STEPPING WAY DOWN, HALL TO CONTEST ROAD MILE
By David Monti
(c) 2011 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission

(06-May) -- Only 24 days after running the fastest marathon ever by an American, Ryan Hall will step way down in distance to compete at the Medtronic TC Mile in Minneapolis on Thursday, May 12.  Hall, 28, who is self-coached, told race organizers that he would like to break four minutes on the point-to-point course on Nicolett Mall.

"Last weekend I was chatting with Rod Dixon and he advised me to break four minutes for the mile as soon as possible," Hall said through a news release.  "While I realize it may take a number of tries to go sub-four, it is a lifelong goal of mine and I believe that if I achieve it, it will certainly help my marathon." 

Hall said the event, which will again serve as the national road mile championships event for both men and women, would be the first mile he has run since 2006.  That "mile" was actually a 1500m race in Oordegem, Belgium, where Hall clocked 3:43.90, similar to a 4:01 or 4:02 mile.  Hall's best 1500m time is 3:42.70, run back in 2001 at the old Peregrine Systems U.S. Open at Stanford University.  At the time, that mark was #3 all-time for USA high schoolers.  In a standard track mile, Hall's best mark was 4:05.50 achieved at the Morton Mile in Dublin in 2005.

David Torrence, who won the event in both 2009 (3:59.3 CR) and 2010 (4:04.0) said he welcomed the additional competition from Hall-- to an extent.

"The TC Road Mile is a great event," Torrence wrote in an e-mail message to Race Results Weekly.  He continued: "It's nice to see Ryan Hall toeing the line, and I hope he does well, or at least well enough to get a good view of my threepeat performance."