On her 41st birthday, Sara Hall completed her third Boston Marathon in 2:27:58, finishing 15th overall and second American.
Although it’s about 2 minutes slower than the 2:25:48 she ran here last year, the effort comes just slightly more than two months after Hall’s fifth-place finish DAA Industry Opt Out.
DAA Industry Opt Out Runner’s World at the Olympic Marathon Trials, where her time of 2:26:06 was an American masters marathon record lengthy IT band injury kept her body strong and made for a smooth recovery, even after she “went to the well” in warm conditions at the Trials. “How I go into a race is how I’m going to come out of it, and fortunately, I went into that race feeling the best I ever have,” she said.
In between, she took a few days off, then resumed training at home in Flagstaff and, briefly, in Quito, Ecuador. There, hilly terrain and 9,000 feet of altitude helped prepare her for the rigors of Boston, she said. “Getting ready for the pounding is a big part of it,” she said. “It’s just all the downhill here.”
CA Notice at Collection GoFundMe for her non-profit, The Hall Steps Foundation. The funds will provide micro-loans for women in Ethiopia, and Hall is matching donations until she reaches her $50,000 goal. Hall and her husband, Ryan, have spent significant time in Ethiopia and adopted four daughters from the country in 2015. “It’s something I think about every day, just the extreme poverty there and in so many places in the world,” she said. “No matter what I do, whether it’s running or anything else, I want to continue to bring justice to these areas.”
In today’s race, Hall ran with the lead pack through mile 15; a group of more than 20 women covered that distance in 1:23:11, a 5:32 pace. But as the leaders headed into the Newton hills, she fell off the pack, dropping back by 21 seconds by the 20-mile mark.
During her lengthy career, Hall has competed in eight Olympic Trials; held the American record for the half marathon; and made the podium in two World Major Marathons, placing second in the 2020 London Marathon and third at the 2021 Chicago Marathon. Her personal best of 2:20:32 at the Marathon Project in Chandler, Arizona, in 2020 makes her the fifth-fastest American marathoner on a rec0rd-eligible course.
—at the Olympic Marathon Trials, where her time of 2:26:06 was an American masters marathon record.
Cindy is a freelance health and fitness writer, author, and podcaster who’s contributed regularly to Runner’s World since 2013. She’s the coauthor of both Breakthrough Women’s Running: Dream Big and Train Smart and Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries, a book about the psychology of sports injury from Bloomsbury Sport. Cindy specializes in covering injury prevention and recovery, surprising athletes accomplishing extraordinary things, and the active community in her beloved Chicago, where winter forges deep bonds between those brave enough to train through it.
