California's Ryan Hall is headed to the Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he's among the favorites to win a gold medal in the marathon. Running aficionados say he could be the first American to win the event in 26 years—since Frank Shorter did so in 1972.

That's a long time between gold medals. It's also been a long and winding road for Hall, who almost called it quits five years ago. But his faith, his family, and his girlfriend—now his wife—helped him through that difficult time, encouraging him to keep running the race and pressing on, as the apostle Paul would say.

But before Hall could run the race, he would have to beat an even tougher opponent: depression.

Deeply distraught
It was the winter of 2003, Ryan's sophomore year at Stanford University. He was so depressed, he could hardly get out of bed, much less go for a run.

It didn't make any sense. The guy was born to run and loved every minute of pounding the pavement. Nothing brought him more joy. He was a high-school All-American miler, and great things were expected of him as a scholarship runner at Stanford.

But great things were not happening. He didn't win a single race as a freshman, and though the Cardinal won the NCAA cross-country title his sophomore year, Hall finished seventh on his own team and failed to score a point.

Not only was he losing races, he was starting to lose his way.

"Nothing was wrong with me physically," Hall says now. "But my spirit was deeply distraught. I was questioning whether God even wanted me at Stanford." He also questioned whether God wanted him to keep running.

"It was a big identity crisis," he told The San Diego Union-Tribune. "Am I Ryan Hall the runner? Or just Ryan Hall?"

To find the answers, Hall took the winter quarter off from Stanford and returned to his family's home in Big Bear Lake, California.

'Running was my God'
That time away from school—and from the grind of training and competition—helped Hall to refocus. With the aid of his family and girlfriend Sara Bei, a track teammate at Stanford, Hall came to realize that he had been putting his feet before his faith, rather than simply putting feet to his faith.

"Running had become my God," Hall says in an autobiographical video at GodTube.com. "Even though I knew Jesus, I wasn't looking to him to find the satisfaction that I was so desperately seeking. My sense of worth and joy was totally dependent on how well I was running. The result was frustration, worry, depression, and discontentment with life."

Over the following weeks and months, Hall again found joy in running as he began to understand that "it isn't the records, championships, or medals that make life fulfilling. It's a life of following Christ. When I'm following Christ closely, there's a contentment and satisfaction in my life that is far greater and more enduring than any good race I've ever run."

Hall has run plenty of very good races since that dark night of the soul. So good, in fact, that at the age of 25, he's already the fastest American-born marathoner in history.

He's not going to the Olympics alone. Sara—whom Ryan married in 2005—is also Beijing-bound, at least as a spouse, and possibly as a fellow athlete. Sara hoped to qualify in the 1500 meters, but the trials were held after we went to press. (Find out if she made the team at usatf.org.)

Raising money—and awareness
Along with running, Ryan and Sara share a desire to serve God. "Our long-term vision is to figure out how to use running in such a way that we can affect other people's lives and inspire other kids," says Ryan.

One way they do that is as members of Team World Vision, helping to raise awareness and money to support children and families in Africa's aids-impacted communities (worldvision.org/team).

Sara is donating all her running income this year to TeamWV. "This is where God has us, and it's been exciting to see how he's using that."

A human biology major, Sara says she'd like to teach in a third-world nation some day as a missionary.

But for now, she and Ryan are focused on Beijing and the Olympics, something Ryan has dreamed about since he took his first long run at the age of 14.

Little kid, big ambitions
Eighth grade. Basketball season. Ryan, at 4-foot-11 and 89 pounds, wasn't seeing much playing time. On the way to a game with his father, riding past Big Bear Lake, Ryan took in the view and experienced what he says was a vision: Run around the lake.

But the loop was 15 miles long, and the elevation almost 7,000 feet—hardly ideal conditions for a kid to take his first long run.

Ryan's dad, Mickey, an experienced marathoner, often ran that loop, but didn't think his son was ready for it. But Ryan—"the most stubborn and strong-willed of our kids," Mickey told Runner's World—persisted.

Dad relented, but with two rules: No whining. And no crying.

Wearing basketball shoes and a basketball shirt, Ryan accompanied his dad on the run—and made it, taking just one drink break after 13 miles. "He just wouldn't let go of the idea that he could do it," Mickey told Runner's World. "He wouldn't back off. I think it's what makes him so good."

Olympic dreams
Ryan went on to become a star runner in high school, and by his junior year, he had his sights set on the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.

But he never made it. The 2004 Olympic Trials came at that time when Ryan was still working through his identity crisis, still figuring out how to put his faith first. And, he says, he was "out of shape and frustrated with life."

He also was running the wrong race. In high school, Ryan was one of the best milers in the nation. It wasn't until after college that he realized he was made to run much longer distances.

"I know exactly why it took me so long [to succeed at Stanford]," he told the Union-Tribune. "I was so prideful about being a miler, so wrapped up, so stupid." But when he won the American half-marathon in record time in early 2007, he realized that "maybe this [longer distances] is something I should look into."

He's never looked back. At last November's U. S. Olympic Trials for the marathon in New York, Hall completed the 26.2-mile course in a Trials record 2:09:02, more than two minutes ahead of the second-place runner. Hall crossed the finish line whooping and grinning, his index fingers pointed toward heaven.

Made to do this
Ryan keeps his priorities in mind in his final preparations for the Olympics. As the Games draw nearer, he can't help but think back to that time five years ago, when he was depressed and ready to hang up his running shoes.

"I really believe God gave me the vision to run at a young age," he says. "That vision kept me going through the hard times. I wanted to see what the Lord was up to. To be at a point where I couldn't even go for a run, and then to be able to run effortlessly through the Olympic Trials—it's a testimony to God and what he's able to do."

Sara says that running "is doing what God has created us to do, and using the abilities he has blessed us with. When you're out there running you feel like, Wow, you've made me to do this."

Even so, Ryan admits he struggles with the fine line between confidence and pride.

"A cocky heart is not one that is prepared to pour everything out," he says. "There is an element of humility in my running because I know there are lots of people working every bit as hard as I am and not running as fast. It's humbling because I feel like I don't necessarily deserve to do as well as I do sometimes."

In that humility, the Halls want others to "join" them as they run—all the way to Beijing. They want a spiritual support team.

"I've done my part," Ryan continues, "but I really believe in the power of all the people that have been praying for me for all these years. Not only can people watch me in the Olympics, but they can actually partake in it themselves. Whatever happens, they can take a little bit of the credit as they join me in praying that God would be lifted high."

Mark Moring is interim editor for Today's Christian. Additional reporting by Jennifer Schuchmann.

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