Ryan Hall Runs 43:23 at Publix Gasparilla Distance Classic
By David Monti
(c) 2009 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
February 28, 2008
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 (editor's note: according to Weather Underground the temperature during the race was between 63-67F and sunny), 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.