Ryan Hall and teammate Abdi Abdirahman drop out of Olympic Marathon around mile 11 and within minutres of each other. Hall described his race in an interview with NBC.
“Just had some hamstring tightness going into the race and it was something that was getting progressively worse as I was going, and I start to feel my stride start to alter. From the beginning, it didn’t feel fluid, I was trying to work through it the best I could, but it got to a point to where it wasn’t going to let me continue. It was the first I’ve ever DNF’d in my life, so you know, it’s a real bummer. I’m kind of in shock right now. It hasn’t really hit me, what just happened. One of those things where it’s going to take some time to get through. You gotta have big perspective, I guess, and know what your body can handle and what it can’t and today it just wasn’t in the cards”
Ryan Hall owns the fastest marathon time ever for an American marathon runner and is a Big Bear High School Graduate. He has been credited with kick starting a high altitude training movement in Big Bear Lake.
