Hall's hometown cheers him on

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10:00 PM PDT on Monday, August 4, 2008

By JEFF EISENBERG
The Press-Enterprise

BIG BEAR -
BIG BEAR
As he walked down his hometown's busiest street a few weeks ago, Ryan Hall stumbled across a familiar face.

There, hanging from the wall of a local bank, was a 30-foot poster of him crossing the finish line first at this year's U. S. Olympic marathon trials, a pained smile on his face and his right arm pointed to the sky.

"I was like, you've got to be kidding me," Hall said. "Whether or not I medal in Beijing, it's all been worth it to see the community rally around me like this."

The mammoth banner at the bank is a testament to the support residents of the Big Bear Valley have shown Hall in the weeks leading up to his hotly anticipated Olympic marathon debut. Not only do motorists honk or shout encouragement out their car windows if they spot him running, but camera-wielding fans also take snapshots of his family home, and autograph seekers swarm his table whenever he goes out to dinner.

On Monday, Hall hysteria reached a crescendo when about 2,000 fans flooded the football field at Big Bear Middle School for a pep rally honoring the 25-year-old before he leaves for Beijing on Thursday morning. They wore T-shirts with Hall's face across the front and waved homemade signs and American flags, a heartfelt show of support for a guy who some of them saw develop from a precocious teen to a medal contender.

"Just to watch him go from winning races in high school to going to the Olympics, it gives me goose bumps," said Big Bear resident Patty Hefen, who wore a red "Run Ryan Run" cap to the rally with an American flag tucked into the back. "It was his life's dream growing up, and we saw the start here in Big Bear."
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Stan Lim / The Press-Enterprise
Ryan Hall runs a couple of laps during Monday's rally in his honor at Big Bear Middle School. About 2,000 people showed up to send off the 25-year-old marathoner.

Running in the Olympics has been Hall's goal since he was old enough to draw interlocking rings on all his elementary school notebooks, but he never expected the marathon to be his calling. Hall excelled running far shorter distances as a youth, winning a state championship in the mile as a high school senior and a national title in the 5,000 meters as a senior at Stanford.

Injuries and inconsistency hampered Hall's middle-distance career, but the setbacks also provided incentive for him to dabble with longer races. When he won a half-marathon in Houston in January 2007 and made the fastest marathon debut by an American four months later in London, he had an inkling he'd found his niche.

"He could always go out and run 10-mile tempos at a sub-five-minute pace, so we knew he had that capability," said Mickey Hall, Ryan's father and former cross country coach at Big Bear High. "Once he ran so well in London, I think he realized, 'I might be pretty good at this.' "

Hall soon proved he was no one-hit wonder, taming a hilly course to win the U. S. Olympic marathon trials in New York by more than two minutes. In a sport dominated by Kenyans and Ethiopians, many are anointing the slender, blond-haired Hall as the first American of his generation capable of loosening that stranglehold.

"When you figure he's only run three marathons, it's very exciting to think about the possibilities," said former marathoner Dick Beardsley, still the third-fastest American in the sport. "He's put American distance runners back on the scene again. When we have some Americans who start to run well, it gives a whole country of distance runners the confidence to compete with the rest of the world."

Hall's sudden emergence hasn't generated the pre-Olympic buzz of a Michael Phelps, but his star has risen quickly in running circles.

When he accepted a sponsor's invitation to come to the Boston marathon in April 2007, the only person who approached his tent asked him where the nearest restroom was. A year later, the line of people waiting to meet him stretched around the block.

Nowhere is Hall more popular than his hometown, where numerous businesses have hung "Run Ryan Run" signs from their windows. His quest for an Olympic medal has even inspired city officials to host a marathon for the first time in September and to promote a health and wellness campaign on behalf of Hall.

The "Move a Million Miles for Ryan Hall" initiative promotes an active lifestyle by asking Big Bear residents to walk or run a combined 1 million miles in advance of the men's Olympic marathon on Aug. 23. Participants have exceeded the goal already, logging 1,203,556 miles since December.

Many of the kids who took part in the campaign ran a lap around the middle school track as part of Monday's rally. Afterward a teary-eyed Hall took the podium to thank the residents of his hometown for the enthusiastic sendoff.

"When you're out there running for over two hours and you're pushing your body to the limit, oftentimes you try to think of inspirational things," he said. "One of the things that will flash through my mind in Beijing will be the support I received today at this sendoff."

Reach Jeff Eisenberg at 951-368-9357 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it