- Ryan Hall never hadan interest in running,

but one day he felt led

to go around California's Big Bear Lake,

which is 15 miles around, atan altitude of 7,000 feet.

That Saturday Ryan lacedup his shoes for a long

and painful run, and it wasa run that changed his life.

- [Narrator] Ryan Hall is the fastest

American distance runner anda renowned Olympic athlete.

When he retired in 2016,Ryan sensed he could do more

with his talents.

Since then, Ryan and hiswife Sara have helped those

in extreme poverty all over the world.

In his book "Run the MileYou're In" Ryan reflects

on his faith and the highsand lows of his career

and shares the powerful way he discovered

to love others around him.

- Well, Ryan Hall is here with us now,

and we welcome you to the show.

It's great to have you here.

- Oh, thanks for having me.

- I want you to talk a little bit

about how God began this journey for you,

because your dad was an athlete

and I think most young boyswould think they're just gonna

follow in their father's footsteps.

Running wasn't his key endeavor.

But one day God just spoketo your heart out of the blue

to wanna run around a largelake at high altitude.

Did you have any idea (laughing)

what that was gonna be like?- (laughs) No,

but I knew it involved a lot of pain,

for sure.(Terry laughs)

But, yeah, that was actuallykind of the first time

in my life I feel like I encountered God.

I felt like he was plantingthe seed deep down inside me

to do something I formally hated to do.

And I think a lot ofpeople can relate to that.

It's like you hate to do something

and then all of a sudden Godjust totally 180's that on you

and plants this little seed of passion.

And when you act onthat, then it just grows

into this tree that wouldhave never been there

if you didn't take that initial action.

So that's what happenedon that first 15-mile run

with my dad.

And yeah, it was not a supernatural run.

I didn't (chuckling) justfloat around the lake.

It was long and painful, lots of walking

and blisters.- First of all,

you wore your basketball shoes.

- Yeah, that was a bad idea.(laughs) That probably wasn't.

- I'm surprised my dad- Wasn't the

greatest idea (laughs).- didn't catch that,

you know (laughs)?- Maybe he did.

- Maybe he did.- Maybe he did.

- That's true,(Terry laughing)

I was a teenager (laughs).(Terry laughing)

- So you've run so manyraces, marathons, since then,

competing in so many things.

How do you prepare?

Because when you get tothe point of competition,

every run is hard.

So how do you prepare yourself for that?

- (sighs heavily) Consistencyis the key to running well.

People often ask melike, "How can you run?"

My best marathon time worksout to be about 4:45 per mile

for 26 miles in a row.

And if I think about it,it kinda blows my mind

that I was able to do that.

And not to be boasting about myself here,

but it's just the power of consistency.

I couldn't run one mile in 4:45when I first started running

but it's just putting myselfout there day after day.

And then following thispattern that I think is true

in the running realm, I think it's true

in the spiritual realm as well,

where you stretch yourself one day,

and the next day you let yourselfadapt to that stretching.

We work out our muscles.

We do weightlifting tomake our bodies respond

to that stress.

And when we allow ourselfto come up for air and rest,

so we follow this hard-day, easy-day,

hard-day, easy-day plan, andyou just keep following that.

And you kind of gradual results

as your body changes and adapts.

- So here you are, you runaround this Big Bear Lake.

You run the 15, I mean, you are shot

when that is over (laughs).(Ryan laughs)

At what point does Godsay to you, "You know,

"you got a future here" (laughing)?

- (laughs) It's actuallyright after that run.

And this was probably the second time

that I felt like God reallyspoke to me in my life.

And I always tell people like,"If you really wanna hear

"from God on something,

"my advice is go exhaustyourself physically

"as much as you can."

It's always way easier forme to hear God's voice.

- The barriers kinda fall down.

- Yeah, all your distractions,your cluttered mind,

all that is just so tiredthat it's not there anymore

and you can just tap into God.

And I felt like in thatmoment God was telling me

that he'd given me a giftto run with the best guys

in the world, and so Iknew what that looked like:

competing in the Olympic games,running with the best guys

in the world.

And then the second part of that, though,

and the most important part, and a part

that took me much longerto figure out how to do,

was he said, "I gave you that gift

"so you can help and love other people."

And so fast forward to 2011,

Sara and I starting ourfoundation and getting involved

in the work that we're involved in.

And even with our girls,

we've seen how you can touchpeople's lives through sport

and through running.

- [Terry] Talk about yourfoundation and what you do.

- Yeah, so we're reallypassionate (chuckles)

about just empowering localpeople who are impoverished,

'cause I really believethat this is something

that can end in our lifetime.

I believe that all of ustogether have the resources

to bring an end

to global poverty.- Amen.

- I really do believe that.

But what it's gonna takeis, the same in running,

I talked about consistency.

It's putting one stepin front of the other

over and over and over againover a long period of time.

And in this issue with global poverty,

I believe it's all of us takingone step, doing something.

- So--- So not being daunted

by the size of the task,because when you talk

about global poverty, that's a huge need.

But it has to begin somewhere.

If we just sit and talk about it,

just look at the picturesof people who are in need,

just feel sorry forpeople, nothing happens.

When you and Sara decidedthat you were ready

to start a family, mostpeople, when they adopt,

most want to go for a younger child.

It just seems easier andyou can implant your values

and everything in the child more easily.

But you guys took a big step (laughs).

- (laughs) We did.

And that was our plan originally.

We just wanted to adopt an infant,

but we were number 76 on a wait list.

We wanted to adopt

from Ethiopia.- They move slowly (laughs).

- Yeah, the wait list that,

we would have actuallynever have gotten our child,

because they closed international adoption

shortly after we brought our kids home.

So here we are, number 76 on a wait list.

We go to this orphanage, and we're playing

with all these older kids thatare just waiting for families

to step up and take 'em in.

And after interacting with the kids,

I was like, "I'd take anyone of these kids home

"in a second."

So totally just changed our hearts.

So we went home.

We changed all of ourpaperwork, changed our agency,

forfeited a bunch of fees

that (chuckling) we had already paid,

and kinda started from scratch

- Wow!- with the intention

of adopting a older childwho's waiting for a family.

And that's when we becameaware of our four girls

who are all biological sisters.

They'd been looking for afamily for about three years,

a little over three years.

And they're talkingabout splitting them up

'cause they couldn't finda family to take all four,

and that just broke myheart, 'cause I come

from a family of five kids.

And it's like I can't imaginebeing split from my siblings,

especially at their ages.

They were five, eight, 12, and 15

at the time we adopted 'em.

So could you imagine beingsplit from your siblings

at that age?

So that's when I kindafelt like God's love

kinda filled my heart for the girls.

And it's a growing love that'sstill growing to this day.

But I've learned through my running career

to follow love rather than fear.

And that's kind of mysignature of my career,

is I wasn't afraid to go risk it all

'cause I was following loveGod had put in my heart

to run fast and to go tothe front and to push.

And I just love putting myself out there

and taking risk because,really, at the end of the day

you can't fail if you have God.

If you have God, you have everything.

- And often God asks usto do the hard things

so that we get the picturethat we aren't doing that

because we've got ittogether or we're so spiffy.

(chuckles) It's because he is who he is.

- Absolutely.- I mean, John 10,

apart from me you can do nothing.

But with me, all things,it's such an amazing story.

"Run the Mile You're In"is the name of the book.

What an adventure you have been on.

What an adventure you are on.

Your adoption was not just anadoption, that was a rescue.

And I know your family'sthriving and doing well together.

I want you all to enjoy the book.

It's called "Run the Mile You're In."

I think you'd really find it fascinating,

so get ahold of it.

It's available wherever books are sold.

Great to meet you, Ryan, andwonderful to have you here.

- Thank you for having me.