Olympic marathoner, Ryan Hall has achieved some exciting goals in his running career, including running the fastest marathon by an American in the 2011 Boston Marathon with a time of 2:04:58. He also finished 10th in the 2008  summer games in Beijing (the 2nd American finisher in that marathon).

Just a side note:  I also spotted him recently when he ran this year’s  San Diego Rock & Roll Half Marathon.  I snapped a picture of him with my phone around mile 3, where he was leading the pack.

Ryan Hall (Photo by Mark Blackwell)

Now he’s headed to the 2012 London Games, where he’ll represent the U.S on August 12th.

After finishing second at the 2011 U.S. half-marathon championships, Hall had to fill out a standard drug testing form . When asked on a form to list his coach, he wrote “God”.  An official told him he had to list the name of a real person, which he responded, “He is a real person”.

Ryan and his wife Sara (also a professional runner) have also established a foundation called The Steps Foundation, to help fight global poverty through better health.

In a Skype interview with CNN, he was asked about his coach.  Ryan refers to his training as “faith-based”. He refers to this as a season in his life, where faith-based training feels like the right thing to do for him.