Stunning Times From Hall, Derrick

What a weekend, with two stunning results to buzz about for a long time.

In the Flora London Marathon, Ryan Hall finished 5th with a time of 2:06:17 in what would seem to be the fastest marathon in history. Never before have three men run under 2:06 in the same race. Never before have six men run under 2:07 in the same race. A pack of NINE runners went through the half marathon in 1:02:14, well under world record pace. When the pace slowed down at 25K with a "slow" 4:55 mile, Hall apparently asked the pacemakers to speed up and keep the pace honest. The mind reels.

Former world-record holder Khalid Khannouchi still owns the American Record at 2:05:38, but Hall has closed the gap, and by my count is now the 16th fastest marathoner of all time.

Meanwhile, Illinois H.S. senior Chris Derrick ran an out-of-this-world race at the Arcadia Invitational in California on Saturday. Footlocker runner-up Derrick won the inaugural 5000m at Arcadia in 13:55.96, the sixth fastest ever by a U.S. high schooler and the fastest ever in an all high-school race. The time is spectacular, but what makes it even more impressive is that Derrick led for all but one of the 12 and half laps, had to run wide to lap runners in the final laps, and closed with a final 800 of 2:05 and final 400 just over 60 seconds.

Here's the video from DyeStat.

With Footlocker Champ Luke Puskedra running an 8:46.60 in the 3200, one wonders whether the two will be in the same race at NON.