Marathon News - Personal Best for Hall at Gasparilla Distance Classic

Feb-28-2009

Personal Best for Hall at Gasparilla Distance Classic
by David Monti
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

USA half-marathon record holder Ryan Hall set a personal best today at the 32nd Publix Supermarkets Gasparilla Distance Classic 15-K in Tampa, Fla. In a solo run in comfortably warm conditions, Hall got to five miles (8 km) in 22:58 and was on pace to challenge Keith Brantly's USA course record of 42:50 set in 1989.

But Hall slowed in the latter stages of the race, recording splits of 4:43 for the 7th mile and 4:44 for the 8th, according to data supplied by his manager, Ray Flynn, from the lead vehicle. The former Stanford star, who is training for the Boston Marathon, hit the finish tape in an unofficial time of 43:23. Although the mark was a personal best for Hall it fell well short of Todd Williams's USA record of 42:22 set in 1995 in Jacksonville at the Gate River Run. Hall had actually run one second faster than that through the 15-K split when he set his USA half-marathon record in Houston in 2007, but that split was not certified.

Hall's next race in his Boston build-up is the Fortis City-Pier-City Half-Marathon in the Netherlands on March 14 where he will race against Haile Gebrselassie.