Sara Hall Interview

In this podcast, Amby and George talk with Sara Hall, who recently finished fifth in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Sara, who's married to former marathon star Ryan Hall, has perhaps the longest running resume of any U.S. distance star.

She won the first of 4 California state championships in 1997, and the Footlocker XC Champs her senior year in high school. Since then she has starred at Stanford, on the track, and in the marathon, where she has a personal best of 2:20:32. 

In her fifth place finish at the Marathon Trials (2:26:06), Hall set an American masters record for the distance, eclipsing the time Des Linden ran last fall in Chicago.

Sara didn't begin her marathon career until 2015--the same year she and Ryan adopted 4 Ethiopian sisters, and welcomed them to their home in Flagstaff, Arizona. How she managed to combine marathon training and racing with raising four young daughters who didn't speak English ... well, it's another one of those inspirational stories about female marathon runners.

Before speaking with Sara, George and Amby discussed some of the recent biggest news in running. This included results from the Glasgow World Indoor Championships, where Scotsman Josh Kerr and American Elle St. Pierre won exciting 3000-meter titles.

They also reviewed results from the Tokyo Marathon, where Eliud Kipchoge and Sifan Hassan were expected to win, but didn't. That changes the outlook for the Paris Olympic Marathon in August.

To keep up with Sara Hall, you can follow her on Instagram.

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"Running: State of the Sport" is brought to you by MarathonHandbook.com and RunLongRunHealthy.com. Marathon Handbook is the world’s leading marathon website, with a special focus on trustworthy running information and free, runner-tested training plans for all ability levels.

Run Long, Run Healthy is Amby’s weekly newsletter with the newest, most scientific, and most useful training advice for runners.


Audio engineering by BJ McGeever.

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