Sara Hall is enjoying running more than ever before. Now in her 14th year competing professionally in the sport, Hall has experienced her share of highs and lows, many of which occurred over the past year. Now finally recovered from one of the most challenging injuries of her career, she is in the best cardiovascular shape of her life heading into her first-ever Boston Marathon on April 15, which is also her 36th birthday.
Long before she began topping podiums on the track and roads as a pro, Hall was a long-distance natural. She excelled early as a four-time California state champion in high school cross country, then became an All-American runner at Stanford University, which is where she met her future husband and coach, two-time Olympic marathoner Ryan Hall. (In 2011, Ryan also became the fastest American to run Boston, finishing 4th in 2:04:58.)
The two now reside in Flagstaff, Arizona, where they balance running, family, and their own Steps Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to fight global poverty through better health. While she has devoted much of her time to running in the last decade and a half, service remains a huge priority for Hall, who once pictured her life on a different path—one that involved development work in Africa.
“It’s such an interesting point in my career right now. I never expected to still be [running professionally]. I thought I would do it for maybe a year or two,” Hall told Runner’s World. “My dream was always to do development work in Africa, live in a mud hut and just be doing that for the rest of my life.
“It’s crazy, I never thought I’d be here. But I’m enjoying it more than I ever have,” she said.
High Risk, High Reward
The runner is coming back to racing after having one of the best, yet most challenging, seasons of her career in 2018. It was a year that saw impressive personal bests in the full and half marathon distances. But it was also interrupted with injuries. Rather than dwelling on those lows, though, Hall said that they were just par for the course.
“Ryan and I are both high risk, high reward people,” Hall said. “I wanted to find my line as a runner. I took a lot of risks in training. That’s kind of my personality.”
Hall was actually supposed to make her Boston debut last year, but had to withdraw 10 days prior because of a sacroiliac joint injury caused by a fall during her build-up. While heartbroken that she couldn’t race, Hall stayed optimistic, focusing on maintaining her cardiovascular fitness by cross-training throughout March.
On May 7, she made her comeback at the USATF Half Marathon Championships in Pittsburgh, where she finished runner-up in 1:10:07. The confidence boost from the half was exactly what she needed before launching into spring marathon training. With just eight weeks of running in her legs since the injury healed, Hall unleashed a personal best of 2:26:20—shaving more than a minute off her previous best—for 3rd place at the Ottawa Marathon on May 27.
While the race marked a breakthrough in time, Hall knew there was even more room to improve. She went out in 1:11:50 for the first half in Ottawa—the fastest she’s ever attacked the early miles of a marathon—and had an inkling that she’d go even faster if she ran fearlessly more often.
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Hall’s momentum continued through July 1, when she broke the tape at Australia’s Gold Coast Airport Half Marathon, winning in a personal best time of 1:09:27 (the 9th fastest time run on a record-eligible course by an American female). With several more standout performances in late summer—including a victory at the USATF 20K Championships in September—Hall was poised for another breakthrough at the Frankfurt Marathon last October.
Unfortunately, her legs weren’t scratch-free on race day in Germany; she had a nagging injury in her peroneal tendon. Still, Hall felt confident it wouldn’t affect her performance. But once the race began, the pain was too great to ignore, and Hall was forced to drop out.
She couldn’t help but wonder how fast she could have run without the injury. But that unsatisfied feeling is part of what drives her.
“The marathon just keeps drawing you back. You know there’s more there and you want to see what your potential is,” she said. “Even if you’re healthy and had a great build-up going in, it’s still so hard to nail every part of that race. There’s always something that you feel like you could do better next time. You want to keep perfecting your craft.”
Finding Her ‘Why’
While Hall navigated these experiences, she didn’t shy away from sharing her story—the good, the bad, and everything in-between—on her blog and on social media.
“However I interact, I want to do it in a way where I can help other people and share my experiences,” Hall said. In her posts, she urges runners to find their “why,” or their purpose behind pushing themselves to be great.
In 2015, Hall’s ‘whys’—why she ran, why she persevered through setbacks—took on a whole new meaning. That year, the Halls adopted four orphan girls from Ethiopia: Hana, Mia, Jasmine, and Lily.
Currently, Hana is learning what it takes to excel in running at the high school level. Before she arrived in the United States, Hana could barely run two laps around the track. Now a junior at Flagstaff High School, she has blossomed into an Arizona state champion in cross country. Inspired by Ethiopian track stars Genzebe and Tirunesh Dibaba as well as her talented parents, Hana hopes to drop her mile time to 4:50 this year. Watching her mom crush long workouts at paces ranging from 5:15 to 5:20 miles is certainly motivating.
“It’s really a miracle that that’s how your body can go if you push forward. That takes a lot of work to get there though,” Hana said.
Listening to Hana talk about about her own love for running, it’s apparent that her drive mirrors that of her mom. While both are currently striving for the top at different levels, the same hard-working mindset has carried over to the younger generation.
“[Our children] see the hard work that it takes to try and be the best at something that is not easy,” Hall said. “I hope for them to see that when you find something that you’re really passionate about, it's not actually work. It’s fun.”
Reaping the Rewards
Since mid-December, Hall has been navigating a marathon build-up with a few post-injury interruptions but now feels healthy in her preparation for Boston, which is a race that she considers her reward for an entire year of training. While the build-up hasn’t been perfect, Hall says that the injury has provided her with an opportunity to target and strengthen weaknesses in her body, such as her quads, through specific cross-training. The combination of cross-training and running over the past six months has resulted in Hall being strong in new, exciting ways.
“I feel like I’m in the best [cardiovascular] shape I’ve ever been in my life,” Hall said.
The 2019 Boston Marathon will be her first opportunity to get to know a course that she hopes to win one day. It will also be the first time in a long time that she’ll finally be able to show her fitness and find what she is capable of over 26.2.
“I’m really looking forward to being in a race where it’s just about competing,” Hall said. “I want to get the most out of myself.”
Taylor Dutch is a sports and fitness writer living in Chicago; a former NCAA track athlete, Taylor specializes in health, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in SELF, Runner’s World, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner. When she’s not writing, Taylor volunteers as a coach to up-and-coming runners in the Chicago area.
