Ryan Hall, the fastest of the US distance runners headed to the Olympics, doesn’t have a trainer. At least, not in the traditional sense. When Hall was asked who his coach was on a form last year, he wrote “God” into the blank, and apparently meant it. He calls the system “faith-based coaching,” in which he spends his runs praying and will often ask God to tell him how far he’s supposed to run in a day. “I’m still figuring this thing out for myself,” he told CNN, although it’s clearly working very well for him, given he’s the nation’s top ranked distance runner. He’s met a fair amount of detractors, but it doesn’t seem to faze him. “I love the skeptic and God loves the skeptics,” he said. “It’s OK for people to disagree” …
