Aug. 20, 2008

Written by: Jared Carson and Josh Carson, Shorter College Cross Country Athletes
Submitted by: Grant Kersey, Sports Information Director, Shorter College, Shorter Athletics

This summer, we traveled to Mammoth Lakes, Calif., which is nestled in the Sierra Nevada Mountains at roughly 7,500 feet. The initial purpose was to train at high altitude for a month with many others on our team in order to benefit us physically and prepare for our upcoming cross country season. However, it turned out to be much more than we expected.

Not only did it make an impact on both of us physically, more importantly, it changed us mentally and spiritually. With the advantages of training at high altitude and having endless miles of trails to run on, Mammoth serves as home to many elite distance runners, including a handful of Olympians. While we were there, we had the great opportunity of meeting one of the most inspirational and decorated athletes in our sport, Ryan Hall.

Ryan is a professional distance runner. He began to make his name known as a junior in high school, winning numerous California high school state championships, as well as placing third in the Footlocker Cross Country National Championships as a senior. He went on to run at Stanford University, where he helped lead Stanford to an NCAA cross country title in 2003, and won the 5,000 meter title during track season his final year. Following graduation, Ryan continued to run on the professional scene. In April 2007, he ran his first marathon and did so in impressive fashion. He placed 7th at the Flora London Marathon, running 2:08:24, making him the fastest marathon debut by any American. This also made him the fastest American-born citizen to run the marathon. In November of the same year, Ryan placed first at the men's Olympic Marathon team trials, running 2:09:02, making that the fastest time ran at the trials. He did not slow down after that. He went back to London in 2008 to improve his marathon personal best, by running 2:06:17. He is now one of the favorites to medal in Beijing this weekend when he represents the United States in the marathon.

Meeting Ryan this summer was a moment we will always remember. We met him while attending a camp in Mammoth, called ALTITUDE project, which is a Christian distance camp. Read more...