Ryan Hall, the top distance runner in the United States , will serve as Official Starter for the 2010 Miami Marathon and Half-Marathon® when the race kicks off at 6:15 a.m. Sunday outside American Airlines Arena.
Hall isn't running this year in Miami because he is between training cycles for marathons. But he will be active in support of the South Florida event.
In addition to shooting the starting gun on Sunday, Hall will also sign autographs at the Nissan tent from 9-10 a.m. on race day.
On Saturday, he will offer running tips at a 1:30 p.m. seminar at the Nissan Health and Fitness Expo presented by The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. As part of Nissan's Master the Shift event series, Hall will offer running enthusiasts an inside look at how he trains for success and how runners can shift their performance to a new level of personal achievement. He will then sign autographs from 2-3 p.m.
"Even though the Miami Marathon didn't fit into my training schedule this year, I'm excited to be in Miami this weekend as this is one of the fastest growing events in the country," Hall said. "I wanted to come down and offer my support to this tremendous event. I'm looking forward to being the starter for the Marathon , giving a training seminar and making some appearances in the Nissan booth at the Expo."
Hall qualified for the Olympic marathon in Beijing with a record setting performance (2:09:02) at the U.S. Olympic Trials in New York . He went on to finish 10th in Beijing , his fourth-ever marathon, with a time of 2:12:33. Hall finished third in the 2009 Boston Marathon (2:09:40), becoming the first American-born athlete to reach the men's podium since 1985. Most recently, he finished fourth in the 2009 New York City Marathon.
Born in Big Bear Lake ( Calif. ), Hall's career started to take shape in high school as he captured the California State Cross Country Championship during his junior and senior seasons. He also finished third at the Foot Locker National High School Cross Country Championships in 2000. Hall finished second at the 2003 NCAA Cross-Country Championships during his junior year at Stanford University . That year he was named Pac-10 Cross Country Athlete of the Year and All-American for a second consecutive year. He graduated from Stanford in 2006 with a B.A. in Sociology.
Hall's running success continued when he captured the 2006 USA Cross Country Championship in the Bronx , N.Y. His career took off when he set the record for a U.S. debut performance with a 2:08:24 in London in 2007. He followed that by finishing fifth in the 2008 London Marathon with a time of 2:06:17. Hall also holds the American record in the half marathon with a time of 59:43, becoming the first and only American ever to break the one-hour barrier in the event.
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