
Ryan Hall's goal for his Chicago Marathon debut was to break the U.S. record.
That isn't going to happen this year.
Following a disappointing performance at the Sept. 19 Philadelphia Half Marathon and some poor workouts over the past week, Hall said Tuesday he will not run the Oct. 10 Chicago race.
``It has been a rough last couple months for me,'' Hall said in a Tuesday interview with the Tribune. ``I've invested everything in my training, and sometimes things do not turn out the way you had envisioned.
``I was very excited to run the Bank of America Chicago Marathon but my workouts haven't been good. I'm very much a guy that when I show up at the starting line, I believe everything is possible, and I go after things with my whole heart, so if I'm not ready to go, I'm not going to show up and have a performance that doesn't reflect that.''
Hall, the leading U.S. marathoner since 2007, finished 14th in Philadelphia, four minutes slower than his career best time for a half marathon.
In a posting on Facebook the day after the race, Hall said, ``I was pretty bummed. It's not easy to still really believe anything is possible on days like today when I raced half the (marathon) distance slower than I typically come through halfway in a marathon, and I have only three weeks left until Chicago.''
Hall, 27, was the 2008 Olympic trials winner and No. 2 U.S. finisher (10th) at the Beijing Olympics. His time of 2 hours, 6 minutes 17 seconds at the 2008 London Marathon made Hall the second fastest U.S. performer behind Khalid Khannouchi, who set the U.S. record of 2:05:38 at London in 2002.
``It's been a long time since I have been in a paced race on a flat, fast course like Chicago, and I was looking forward to seeing what (time) that translates to,'' Hall said. ``That adds to the bummer of not being able to go.''