best
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way to go on a race is completely open-minded and know how you're going to react in a lot of different situations
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that could present themselves but really like not having a firm plan in your mind
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is advantageous from a racing perspective but it's very unsettling for an athlete to be like I don't know
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what's going to happen I don't know what I'm gonna do but that's where you gotta
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just fall back and be like I trust myself I know I'm gonna make the right decision at the right time I have a good
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head on my shoulders and she does she's 40 years old she knows what she's doing
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so a lot is just like reminding her you're in really good shape you're ready
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for this race trust your instincts out there don't follow any moves that you
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shouldn't be following and that's that's probably the hardest thing for pros you
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know because a lot of these moves that will be made out there on Monday like she could cover them and maybe she will
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cover them but maybe not you know it's not always the wisest thing to go with
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every single move especially when you're on a course like Boston where there's
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lots of ups and downs in the course sometimes like when I ran this course and ran my best races I wasn't with the
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main group the whole time like it kind of yo-yoed sometimes I was like nope that one's too hot for me I'm just
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giving a little bit of space and maybe I'm gonna keep my eyes up hopefully I'll
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catch them you know a mile down the road maybe I won't maybe I'll be running by
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myself for the rest of the race but that's where it's just like you got to
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fall back on like what is best for you you know our competitors are supposed to draw out our best stuff out of us but
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ultimately like you have to tr you have to run your own plan with your own mind with your own giftedness in your own way
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as well and what were you like when you were running like um on the the night before a run or the morning of a run
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were you like a bundle of nerves were you just like excited and frothing about getting into it I was mainly trying to
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like not think about it I think I like to like just watch funny movies watching inspiring movies hang out with family
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and friends try and laugh as much as I can I think that's probably the best recipe for athletes the day before race
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is just try to like have frustration yeah and just distraction like you don't
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want to be thinking about it a lot like you're just gonna burn up all this energy and be like a caged animal and
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then when the time comes you're already so emotionally drained so it's like
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you're not only like preparing yourself physically by eating a whole bunch of
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food which is hard to do when you're really nervous you gotta just force down
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these calories and you don't feel like it but you know like my get to 21 miles
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I'm gonna be glad I hate this extra piece of bread right now you know but so
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there's the physical component but there's also very much the emotional component that you have to be aware of
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as well I mean like I need to store up my emotional energy and so the days before I need to just be real chill real
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light-hearted real fun that's amazing all right this is your podcast not your wife's podcast so we'll
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um we'll wind it right back so your dad was a runner growing up hey not a great Runner but like a sub three it's
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a three hour exactly okay so so a good weekend warrior yeah what was this PB uh I don't think he ever broke three I
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think he was uh I think he was always like right on the cusp never did it he was more into baseball basketball and
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football he's also a little bit of a bigger guy like my mom was smaller more
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like built like a runner my dad was a big kind of strong baseball player kind of guy so I think I got more of like my
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mom's genetic side um so he always kind of struggled with the run-in a little bit but he he had a
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big engine as well but yeah I only ever broke three wow so so you what made you decide to get into it because I've
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written in your books um you just said to him you loved team sport yeah and then one weekend you said to your dad I
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want to do this 15 15 mile 15 kilometer 15 mile run around a lake yeah exactly how old how old were you then yeah I was
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13 years old and hated to run and I always say like running is a very difficult sport to get into because it's
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the least amount of fun at the beginning usually the things that grab you the grab kids or the things that are
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immediately fun you go do it one time you're like oh that was so fun I want to
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go do that again running's not like that usually like you go on your first run
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you're like dude that freaking hurt and everything's sore and that wasn't fun I
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had to stop and walk you're not just like floating along and that was me like
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I did this 15 mile run with my dad I wasn't floating through it like it was a
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long hard painful uh not necessarily it was enjoyable and the sense of accomplishment I felt when I finished it
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you know and I felt like I overcame a big challenge but not like enjoyable Sensations that I was feeling it during
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that four hour run or however long it took me to do that initial run around the lake so
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so what I'm hearing is that you didn't really have natural it was more hard
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work you must have some natural Talent obviously um but it's more hard work they got you to where you got to yeah
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absolutely I mean I have a I definitely have a big engine all my brothers my little brothers racing on Monday as well
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just debuted in his first marathon he's 35 he just ran his first marathon ran
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212. so you know all of us just have naturally big engines for sure without a doubt so there is a level of talent
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there but I really don't feel like I'm the most talented Marathon or half marathoner that America
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has ever had without a doubt not even close when I look at the guys who are super talented I look at the guys who
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are really really quick on the track over five thousand ten thousand meters grant fish here guys like that you're
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like man dude if I could have run like 12.50 for 5 000 what could I have done in a marathon because I was a 13-16 guy
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which sluggish it's a hobby jogger out there but you wouldn't just about any park run in the
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world that's the great thing about running though is you really you can get so much out of yourself you know you do
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have to have a certain measure of talent without a doubt um but you can get a heck of a long ways
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just off a lot of hard work and so that's where like you know not to jump into a whole different subject when
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people talk about doping in our Sport and guys who are cheating I'm like listen I wasn't the most talented guy I
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wasn't taking anything and I ran 59 minutes for a half in shoes you could Bend in half right now you got guys and
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shoes that are running a minute you know the shoe alone is taking a minute off at
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times and half marathons and if they're wait significantly more talented than I
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was and they trained as far as I was of course they should be running way faster
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than I was ever running you know so that's why I like when people just accuse people of doping based off
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performance I'm like I don't I never I never jumped to that conclusion just
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because I know myself and I know my level of talent and I'm like there's
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guys out there who just have a whole lot more of what what I had and so it's you
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know it's possible to run some pretty insane times what are you since you brought it up what are you um what are
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your thoughts about the the shoes now I I dropped a couple of hundred bucks on a
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pair of Nike Vapor Flies whatever they are yesterday and I had a run of them this morning and they're incredible it
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was your first run yeah do you feel like you're on the moon a little bit bro
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phenomenal felt like I was like bouncing yeah the shoes are they're amazing they're super fun and for like now so I
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raced at 137 pounds I'm five foot ten now I'm 177 pounds and being heavier in
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that shoe you get even more out of it so like you run different in those issues right so like in the shoes I was in
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really minimal really bendy not a lot of cushion just eats your legs up on courses like Boston your quads are just
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freaking gone at Mile like 16 you know and you have to go the rest of the way but these shoes this and I I run in
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Super Shoes all the time because I love them they feel amazing but you run totally different in the shoes I was in
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it's more like you're a cheetah pulling the ground yeah you're trying to be real
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light on your feet right and now in these Super Shoes with the cushion and the plate combined it's it's totally
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different game now it's load the ground as hard as you can slam your leg into
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the ground as hard as you can and you're gonna get a huge amount of return out of
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out of the shoe out of the ground and can Propel you forward really quick so it's fun for me like all strap on those
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shoes and I'll run a mile in like under five minutes when I'm not even in that
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good of shape and just have no business running that fast but I can just load that shoe up and it beats it can beat up
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your lower leg so there's the injury can opponent so you know I wouldn't suggest
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anyone just get a pair and do every single run in them um like I'm actually trying to get my
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athletes to use them Less in training and still racing them right because there is quite a few like lower leg
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injuries that are also popping up as a result of those so you got to be careful in training but they're they're super
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they're so fun they're so fun yeah this is some completely hypothetical but
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yours your times the American record for the half marathon which is 19. so 59 43
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59 43 and the marathon which is uh 204.50 I ran 204.50 how much quicker do you think you could
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have gone with um the the current shoes hypothetical of course but yeah I mean yeah it's all hypothetical right and I
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never raced in them when I was Elite Runner so actually I asked Ethan ritzenheim who I competed with that
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question because he ran in the shoes we were in and he ran in the Super Shoes in
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in both those I was like dude how big of a difference is it like what do you think you know you ran in both of them
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he's like I think it's easy a minute in the half two minutes in a marathon so
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it's like two to three seconds a kilometer at the pace you're running that's insane oh it's that is night and
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day different I mean getting a minute quicker going from 59 minutes to 58 minutes is that's a world that's a
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lifetime of work to get that much improvement so it you know they really did they changed the scene completely
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so yeah so you start running with your dad um then you give up team sports which um in your book it sounds like it
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was a it was a hard thing to do uh you're basically leaving your mates behind and you know for a solo sport
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um when did you realize you were good you started doing cross-country and shorter stuff right yeah you know what's
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funny is I thought I was really good because I grew I grew up in Big Bear Lake which is a tiny little mountain
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town in Southern California we get snow I live like a mile away from ski resort so I grew up like skiing snowboard and
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all that but I wasn't exposed to running at all there was no track team at my
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high school the only tracks we had in town were like filled with weeds and stuff no one Ran So I didn't even know
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what a good time was you know we didn't have social media all this stuff now
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yeah so like I ran a mile my first mile ever in middle school was during PE gym class and I ran like 5 52. I thought
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that was like blazing fast I was like that is so fast and little did I little did I know that my wife Sarah she at
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that same age she was running under five minutes for a month if we would have gone up in the same Hometown I would
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have never ran because I would have been like this girl's a minute quicker than
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me so it's funny how like it's all relative right like my daughter was just
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asking me this the other day she's like is how good am I at the 400 meters she
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just ran like 67 for 400 she's like how good is that and I couldn't even answer
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the question I was like it all depends who you compare yourself to yeah how old is she uh she's in ninth grade
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right now and what's that what I just say uh so she's 15. 15. yeah 15 sounds pretty good it's not it's not
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yeah again it's like are you comparing yourself to like a world-class Sprinter or to like your
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your friends in class you know so when so so you you do a cross-country and shorter stuff for a while why the
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transition to Marathon yeah I never thought I'd run a marathon um it was really as a result of going
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over to Europe and getting my butt kicked on the track I remember I was racing against uh kindanisa bakele and
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Craig machum and those guys and we're in London doing a 5k on the track and those
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guys just destroyed me I was nowhere even near the the race I was watching the race on the big screen running down
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the back stretch you know now I remember just being so frustrated after that race
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because I really felt like I've been giving a gift to run with the best guys
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in the world and here I was like not even close to being in the race and I was running pretty well for me at that
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time over 5 000 you know that was a year after I ran 1316. so it was during that
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time I was like I gotta figure out what I'm best at like I've I've been very
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close-minded I was always like I'm gonna be a 1500 guy like I'm gonna be a Miler
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No One's Gonna tell me I'm not fast enough whatever and then finally I opened up to longer races went to the 5K
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was much more successful I mean I should have known for my training like when I was in high school 18 years old I could
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run 10 miles under five minute pace and that's I mean that was very telling that
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threshold strength comes very natural to me you know but I wanted to do the short
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fast stuff and it was good to work on that like kids should be working on their speed because your speed over 1500
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meters if you're a marathoner that's going to determine how high your ceiling
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is how good you can get in this sport it's gonna be determined by your 1500 meter speed I really believe that look
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at a guy like Kip choge we ran in the world championships together in Finland he was like third in the world and
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running you know I don't even know what his PR was at that time but running under 13 or whatever and just you look
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at his ceiling now yeah well it's funny that you you bring it up that you you
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know well I was going to say sucked but not just what weren't as successful as
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what you wanted to be in the 5000 because it's the same sort of path with uh chipkage
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okay isn't it because he um he met ordered a couple of Olympics and then for the the third Olympic campaign
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didn't even make the Kenyan Squad uh-huh yes when he started to panic and that's
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when Patrick is saying as coach said no why don't you try longer yeah yeah just
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start moving up but if you see what happens because Mo Farah as well he did very well at five and ten and then it's
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like when you start to drop off the Speed there is it like well there's always a marathon yeah and and that's
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the natural progression of the athlete you know yeah it's like when you can no
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longer compete with the best guys in the world the shorter stuff you start moving
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up but you still have that speed in your system you know um so that that's critical you gotta
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even with just like with Run free training in the athletes that we work with we're working on 1500 meter mile
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speed with those athletes and they don't have to race it but they need to work on
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it and that's why you need a coach to make you do that stuff because when you're 40 50 60 years old you don't want
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to go out to the track or go to a hill and do like 200 meter repeats you know because that stuff generally doesn't
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feel great to do for a marathon runner but I would I would argue that doing what you don't feel like doing is
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probably the most important work you you need to be doing but you got to have like someone there is forcing you to do
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it yeah so when when you're at your peak of marathon training what did awake look
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like for you uh that's Australian twice a day most days except for the long run day um like
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twice as in running or like a run in a gym yeah yeah twice running so you'd run
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you know anywhere between 50 minutes to 75 minutes in the morning if we're just
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doing an easy run and then a hard session like two to three times a week with the long run in there as well
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um and just tired all the time to be honest with you like we are training you're training right on the line of
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what your body can handle you know so I remember if I missed a nap I was in a bad mood like my my schedule was like
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train in the morning come back maybe stretch roll take care of stuff around the house whatever I need to do for a
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couple hours lunch two hour nap get up run again go to the gym gym routine come home starving eat a quick dinner go to
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bed early and then just it's being a professional athlete is not a glamorous
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life or at least a professional Runner yeah it's very monotonous you're doing
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the same thing over and over again and your life has to be really simple like I didn't have energy for much else outside
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of running and training and sleeping so it's a big sacrifice you know you watch
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these athletes out here on Monday and it they make it look like so much fun and So Glamorous and everyone's going crazy
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and it is it's super fun but it's also a big sacrifice for these guys you know
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disappearing to training camp some of them for three months not seeing their family and just Eat Sleep Train that's
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it but that's that's what it takes to compete now at this level yeah well I
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suppose like the marathon week is fun it's a week of Celebration and catching
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up with people and you know just enjoying the occasion but what everyone doesn't see is the you know the stuff
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that goes on in the shadows months and months before and what you described for me before and the way you described it
00:19:04
it sounds pretty bloody Bleak but did you enjoy it at the time oh yeah yeah I mean I I was never I wasn't going out in
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high school and going to parties I hated dances like I didn't gravitate towards
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being really social like I was just kind of like being home so for like a homebody type person it's a really good
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lifestyle but even for my wife who's not a homebody person she likes to be out
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and doing stuff it is gratifying because you are investing all of yourself in something and I think no matter what it
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is anytime you're like I'm gonna go after this thing as hard as I can I'm
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gonna see what I can do it doesn't even matter what the thing is anytime you're
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that focused on trying to do something it's a pretty gratifying thing to pursue
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it with that kind of passion that kind of drive that kind of like let's go find
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out and see what I can do here it's fun yeah well for me and anyone else that
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has followed your journey since running on um Instagram um you just seem like I could do that at
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hyper fixates on whatever it is you're doing oh that's very true I am like very
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like in or out that's why I win there was no like gradual retirement for me you know like some people just kind of
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like they keep racing you don't even know all of a sudden they're not there
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anymore you know they just kind of drift out of the sport I was like when I'm
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done I'm done I'm on to the next but I actually it's funny because you know I
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got into lifting and saw how far I could take that over about six years which was
00:20:25
super fun because for me this is also like science and an experiment of one you know like my gym my garage in my
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house my gym I call it my lab because every time I go in there I'm trying something new I'm learning something and
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like I've learned so much through Sports about myself about my body but also
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about how to work with my athletes now like my athletes they're directly benefiting from my science experiments
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that I'm holding on myself and I'm careful not to be like they're gonna
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react the same way I react but you can take principles that you learn on yourself and try it out with other
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people and oftentimes those principles also work so yeah yeah I I want to get into the whole weightlifting stuff we'll
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get we'll get there in time but it's worth bringing up there's a photo of you
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online and honestly it looks like your head has been photoshopped onto some other dude's body like it's just did you
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know the photo I'm talking about there's one in particular I think it was in
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Men's Journal I mean health or something and it's like they can't be his actual
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rig that's incredible yeah well it's it's yeah it's just fun to see like you
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know I did something I was naturally talented at you know to a measure and then to now do something though where
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I'm not talented at it and it's just like it's all hard work like I have the
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total wrong genetics to really be like moving a lot away or to put on muscle it's a real challenge it's like right
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now like I'm doing this interview I got 50 grams of protein in here that I'm
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gonna drink during the interview it's like nutrition sleep everything has to be
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dialed right and it's all the hard work that I did in running I'm doing it the
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same way but now just like on a hobby of lifting level but everything I learned in running it helps with the next season
00:22:02
you know okay so um just back to the running for a bit so um so the the Boston Marathon
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2011 would you say that's like the Run of your life the performance of your life
00:22:12
is that the most memorable when you look back from where you are now well here's
00:22:16
the thing it was it was what it was right and we had a Tailwind that day it was the perfect day to run listen okay I
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just want to stop you there before you you go too far on this humble act um 2011 is also the year I ran the Boston
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Marathon um same Tailwind I managed to do three I was 19. so let's not give that Tailwind
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too much credit yeah but definitely help you guys mention it for sure but I will
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say this though how I felt leading up to that race I never felt that good before
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wait wait what do you mean because um in your book you talk about the um like a warm-up event yeah there's a saying in
00:22:54
New Zealand chat the beard I don't know if that's the thing in America but you
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oh I felt terrible yeah it had no idea why I felt so bad what happened in that half marathon that lead up I have
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no idea I can't tell you how long did it take you to finish it felt terrible I
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don't even know never looked in my time it was like probably like 64 65 minutes
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I mean for me that's five minutes off my PR and I thought I was in PR shape like
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my workouts have been going super well you know what happened is I did that race and then something just went off
00:23:22
like a switch in me and we did change our environment too we went back to Stanford I was training at sea level I
00:23:28
had been in Flagstaff training up there at altitude we dropped down to sea level
00:23:31
and I did change the way I was training it was kind of like one of those deals where I had a really bad race and I was
00:23:37
like screw it I was like I'm just gonna see what happens I'm just gonna I'm just
00:23:41
gonna go run as hard as I can like hard all the time so I would be going out for
00:23:45
easy runs running 5 30 5 20 Pace um the day before the Boston Marathon did 30 minutes I was running under 5 30
00:23:54
pace and just feeling like a million bucks so that's that kind of feeling is
00:24:00
more what I base like that was probably like yeah my best stuff I ever had based
00:24:04
on how I was feeling leading up to the race regardless so it's funny like I just bombed a race no one's even
00:24:10
thinking about me but in my head and I was I was licking my chops I was like I feel ridiculous I'm I and then I saw
00:24:19
there was a tailwind and I talked to Bill Rogers Before the Race and he was like you get this like once every 10
00:24:24
years and so I was like there's me a Tailwind this year I was like I'm not
00:24:27
letting one mile go by without pressing it's like I'm impressed the entire way
00:24:32
which is why I went straight to the front and just let as long as I could and you know that's how that that race
00:24:37
oh good hang on one second so we're good right okay no that's fine can we can we move
00:24:57
elsewhere so so 2011. um Talk us through that day from start to finish so yeah the the
00:25:08
night before the Boston Marathon you're feeling good you're feeling relaxed yeah
00:25:12
yeah like in my mind it's like all systems go you know and I'm just looking
00:25:16
at the weather and being like let's let's see what happens out there tomorrow you know I mean just and going
00:25:22
to the front of a race for me is nothing new like I always loved going to the front I always felt most comfortable in
00:25:27
the front I think that's something for people to keep in mind you know a lot of
00:25:30
people try and tell you how you should run I like to ask my athlete how are you excited to run because that's how you're
00:25:36
gonna run your best you know so that's the primary thing I I love being in the
00:25:40
front so yeah I mean I was standing on the starting line Hopkinton just staring at the flag and it's just blowing the
00:25:46
direction we're gonna you know how it was out there it was it was just perfect
00:25:50
and so gotten fired and then off we went and you feel you're feeling good you're
00:25:55
feeling good from the outside oh yeah yeah I I can tell I can tell how I'm feeling so quick on things and sometimes
00:26:02
I am wrong but like I can literally tell you how this lift is going to go that I'm about to do by just pick up a 45
00:26:08
pound plate feel how it feels in my hands you know same thing with run it's like some days you just warm up and you
00:26:13
just feel that bounce in your step you know it's like yeah I feel good today
00:26:16
and those are fun days so so you start running you've got the Tailwind um you're feeling good obviously you're
00:26:23
still in agony though like you get your full you're fully sending it yep yeah
00:26:27
yeah and I think the thing is you just can't second guess yourself when you're
00:26:31
doing that like once you commit and for me it's all about like figuring out how
00:26:36
I'm feeling and running according to feeling more than time because you can freak yourself out by looking at your
00:26:40
watch you know I think our first mile is like 435 or something like that but and
00:26:45
so you can look at that and be like oh dang I'm running way too fast what I do
00:26:48
I just mess up but really like I just go back to the sensation being like if I was in training I was running this since
00:26:54
this effort level could I maintain this for a 15 mile threshold the answer is yes you keep taking it he's generally
00:27:00
speaking for us like whatever you can do for a 15 mile threshold in training and
00:27:03
the call context of big training and being tired you can generally do that on Marathon day yeah and you you finished
00:27:10
um fourth in that race yeah so I was fourth place the fourth fastest person ever on the Boston Marathon course in
00:27:16
fourth place but you know it's funny you would think that I would be like mad
00:27:20
about that right it's like what do I have to do to win this race I wanted to
00:27:23
know if it was sort of with mixed emotions like you're stoked with your time but also not even a Podium finish
00:27:28
no it wasn't mixed emotions at all it was just pure Bliss I came across that
00:27:31
finish line and I was like yeah I was so stoked just yelling screaming like so happy and yeah like of course it would
00:27:38
have been fun to win that race but I was a part of a historic race you know this
00:27:42
race has been run that at that time over a hundred and like 20 years when no one
00:27:47
had ever run that fast on that course with the Tailwind or in any conditions you know and I got to play a role in
00:27:53
that and I'll take that over winning the Boston Marathon every day when did you
00:27:57
realize you were on track for a sub 205 because part of me wonders why you didn't take the foot off the throttle
00:28:03
like you would have still had an American record maybe you would have had a Ryan Hall personal beast it wouldn't
00:28:08
have changed the placing at all you're right I know oh I had that Temptation I
00:28:12
honestly what was happening is I saw her half split which was like 61 48 or something it was so fast that the race
00:28:18
directory radioed his guy's like hey you guys messed up the clock pocket said
00:28:22
they came through in 61.40 they're like no that's right and so like I was
00:28:26
surprised too everyone was shocked we're running that fast right but after that
00:28:30
point I was just thinking my watch was like okay the goal is to see how much I can go under five minute pace you know
00:28:35
for the next Mile and every mile would roll by I'd be just clicking off just
00:28:40
under five just under five 448 Pace whatever and then it was with a mile to go I'm glad they put a clock with the
00:28:46
mile to go here um because I looked at the clock and I was right at two hours and so I was like
00:28:51
okay either I can try and like push down and really like Hammer this last Mile and go under 205 or I can enjoy myself
00:28:58
ease off the throttle a little bit and yeah it's not going to change the place
00:29:02
still a really good time still really fast I was like I I was like you only get one shot at this it's you know once
00:29:09
every 10 years you can get this kind of conditions like I'm gonna make the most
00:29:12
of this so I just graded my teeth out last mile ran all the way to the finish line and just squeaked under 205.
00:29:19
yeah that's amazing and then after that um it seemed like you had like a like a
00:29:24
horrible period for like maybe a couple of years where you were entered in races
00:29:28
and then you know you wouldn't turn up or you'd be injured or like talk us talk
00:29:32
us through that period that must be that must have been miserable yeah it's tough
00:29:36
you know and it's kind of something all runners go through though at least Pro
00:29:40
runners go through this right where it's that period of things breaking down your
00:29:44
body's slowing down and it was a four year period it started with plantar fasciitis training for the Olympic
00:29:49
trials and there's there's nothing I could do about that one I just had to
00:29:52
keep training through it you have to do the Olympic trials if you can go to the Olympic Games so I just trained through
00:29:56
it and it hurt the whole time and it hurt during the race and it hurt after the race for months and months and there
00:30:02
was a slight compensation in my stride and it just threw off the whole system so that's why it's so important for
00:30:07
runners it's like don't just be okay with your stride being off because it's
00:30:12
going to cause other problems down the line so that started like a four-year chain of injuries for me dropping out of
00:30:17
races not getting a races then this whole fatigue thing set in and uh yeah that was that's when I knew it was over
00:30:24
looking back over a four-year period of time being like my body is clearly telling me it's got nothing left to give
00:30:30
to me and now it's time for me to give back to my body and get into the weights
00:30:35
is yeah so it was kind of like it was kind of like your body shutting down really and saying no more we can't
00:30:43
you see your mind was still willing you still had this Mind of a of a Savage um but your body was just like shutting
00:30:49
down on you that must have been um like mentally just a grueling period of your life yeah yeah it was it was it
00:30:55
was a real challenge you know like but what I'm I'm glad that I navigated it as
00:31:00
well as I could have at that time with information they had at the time you know like I tried everything I could to
00:31:05
get myself out of these halls I shifted my nutrition I tried different training plans different everything right to try
00:31:13
and turn my body around I was getting blood tests done and funny enough like nothing was coming up in my blood that
00:31:17
was showing there was like some big problem I was having it was just like my body was just not responding to anything
00:31:23
I was doing from a training perspective so that's kind of how you know you know
00:31:28
it's like dude I've tried everything I I can't turn the ship around it's just
00:31:32
clearly like getting worse and worse and so I figured it was time to to hang it up and move on to the next thing now
00:31:39
going back if I could do it all over again I would have probably just taken a good and most funny my mom was trying to
00:31:45
get me to do this and I was like I'm never gonna do it like a sabbatical like
00:31:49
a break yeah exactly she wanted me to take like three months off or like she wanted to take like six months off or
00:31:54
something but I think if I would have taken three months off and come back to it maybe things would have turned around
00:32:00
you know maybe not I don't know for sure but that's the only question mark I
00:32:04
still have uh were you just worried about like losing losing too much in their time in terms of pace or
00:32:10
I just wasn't convinced it would work because I'd taken time off you know it's
00:32:13
not like I hadn't taken any break it makes so much sense though right like a
00:32:16
three month break it could potentially prolong your career by a couple of years yeah man and then what do you do during
00:32:21
that three months I think if I would have like done what I did essentially maybe not
00:32:26
try to put on so much muscle but get into the gym like still like be active and like do things to give back to your
00:32:32
body because running is just it's real catabolic at the level that we're doing
00:32:36
it at you know like like for people who aren't trying to be world class you can
00:32:40
run at a very healthy level and still train hard right but like for us like we are right on the edge of over training
00:32:49
all the time for years and years and years um to pull back from that and give back
00:32:55
to your body for a longer period of time I think could be really helpful so you know for people who are struggling and
00:33:02
just can't seem to turn the ship around like that's what I would suggest they do
00:33:05
is like take three months off eat a lot of food put on some weight put on some not just like muscle put on a little bit
00:33:11
of fat like don't be afraid like when you're running real light all the time
00:33:15
it's really really hard on your body I mean every time I test my testosterone
00:33:19
when I was running it was clinically low like my T levels were like hundred like
00:33:25
really really low like I should have been on something just from a health perspective you know obviously we
00:33:31
couldn't take anything because you know we're being tested by you saw it but now
00:33:34
look look at me now I'm 40 years old so I was I was 27 my testosterone is a hundred now I'm 40. my testosterone is a
00:33:42
thousand wow and not taking anything just just eating well sleeping well doing the weight lifting I'm doing doing
00:33:50
and I'm training super hard still you know I lift every single day I run most
00:33:55
days do some type of like cardio most days um and so still like training real hard
00:34:00
and yet in such a healthier place right because I'm where my body wants to be
00:34:05
whereas like I should be 160 pounds just a normal dude walking around but I had to walk around at 140 pounds 137 pounds
00:34:14
way under the weight that I should have been whereas like someone like my wife Sarah she's naturally like right around
00:34:20
her Marathon Raceway so her weight doesn't need to fluctuate a lot and she's in a healthy place the whole time
00:34:26
because she's where her body wants her to be so that's something also for
00:34:30
people to keep in mind it's like where where's my natural set point yeah and
00:34:33
then the goal is not to look like someone else or to look like a canyon you know like you're sitting in front of
00:34:39
me now and you look healthy and well and you definitely look better now than what
00:34:43
you were when you were running those incredible times that we talked about before yeah I mean that's how you knew
00:34:47
your fit is when you look kind of sick like it's not great everyone knew that
00:34:53
like if someone told you like dude your face is looking really gone you were like yes I did it I mean I was I was in
00:35:01
Ethiopia training for this race one year and I was buying some groceries at the grocery store in Addis and the checkout
00:35:07
lady she told me she's like you need to eat more food I was like if someone in
00:35:12
Ethiopia is telling you you need to eat more food you've probably taken it too
00:35:16
far and you it was so specific though it's crazy to me how specific weight plays into our sport
00:35:23
137 pounds I'm golden 135 pounds I raced this race at 135 I was weak no good
00:35:30
terrible results if I'm 140 pounds not competitive not going to be in it it's
00:35:35
that specific we're talking about a couple of pounds difference and it's it
00:35:39
it's a factor in our sport so it's not like you can just oh I'm just gonna not
00:35:43
pay attention to it like you have have to at the world class level to try to run with the best guys in the world it
00:35:49
has to be something that you are monitoring that you are aware of yeah but you got to know how to keep your
00:35:54
body in a healthy place because if you have an unhealthy spot for too long it's
00:35:58
going to break down and you know you're gonna have problems yeah now I know um
00:36:02
your faith is massively important to you and it has been and you've got a rock
00:36:06
solid marriage with Sarah um but still like it must have been a rough time like you know here you are
00:36:12
Ryan Hall the runner it's sort of like what defines you and your body was telling you you couldn't do it anymore
00:36:16
dark days I thought they would be I was scared to retire I was always when I was in it and
00:36:23
I was running I was like man when I'm not doing this anymore I don't know if
00:36:26
I'm gonna be okay like mentally because I was so into it and I was like a dog
00:36:31
with its bone you know you take that bone away I'll be like what am I gonna do all day long you know but I have to
00:36:37
get a job yeah I have to get a real job um but actually something that you know I'm big into prayer and uh at one point
00:36:48
I remember just praying and just asking God for just perspective on my situation
00:36:52
I was in an airplane and I was looking out and I was thinking about how like God just has this different perspective
00:36:56
than we have you know when you're when it you're the one down in the mess the
00:37:00
mess seems real big when you're up above it you're like oh it's not that bad you
00:37:03
know yeah so I was just asking for just kind of some perspective and uh I felt like he was just telling me it wasn't
00:37:09
meant to last forever and it's not meant to last forever for anyone and that's
00:37:12
what makes it so beautiful you know it's like we get these brief Seasons these
00:37:17
brief glimpses where we get to go experience this really cool thing but what makes it special is that it's not
00:37:24
infinite you know it doesn't last forever could you see that at the time or was that just with um hindsight and
00:37:29
maturity and that was just what I needed at the time to be able to let go and be
00:37:33
and to not I think what happens is when you're going through that and you're at
00:37:37
the end of a pro running career like that and you can't figure it out there's
00:37:41
almost like shame and guilt involved in it because you feel like you must have messed something up you must have done
00:37:46
something wrong there must be some way to fix this problem like what I do that is so stupid to get myself feeling like
00:37:52
this like what's wrong with me like kind of a deal but when I kind of got that
00:37:57
word about it's not meant to last forever for anyone it's not gonna last
00:37:59
forever for kipchoge not for one person you know it kind of bees like gives you just a sense of Peace like oh that's
00:38:06
okay like I I did what I was supposed to do for the season I was supposed to do it and now it's on to the next season
00:38:13
you know so kind of just like just give me a lot of Peace about it and and allowed me to just move in to the next
00:38:19
season kind of seamlessly and honestly when I retired I didn't I just told Sarah for about a week and I just tried
00:38:26
it on I was like let me just try it out my dad always told me to do that he's
00:38:30
like before you make any big decision just tell yourself what you're gonna do
00:38:33
for about a week see if it feels good see if it feels right and it felt right felt good so then you know we told
00:38:39
people Asics and they made a video and then it all kind of came out like a month later but I'd already decided like
00:38:45
way before that video came out that I was done and I felt like a lot of freedom you know it allowed me to
00:38:51
finally be removed from the struggle that I was in in my career and be able just look back at the Bostons and at the
00:38:57
half and just be so thankful for those performances rather than trying to chase them and trying to get back to them yeah
00:39:04
yeah so what would you say is the biggest high on the biggest low of uh the running chapter of your life oh man
00:39:10
I had so many lows it's really hard to pull up it's the funny thing about the
00:39:14
the sport how you do all this work and you train for these moments and then the the moment more often than not brings
00:39:20
you like a low yeah yeah I mean I I guess I'd have to say my biggest low had
00:39:25
to be London uh Olympic Marathon oh is that the one where you pulled out you had a hammy or something yeah that was
00:39:30
the first time I ever dropped out of any race in my entire life and that was just
00:39:35
I remember that when I first pulled off I almost just started running again because I stopped and started walking
00:39:40
and just felt so wrong I was like this feels all wrong you know it's such a terrible feeling but I knew I couldn't
00:39:46
run like I was like limping my hamstring was really messed up I was like I'm
00:39:50
gonna just you know walk on my hands and knees like six hours later or something
00:39:55
like this not not wise decision you know um and then I go from walking and then go walk over
00:40:03
to the media you gotta talk to media and you're just you haven't figured it out
00:40:06
you haven't had time to process yourself this thing just happened to you you were
00:40:10
hoping to just hit a really good day and nail this marathon and all that just got
00:40:15
shattered in an instant and then you have a microphone right in front of you and they're asking you how you're
00:40:19
feeling and you know you're being honest but you're also like you're remembering there's little kids
00:40:25
watching this they're looking for like inspiration you know and I think it is
00:40:29
good to be honest and real but you're always I don't know I was always trying
00:40:31
to put a little bit of a positive spin on it I think you're more a glass half
00:40:36
folding glass half empty this position yeah yeah I'm very optimistic in nature
00:40:40
you know but when that happens so you go back to your hotel room you burst into tears what do you do you smash it up
00:40:46
throw a TV out the window for me is almost always like uh I don't know almost like I got numb like
00:40:54
I couldn't believe in disbelief that it happened at all you know it was It was
00:40:58
kind of weird like to be honest and I would sometimes I would process like that like I'd go into my garage and have
00:41:05
punching bag in there and just punch that back as hard as I can you know um I guess there were different ways
00:41:11
oftentimes to be honest like a lot I'd take it out on eating you know because
00:41:15
I'd be very like uh particular about my diet all my training leading up to it I'm going into
00:41:22
this race at 137 pounds like feeling like light and but hungry all the time when you're controlling your weight like
00:41:30
how I was controlling it and I was as low as I was compared to where my natural set point was I would at five
00:41:36
o'clock I'm staring in my watch I'm like when do I get to eat dinner window I'm
00:41:40
just starving like you're just hungry all the time I wake up in the middle of
00:41:43
the night just starving super hungry right and I'd eat a snack and then you're starving and like you're just
00:41:49
hungry all the time so that's a natural kind of thing when the race is over and
00:41:52
it doesn't go well you're like screw this dude so I remember after after the
00:41:56
London Marathon I went to uh uh Cinnabon that's like I love cinnamon rolls I can
00:42:01
make some mean cinnamon rolls too by the way but uh I went to Cinnabon and you know it's like right in like downtown
00:42:07
London or whatever and the Olympics are just closing up and there's a million
00:42:11
people out there and I just got a big old cinnamon roll I go out to the curb and I'm just pounding this thing you're
00:42:17
like Angry yeah but then I I look over and see this like girl like taking a picture of me on her phone I was like
00:42:24
it's gonna be like on the tabloids or something oh it's so good oh yeah me my
00:42:29
running on a big week I'll do like 60 miles which is 100 K's in New Zealand
00:42:33
and I I'll smash anything I want to know okay but this is when you eat when you
00:42:37
run this much you eat whatever you want did you make me feel bad no no you can but I would it wasn't just one cinnamon
00:42:43
roll once one seminal is fine it was like a two-week Bender okay this was not like one meal like a big meal no so then
00:42:52
after the running chapter was closed um like how long how long after that were you twiddling your fingers and
00:42:57
thumbs watching Netflix before you discovered you know lifting uh there's no moments of that it was straight into
00:43:03
the gym really yeah next day the first day I wasn't running it was the first
00:43:07
day I was in the gym so this went straight into it and just it was humbling too I'll tell you something
00:43:12
like yeah you would have been you would have been lifting the bar only yeah exactly I was super weak like dead
00:43:19
lifting like not even my body weight you know 140 pounds and it's just feeling
00:43:24
heavy but there was something about it that I loved and it was the struggle I loved it when I couldn't move the weight
00:43:31
anymore like whatever movement I was doing if I could get it like part way and then I'd get stuck and I'd have to
00:43:37
and I'd have to have like set it down or whatever you know and I just absolutely
00:43:42
love that I loved not being able to be successful and I just keep I just and I still do that to this day like I'm
00:43:51
unsuccessful almost every single time I lift intentionally you know there's something about the struggle of lifting
00:43:58
that I just love and I used to hate lifting before that by the way like we were going to the gym four or five days
00:44:03
a week so I was doing stuff in the gym but I hated it I'll just try to get through it as quick as I can and I was
00:44:08
doing the wrong stuff you know it's like doing the Band-Aid body weight stuff
00:44:12
which that stuff does have its place I'm not saying you shouldn't do that but
00:44:15
what most people are neglecting most Runners are neglecting which is what I was neglecting is the heavy lifting
00:44:21
because you don't feel like doing it when you're tired and you're 137 pounds
00:44:26
you don't feel like getting under a heavy barbell it freaking hurts the heck
00:44:30
out of your shoulders and your traps you have no traps to set it on it's just
00:44:33
real uncomfortable you know but again you have to be forced to do the things you don't want to do that's how you get
00:44:39
really good at things you know so I wish I would have been lifting heavy back in
00:44:44
the day but I I went from a guy who hated the gym hurried through it to the guy who was embarrassed to be in the gym
00:44:50
when I first started out just wear my hat real low and I wouldn't look at anyone I just I'll just focus on what I
00:44:57
was doing and now I have like my own setup in my garage so I don't I still hardly ever go to a a normal gym but I
00:45:04
just love it I'm in there every day and you'll you'll mess up now and you do
00:45:08
these weird challenges as well that's a one-on-one uh is it the wood chopping
00:45:11
challenge what was the wood chopping challenge yeah so that was about a year ago I chopped a cord of wood at my house
00:45:17
I've always loved wood and splitting wood and so how much how much is a cord
00:45:21
like enough or it is to go on the back of a pickup truck a ute or yeah exactly it's a thing of a pickup truck but like
00:45:27
loaded up like 10 feet high with wood wow it's a decent amount of wood now I
00:45:33
have my buddies helping to stack it so I was just splitting it they were stacking
00:45:36
it so that saved me a little time so I did that in the morning in my house in Flagstaff Arizona we drove out to the
00:45:42
Grand Canyon and I had this these big seven gallon water jugs when they're full they weigh almost 70 pounds they're
00:45:48
just under 70 pounds and so I ran down with them empty to the bottom of the Grand Canyons 10K you dropped 5 000 feet
00:45:55
and then I filled them up in the Colorado River at the bottom and then I farmer carried them out so just carry
00:46:00
them for as long as I could take them stop rest go again stop rest took five hours to carry them out from the bottom
00:46:09
of the Grand Canyon to the top of the Grand Canyon but it was like what four what four well it was partially for fun
00:46:16
because I love I love doing that so I would have done it for just just fun Factor alone and I had like my little
00:46:23
brother was out there shooting it my friends are out there with me like the stars were blazing the moon was out and
00:46:29
the Grand Canyon is just amazing like I just love the Grand Canyon the views there are just insane
00:46:35
so it was just a super fun like challenge for me to do then we're also like raising water or raising money
00:46:42
rather for clean water um for for people in need in Africa and stuff like that so it did have that kind
00:46:47
of Charity component as well oh that's cool and then um so you retire from running you're
00:46:52
lifting for years and then you go back to running again and you do the seven 777 challenge seven marathons and seven
00:46:59
days and seven continents I I this is when I started following you on Instagram uh um and it was it was
00:47:04
refreshing to watch because you did no training for it and you were you were bloody slow yeah and you weren't even
00:47:09
bothered by it like uh I think most people like former athletes of your level would surely have that little bit
00:47:15
of ego where you go I don't want someone to send me to a four-hour Marathon or
00:47:18
whatever but you you seem free of that yeah that's kind of the fun thing about
00:47:23
not being a pro athlete is it's easier to let your ego go you know so it's like
00:47:28
I can go like run these trails and stuff and like I don't care nothing to prove
00:47:32
anymore yeah like I started my we I ran the Grand Canyon a couple days ago I started my watch and then I never
00:47:37
touched it again the whole time we're stopping and doing stuff and I think I
00:47:40
accidentally stopped it I have no record that I even ran it yeah you enjoy running now do you just run for Joy now
00:47:46
that was the name one of your books by the way yeah yeah yeah now it's just pure fun I mean not trained to like have
00:47:52
fun in the forest but it's fun to be strong be able to pull yourself up stuff
00:47:57
go I like going off Trail I know not a lot of people are fans of that but like I do like treat the the forest with
00:48:03
respect but I love just going deep into the mountains where no one else is me and my buddy and we'll just go out there
00:48:10
and just be little kids in the forest no shoes no shirt just playing just playing
00:48:15
in the house yeah good you said so talk us through that 777 challenge so you get
00:48:20
invited to do it by the organizer yeah I got invited by my friend he was a pastor
00:48:25
at the Dream Center Church in Los Angeles and so he was going to do it to raise money for his church and so I was
00:48:31
friends with him I was like Hey like I'd love to join you you know like let me
00:48:35
know if we can make it happen sure enough like he found a sponsor for me to do it with him and then we're both
00:48:41
raising money for the Dream Center which is our amazing Church down in Los Angeles just helping people off the
00:48:46
streets doing amazing stuff there so it was cool to like have something besides just me doing this challenge but the
00:48:53
trip of a lifetime I mean our first first marathon was in Antarctica and then you're hopping in an airplane
00:48:57
you're flying funny enough I flew around the world in a week I didn't watch one
00:49:02
movie not one every single time I was on an airplane I was asleep because they hire a plane right so that's like a like
00:49:09
a big private jet how many athletes do it I think there's about 30 athletes that were doing it and then you know
00:49:15
they have like five or six staff and they're not like official races I mean they're they're yeah they're just in the
00:49:20
course but yeah Loop courses out in backs or whatever but I was so inspired just by the people on the trip you know
00:49:25
it's like there was one lady who was there she has a tumor in her brain and she's out doing this crazy challenge
00:49:31
there's people with like missing Limbs and stuff and everyone just had pretty
00:49:35
incredible stories you know so I love like like the community aspect of that event but it was really interesting to
00:49:41
go from literally like I didn't do one run over 30 minutes leading up to it and
00:49:46
I was only running like maybe like two times a week or something like 30 minutes you know you're an idiot I you
00:49:51
must have known you're in for a week of hell yeah well this was the debate I had
00:49:55
in my head about about four months before this challenge I was like I don't want to run I don't want to train I want
00:50:01
to just lift and so either I can enjoy my life and just lift leading up to this and have one kind of painful week or I
00:50:09
can like train for this thing have a subpar like three or four months and then have a better week I was like I'll
00:50:16
I'll take the I'll take the first choice so what was your what was your fastest
00:50:19
time and what was your slowest time that way can you remember I don't remember the exact time so but
00:50:25
they were around I was it was really interesting so I was actually getting in better shape as the week was going on so
00:50:31
my Marathon times were coming down so on day five in Morocco I actually felt really good it was crazy I didn't
00:50:38
understand it at all because day four in Spain I felt terrible so your body was just sort of adapting as you went along
00:50:43
yeah it was crazy I was getting a training effect from it I couldn't believe it I wasn't expecting to feel
00:50:48
better but day five in Morocco I didn't break three hours but I was like maybe
00:50:53
like 306 or something somewhere right now so I was getting quicker I think my first one in Antarctica was like 3 30 or
00:51:01
something and but the day before day four in Spain terrible I was like had the worst run felt terrible my buddy was
00:51:08
there and I was like I hate running like I must have said that like a thousand times I was not having a good time and
00:51:13
then the next day in Morocco I felt amazing so I started out real slow in that one but then by the end like I was
00:51:20
charging like I was running fast and so I was getting excited I was like okay day six in Dubai I was like I'm gonna
00:51:25
like I'm gonna keep getting quicker you know and I still wasn't like the fastest
00:51:30
guy on the trip like Mike wardian was there and he's running like I accept three every day right yeah he was
00:51:34
running good putting out some good times and stuff so you know I wasn't like
00:51:37
being competitive with anyone but myself but I was like I'm around fast but then
00:51:41
I was walking in Morocco to get dinner after we finished that race and all of a sudden I just felt a little bit of pain
00:51:46
in my hip I was like that's weird like that pain feels like kind of recognized
00:51:50
it because I've had a stress reaction before is this kind of like take your breath away kind of pain you know so I I
00:51:57
was like but I was like maybe it didn't mean it's nothing you know I mean it's
00:51:59
fine there's always like little niggles that pop up and you're hunting you know
00:52:02
I'll just work through it but then day five in Dubai I was like oh I'm in
00:52:06
trouble like I ran the first half and then walked most of the second half of that race because I was in a lot of pain
00:52:11
and I don't remember what my time was there but it had to be over four hours
00:52:15
for sure and then we flew to Sydney for the last marathon I tried to stand up after laying down and sleeping and I
00:52:24
felt like someone just shot me in the hip with a gun I was like I'm in big trouble but you don't run six marathons
00:52:31
in six days on six continents and then dnf the last one you know absolutely you find a way to get it done so that last
00:52:39
marathon in Sydney was it was amazing experience though I was right on I think manly beaches yeah mainly yeah and I was
00:52:46
just doing a mile out and back that was the course that day that night we did it
00:52:49
at night and the moon's out the waves are crashing down and I was just walking
00:52:53
back and forth for a mile for the whole Marathon took me well over five I was thinking it was like five and a half
00:52:59
hours maybe and uh funny enough you know Mike wardian who was running under three
00:53:04
he finishes his Marathon then he's doing a long cooldown afterwards and he comes
00:53:09
and joins me for a couple miles I was going too slow even for his cooldown but he was like doing a 17 Mile cooldown so
00:53:15
he could hit a 200 mile week that week he's a Savage yeah he's a Savage and
00:53:19
then at the Finish Line you took your shoes off and left them on the line which is nice that how do they feel that
00:53:24
must have been kind of a poignant at a moment yeah it was I mean it was funny because you know like I said these
00:53:28
aren't big races right so there's like you know 10 people the finish line or
00:53:32
something you know it's not not a big deal but you know after a week like that
00:53:37
I and I I knew I was gonna do this right because this is what wrestlers do in the
00:53:41
Olympics after they know it's their last wrestling match they just leave their
00:53:45
shoes on the mat and they walk away Barefoot and it's kind of your way of saying like I left it all out there
00:53:49
there's nothing left I'm moving on to the next season I think it's important
00:53:53
for athletes and people to like have something physically that you do that marks the end of a season and for me it
00:54:00
was that it was leaving my shoes there and so I remember I was like but in my mind it wasn't gonna be a big deal I was
00:54:06
like just leave my shoes there walk away that's it no big deal but I left my
00:54:10
shoes there got down my knees and took them off and walked away I almost started like crying as I was walking
00:54:15
away by myself you know back to the hotel because it was like whoa yeah like it's like really over now like it was I
00:54:22
got to say say goodbye to the sport that I love though and it was um I'm really glad to have the
00:54:27
opportunity to do that because a lot of people don't you know you were on your
00:54:30
last race you always think you can come back and run another one or and things just don't work out and then you just
00:54:35
drift off into the next thing um where I got to like have a really cool way to say goodbye to the sport
00:54:42
that gave me so much and brought so much fullness to my life and it's kind of
00:54:47
Full Circle too because you know like my first round was that big 15 mile run around the lake yeah challenge big long
00:54:53
hard challenge I started with I started with and I finished with the seven Marathon Seven Days Seven Continents a
00:54:58
real real big way to finish it out too and you seem like a guy that loves being in discomfort so perfect I do I do like
00:55:05
crazy I am can we talk about your family for a little bit because this is a remarkable part of the I think Ryan
00:55:11
Holden Sarah whole story so you guys first of all um talk about this in as much or as little detail as you want
00:55:18
maybe you don't want to talk about it at all but did you guys try and have your
00:55:20
own biological kits we had always just wanted to adopt yeah like ever since our first date actually Sarah she told me
00:55:28
she's like yeah I've always wanted to adopt ever since I was a little girl she
00:55:32
drew a picture of her with like a lot of different colored nationality kids or whatever and that was like a moment
00:55:38
where for me it just like struck me I was like oh I've never even thought about adoption you know I never saw it
00:55:43
she saw it like she had like family and friends who had adopted before so she was just around it a lot so she was
00:55:49
exposed to it but me I I hadn't been until that moment on our first date and
00:55:53
that that was really like that's when I started chewing on it Molin on it myself
00:55:57
so then when the time came they hey we felt ready to have kids um adoption just was what we always
00:56:04
wanted to do you know and it makes a ton of sense too for pro Runners right it's
00:56:08
like for for women it's like you get pregnant have a kid you lose you know nine months of uh of your career as well
00:56:16
so yeah so why um why Ethiopia yeah because you adopted um four sisters from Ethiopia why Ethiopia I know they've got
00:56:24
a massive like um orphan problem there's something like four million orphans and
00:56:28
orphanages around the place yeah exactly so you know we one of my favorite Parts
00:56:33
about running is we get to go train wherever we want you know so we'd been all over the world racing and training
00:56:39
and so when you travel that much you realize how there's certain places that
00:56:43
just kind of grab you you know you're just like oh man this just feels like my
00:56:47
kind of people my kind of place like like there's something special about this place that just grabs you and
00:56:54
Ethiopia is always like that for Sarah and I like there's just something about
00:56:57
it that we just love like the culture the people the land the training um everything about it the dancing the
00:57:02
food you know but you do see I mean you walk around Addis on the streets and kids come up to you like want to shine
00:57:09
your shoes for five cents you know and they're stoked when you pay them double
00:57:12
you pay them 10 they're like running off to all their friends hey I got 10 cents
00:57:17
you know but it just breaks your heart you're like man what's what's gonna
00:57:20
happen to this kid like how's you know how's he can get himself out of the
00:57:24
situation so you want to do something right and so you know we have our own Foundation the whole steps foundation
00:57:29
and that's just because like it's like just everyone's just gotta do a little
00:57:32
bit of something and then we can take care of these problems that we have in the world you know I really believe that
00:57:37
so for us it was like yeah seeing all these kids on the street like we can't
00:57:41
we can't totally fix the problem ourselves but we can do we can take our step you know and so we decide we want
00:57:48
to adopt from Ethiopia and then we're just gonna adopt an infant kid that was
00:57:52
always you know our plan that's what most people will start with well at least I mean there's been so many
00:57:56
studies done about nurture versus nature and how something like 80 of a brain development has done in the first
00:58:01
thousand days or three years so I suppose people will think either be the the easiest option just get a get a get
00:58:07
a kit that's not pre-programmed yeah yeah and it was at your intention initially yeah that we wanted to just be
00:58:13
a part yeah and you want to experience it too as a parent yeah you want to see what it's like to have that tiny little
00:58:19
kid and hold them you know so I get it you know I don't like slight people for
00:58:22
adopting infants or for wanting to have infants you know it's great um but what we saw is visiting the
00:58:28
orphanage we were like number 76 on a waiting list to adopt an infant and that waiting list was barely moving at all
00:58:34
we'd have waited we would have never got an infant because they ended up closing
00:58:38
down International Adoption um but when we were there we're visiting these orphanages and we saw all these
00:58:43
older kids just waiting for families we're like this doesn't make sense we're
00:58:46
waiting for an infant they're waiting for families and after playing with the
00:58:51
kids interacting with the kids like they're such great kids we're like man
00:58:54
we like adopt any one of these kids in a second so we did that we went home we changed all of our paperwork up and
00:59:00
jumped through a whole bunch of Hoops like in adoption they call being paper pregnant because you gotta just do so
00:59:06
much paperwork and so it was insane how hard it is to adopt it's hard um but yeah you guys had to do four
00:59:15
times the paperwork yeah yeah every day and but yes we decided we want to adopt kids and we became aware of uh girls
00:59:22
these four sisters and it was just them there's their whole family just the sisters and uh what do you know what's
00:59:30
the back story what happened to the parents yeah we kind of let the kids tell her the story if they want so I try
00:59:36
not to get too much into that but yeah they had no other option though like they weren't they weren't safe in their
00:59:41
village where they were no parents so like it's heartbreaking yeah yeah they
00:59:45
were in a really tough situation so yeah we decided that we were going to adopt uh our kids well actually it wasn't that
00:59:52
simple we we wanted to give them choice in the matter because like usually kids are adopted and they don't have any
00:59:57
choice like you know these parents roll up and like hey you're coming with us
01:00:00
you know they're lucky so we we went to the to the orphanage and we kind of just like pretended like
01:00:07
we were there playing with all the kids or whatever you know and we were there playing with all the kids so I guess we
01:00:11
weren't pretending but really like we knew like we were gonna ask these girls
01:00:15
if they wanted to join our family but we wanted them to just get to know us as normal people first not potential
01:00:20
parents you know so I'll never forget uh after about a week just hanging out with
01:00:25
all the kids in the orphanage we brought in our girls and we asked through a translator asked them if they wanted to
01:00:31
join our family and told you we had told them about ourselves and they knew about
01:00:36
us and stuff and I'll never forget the reaction they all just like started screaming and crying and they were like
01:00:41
so excited we're all in tears you know and but I think that was really important for them to feel like we were
01:00:47
not only choosing them but they were also choosing Us in the process and that was it sounds like an episode of
01:00:53
expected when they get until they go to boot camp or something so what were the age ranges at the time
01:00:58
so at the time there were five seven eleven and fifteen so yeah and they were they were all how long how long have
01:01:07
they been there they had been in the orphans for three years and they were having a hard time finding a family for
01:01:12
them so they were talking about splitting up the the girls so sending two to one family and two to another
01:01:17
family and I grew up in the middle of five kids and so I know like I couldn't
01:01:21
imagine being split up for my siblings and they're you know they're talking
01:01:25
about splitting them to different countries it's like they're probably never going to see each other again I
01:01:29
was like I couldn't imagine doing that and so I was like no that's not not okay
01:01:33
with me that's a really cool I know you guys didn't do it for the uh for the you
01:01:37
know the Kudos or anything but it's a really cool thing you've done yeah well
01:01:40
there's there's amazing kids like we feel like we've gotten super blessed
01:01:43
Super Lucky to to have them as our kids now because they're they're not standard
01:01:48
kids it's like I was out uh doing a photo shoot with 10 000 down in Sedona uh just two days ago and I I was trying
01:01:56
to rush to get there to pick up my daughter from school and my 19 year old daughter who drives she had already gone
01:02:01
and picked up Lily without even like texting me or telling me she just knew that I wasn't gonna make it and went and
01:02:06
picked her up so like they do stuff like that all the time where I'm like you
01:02:09
guys aren't normal kids they're they're really special so and so do they have
01:02:14
English as a second language or is it just they didn't know any English coming
01:02:18
over here never been to school before so you can imagine it was a real challenge
01:02:22
especially for the older ones you know our younger two now they've forgotten
01:02:25
him heart unfortunately we're trying to have them retain that because we do go
01:02:29
back all the time we're just there training for this race um and visiting Ethiopia but they
01:02:34
they've forgotten it Mark but the older two you know they're they still their
01:02:38
English is really good and one's at GCU Grand Canyon University and college uh
01:02:43
and then our other daughter she's gone to NC State next year they both run so
01:02:47
they're they're doing great they've amazing to me because when I go over to
01:02:52
Ethiopia like me speaking Amharic it's so hard like my Mark is so terrible so I
01:02:57
couldn't imagine getting plopped into an Amharic speaking school and in Addis and
01:03:02
trying to survive but they've they've been able to pull it off and they're
01:03:05
just they're doing great what what know about America or what do they make of it
01:03:09
when they come all I can think of is the like the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America right well what's funny is so
01:03:15
they grew up out in the Sticks no TV no cars no nothing right never seen a white
01:03:20
person or anything like they're out in the sticks like they grew up throwing
01:03:24
rocks at monkeys to like keep them away from their like cattle and stuff like that they have rocket arms though all of
01:03:30
them they can throw because they're very little kids yeah I know I was thinking
01:03:34
that we actually had one of our daughters try the javelin um but what happened is then they you
01:03:39
know came to the orphanage and then the orphanage they had TV and so they started watching all these Disney movies
01:03:44
and stuff which was good because exposing them to English and stuff but they also got exposed to a lot of
01:03:49
American stuff so we were actually surprised they weren't super shocked by a lot of things when they came back to
01:03:55
the States because they'd seen a lot of it already on TV but we also couldn't
01:03:58
talk to them super well because they only knew Amharic we knew limited Amharic although Sarah zamark was pretty
01:04:04
good and uh but yeah they were they was all I remember there was one moment we're in an elevator we walked in an
01:04:11
elevator this is actually in Addis and I knew they were gonna freak out because I
01:04:14
knew they'd never been in an elevator before imagine you walk into this room
01:04:18
this door closes behind you you're in this little box you press this button and then all of a sudden it drops they
01:04:24
were like yeah they just lost it in this elevator I can only admit like when I was a kid I
01:04:32
was petrified of escalators and malls like getting on them and getting off and I can't imagine like never getting one
01:04:37
of them for the first time when you're 15 16 years old it's crazy yeah I'm sure
01:04:41
there is more of those that we didn't even know about like I think like the hand dryer thing got them a little bit
01:04:48
there is a couple things so what are their ages now uh so now our oldest is 22 and then we have 19 year old uh 15
01:04:55
and then 12. they call your mum and dad oh yeah yeah and that that was actually one of the cool things you know from
01:05:03
someone you never even thought about adoption um how normal it's all felt like even
01:05:08
being a biracial family like I never even I I don't feel it or think about it or
01:05:15
it's not on my radar you know I mean there's moments where I'm sensitive to
01:05:18
it you know especially when it's you know trying to explain to them things that are happening in America that have
01:05:24
to do with race and stuff like trying to do a good job of talking to them about those things but
01:05:29
um just how normal it's felt and organic it's felt for both of us you know for
01:05:33
for us and for the girls has been really cool and really kind of a surprising thing I always thought I'd just walk
01:05:39
around and be like whoa I can't believe like these are my kids but it's like
01:05:42
right away it's like yeah Mom Dad is my daughter like I don't even think about
01:05:45
but you know sometimes we still get you know people who think like my daughter is my wife or something like that okay
01:05:51
you don't have to like go through security be like yes these are my daughters you know like yeah so yeah so
01:05:58
the elders told you since 22 now is she's sort of like a I suppose a mum figure in a way to the others as well
01:06:03
because like it's been there and I just think I've been learning that orphanage
01:06:06
for those years I suppose that was who sort of yeah the older two for sure definitely like watch out for them a lot
01:06:14
especially actually Mia our second oldest she's she'll just come home start
01:06:19
cleaning the house start making food like because you know in Ethiopia it's like even though she was really small at
01:06:25
the time that's what she was doing like she was running the show at her house
01:06:29
helping with all the chores and so you know kids who grow up in that atmosphere then come here definitely aren't used to
01:06:35
the like Mom and Dad doing everything for you sometimes we've got we call her
01:06:39
mama mia sometimes so she'll just be doing all the mom things like you don't
01:06:44
have to be mom right now we got this I love that I love that hey thanks so much for your time today it's been fantastic
01:06:50
to sit down with you and pick your brains and share some of these stories um yeah we talked about your life before
01:06:55
being in chapters like the running chapter and the weightlifting chapter and I suppose a shorter chapter better
01:07:00
chapter nonetheless the dead chapter um what do you think's next well you just don't know I don't know and I like
01:07:06
not knowing actually you know like I think that's what makes I'm learning to
01:07:10
embrace the Beautiful Mystery of Life you know like it's I don't know what's
01:07:16
coming down the line and I love that and I know it's going to change and evolve
01:07:19
you know so I'm just trying to get better at like adapting as I go and just embracing things for what they are you
01:07:25
know it's like even for Sarah in this marathon it's like we have no idea how
01:07:28
Monday is going to play out you know but if you're going through it looking for
01:07:32
things to be grateful for and looking for the blessings you're gonna find them
01:07:36
but if you're going through it like this has to happen for me to be happy I have
01:07:40
to hit this time I have to hit this goal I have to beat this person and a lot of
01:07:45
these things are outside your control like that it makes it hard to be happy in life when you're living like that so
01:07:51
it's trying to kind of like change how I navigate life and be more like the stream that can just roll it flow like
01:07:58
the water it just rolls with anything you just roll down anything yeah well that's not quite on Instagram it said
01:08:03
something like um happiness happiness needs to be where you are now it can't
01:08:06
be something you're chasing because if you're chasing it you're never going to
01:08:08
get it no never gonna get there pot of gold Ryan Hall the fastest American man ever over half by the way will you be
01:08:16
sad if a win those records are broken how will that feel no I'm hoping I can
01:08:20
coach one of my athletes to break it I have this guy BS Ambassador who I'm coaching right now American guy
01:08:25
um he's already run 60 minutes for the half and I'm like dude when are we gonna
01:08:28
break this thing let's go I'm ready so I'm excited you know we need to take
01:08:32
this thing to the next level it's always you know my ceiling is meant to be other
01:08:36
people's floors we're meant to take this thing higher so no I'm I'm ready to kiss
01:08:40
that record goodbye and if he does it in the new shoes you can go well foreign Hall I know you're itching to get to the
01:08:58
gym right now by the way what is it today what are you doing so today's uh I'm changing up my splits a little bit
01:09:03
so today's a push day so let's go push pull push pull right it's a little bit
01:09:06
upper body a little bit lower but today's actually yeah pushed it so I'll
01:09:10
do a little chest do a little tricep shoulder something with my quad something with my calves but honestly
01:09:16
how I like to do now I just walk into the gym and I'm gonna do all pushy movements but I'm like what am I craving
01:09:21
today what sounds like fun what do I have available because I'll be in this hotel gym We'll see what they got up
01:09:26
there I actually already know what they got because I've used it a bunch but
01:09:30
um that's good though you know being creative again being water being able to
01:09:33
flow with what you have I mean because it makes it more fun I love it hey so good to meet you thank you so much for
01:09:38
your time really appreciate you being on the podcast Runners only with dom Harvey
01:09:41
Ryan Hall thanks Don [Music] thank you