Ryan Hall Finishes Third In The Boston Marathon
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Ryan Hall at the 2009 Boston Marathon
Irvine, CA (April 20, 2009) - ASICS elite marathoner, Ryan Hall took third place in the 113th annual Boston Marathon running 2:09:40. Deriba Merga of Ethiopia took first with 2:08:42, followed by Daniel Rono of Kenya second at 2:09:32.
On a crisp and windy day in Boston with the start time temperature of 52 degrees, Hall, true to his game plan took the pace out from the start and led through the first two miles of the race. Comfortable with running a fast pace from the beginning, Hall dictated the pace to ensure the race would not go out too slow. Hoping that someone would take the lead after two miles, Hall found no willing taker and continued to run from the front going through five miles at 23:36. Then At the 15K mark, the pack came through at 44:44, indicating a 2:05 marathon. Around mile 10, Hall, still looking strong, with his easy stride, tucked himself into the pack and instead of leading the group sat back and followed closely behind the leader.
At the hills of Newton at mile 16, Merga took the lead and Hall fell back to ninth place. Similar to London, Hall was able to regroup and made his way back up the pack and up to sixth place, but couldn't overcome the famously tough Heartbreak Hill just beyond the 20 mile marker. Hall started to hurt up the hills, but picked up some speed coming down from the hills and fought back into third place, but still was 59 seconds behind Merga in first place.
Hall coming down the last mile, blazing down Boylston Street with everything he had left in him, tried to take on second place finisher, Rono, and unfortunately, could not overtake him and crossed the finish line in third place.
Hall's goal going into the marathon was to finish in first, breaking a long standing record that was originally established with Greg Meyer in 1983. Hall said at the press conference afterwards, he felt like a rookie out there and continues to learn so much with each and every race, "my day will come and I will be back".
Ryan began blogging Wednesday, April 15th about his Boston Marathon experience and will finish with his final thoughts after the race. Visit www.asicsamerica.com/ryanhall
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