Ryan Hall

In track, he was the National Scholastic mile champion in his junior season at 4:06.15, and was the CIF California State Meet champion in the 1600 meter run during his senior season with a state record time of 4:02.62, and won the state title during his junior season in the 3200 meter run at 8:55.12.

Hall competed at the Peregrine Systems U.S. Open at Stanford in the 1500 meters, running 3:42.70, and at the 2001 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Ryan Hall's college career at Stanford University started with injuries that held him back from the promise he showed in high school.

Ryan Hall (born October 14, 1982, in Kirkland, Washington) is a retired American long-distance runner who holds the U.S. record in the half marathon.

With his half marathon record time (59:43), he became the first U.S. runner to break the one-hour barrier in the event.

The performance eclipsed the previous North American record of 1:00:55, set by Mark Curp on September 15, 1985, in Philadelphia.

He graduated from high school in the same year as Dathan Ritzenhein and Alan Webb, behind whom he finished in the 2000 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships.

He finished third at the Foot Locker Nationals in Orlando during his senior season, and also set the Mt. SAC course record in 2000.

In 2001, Hall won the Murray Keating Invitational in his college debut and finished 76th at the NCAA Men's Cross Country Championships.

He red-shirted the 2002 track season.

In his sophomore year of cross country, he won the Stanford Invitational and the Notre Dame Invitational.

The highlight of his collegiate cross country career came in his junior year in 2003.

His 2004 track season was cut short due to injury but he did record a best of 13:45 in the 5000, which began Hall's change in distance from the 1500.

He came back from injury to finish 26th at the NCAA Championships in 2004 to once again earn All-American status.

The breakout that everybody expected from Hall since high school took place in the 2005 track season.

He earned his first-ever individual NCAA Championship by winning the 5000 meters in 13:22.32, finishing less than a second ahead of his teammate Ian Dobson in a race where the two runners dominated.

He graduated from Stanford with a BA in sociology.

Hall has been sponsored by ASICS since 2005.

His coach at the time was Terrence Mahon, a former runner at Villanova University.

His younger brother, Chad Hall, went on to win the national meet in 2006.

Hall was the California state cross country champion during his junior and senior seasons at Big Bear High School.

In 2006, he won his first national title in the 12K cross-country championships, winning by 27 seconds.

On September 16, 2006, Hall won the Great Cow Harbor 10K in Northport, New York, setting a new course record of 28:22.

Hall's road-running success continued when he broke the U.S. 20k record on October 8, 2006, running 57:54, 48 seconds faster than the previous record run by Abdi Abdirahman in 2005.

On January 14, 2007, Hall won the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon in a time of 59:43.

On April 22, 2007, Hall placed 7th in the Flora London Marathon.

His time of 2:08:24 was the fastest marathon debut by any American.

On November 3, 2007, Hall won the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Marathon in a Trials-record 2:09:02 in New York City, New York.

Hall won the marathon at the 2008 United States Olympic trials and placed tenth in the Olympic marathon in Beijing.

Hall came on the running scene as a high school junior.

With this win, he, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Brian Sell qualified to run the marathon at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

On April 13, 2008, Hall placed 5th in the Flora London Marathon.

Hall, 25, competing in only his third marathon, finished in 2:06:17.

Hall was featured on the cover of the September 2008 Runner's World magazine and talks about his "run for glory" in the marathon in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

On August 24, 2008, Hall was the second American to cross the finish line the 2008 Men's Olympic Marathon, placing 10th with a time of 2:12:33.

He was named first team all Pac-10 and earned All-American honors with his 37th-place finish at the NCAA Championships.

He followed this up with a 3:43.37 1500m best his freshman year of track in 2003.

He was named the Pac-10 Cross Country Athlete of the Year after leading Stanford to the NCAA Championship by finishing 2nd to Colorado's Dathan Ritzenhein.

He is also the only American to run a sub-2:05 marathon (2:04:58 at the 2011 Boston marathon).

However, this time is not eligible to be a record due to the course being point-to-point and a net-downhill course.