It’s also a strange mantra when you consider the double play that Hall is hoping to pull off on October 10: to win the Chicago Marathon, becoming the first American-born man to take that race since 1982, and, while he’s at it, smash the American marathon record of 2:05:38, set by Morrocan-born Khalid Khannouchi in 2002. marathoner in a generation, after he set an American debut record of 2:08:24 at the 2007 London Marathon. It’s a peculiar credo for a man who had the distinction, three years ago, of being hailed as the most promising up-and-coming U.S. “There’s this temptation to do more,” he says, “as if hammering all the time is the way to improvement.

I’m following on their mother’s townie bike. Chad, who’s keeping up, is an accomplished NCAA runner in his own right. Now he’s on his afternoon run-25 to 30 minutes, at 7,000 feet of elevation, at a shake-the-legs-out pace of seven and a half minutes per mile. Ryan already put in ten miles and did drills this morning.

The 28-year-old marathon star is explaining his spiritual pillow talk to his younger brother, Chad, as they run a stretch of singletrack at the base of the Snow Summit ski area, in Big Bear, California. Ryan Hall “Ryan's faith takes the edge off his ego.” says Terrence Mahon, Hall's coach.

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