Source
radical_heartbeat•

I would love to see him move to the OTC. Hall, Ritz, and Webb all training together would rule. I don't see him dropping Asics though and I heard he's still going to live in Mammoth.

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kerabatsosElite marathoner•

Hall and Ritz do not get along.

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radical_heartbeat•

Good point, I didn't really think of how personalities would mesh. These guys were the big 3 when I was in high school. I don't imagine anyone getting along with Hall, he seems to be a bit of a head case.

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bnelsonOP•

Well, he basically believes some invisible dude in the sky told him to start running for his glory so... yeah.

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radical_heartbeat•

I won't begrudge him his religion but when I saw that video of Josh Cox riding alongside Hall on a tempo run saying stuff like "Do it for Him", "show him your praise", etc I can't help but groan.

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bnelsonOP•

Interesting.. what is their conflict?

Also.. I find it amusing that a lot of these runners have an outspoken religious focus. Some of the time I wonder if that does not get in the way. I think a lot of the MTC guys are pretty outspokenly Christian. Randomly pondering if that has something to do with it.

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PrettyCoolGuy•

I'm basically an atheist. I'm not at all 'in your face' about it or anything. I just don't believe in God or think that we have souls.

Some of the time I wonder if that does not get in the way.

I think it could go both ways. On the one hand it could distract from training or whatever. On the other hand, belief in a power greater than yourself could be strongly motivating. Just imagine really believing that God is on your side and will help you run hard even when it hurts a lot. I think that the power of true belief is something that I, as a non-believer, cannot really appreciate.

I'm not trying to disagree with you or start an argument by any means at all. Just thinking out loud here.

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bnelsonOP•

It is cool. I wonder the same thing. I have a hard time placing faith based motivations into context, so I wonder the same thing. You can tell he feels quite strongly about his faith.

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bnelsonOP•

Interesting. I was watching a video on the MTC site from September 23rd. Here: http://www.mammothtrackclub.com/speaker/main/video/id/2-Deena-Kastor/vid/353919-The-Mammoth-Dream-Part-3-Marathon-Preparation (4:10). He was saying he felt really good going into it. Dunno what happened. He said his body was "responding well to it" and now he is saying he has been feeling more and more fatigued. Soooo... I dunno what happened.

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PrettyCoolGuy•

I gotta think that leaving MTC is a good thing. He's clearly not the runner that once was. I think he needs a change in a bad way.

He is only 28 years old. I've heard that runners reach their peak at around 27/28 only to begin a rather slow decline. My understanding is that runners get better from their teens into their late twenties (10 years of increasing improvement). But that the decline is very long. So after peaking at 28, a runner will continue to be better than their 18-year-old self until they are 60 or so. (This is for distance races).

All of that is to say that if Hall can fix whatever is wrong, I see no reason why he wouldn't continue to be be competitive in the years to come.

1