Hansons/Brooks Distance Project - Ryan Sheehan
1/12/2007

Ryan has been with the Hanson's for quite some time now. In that time he has quickly established himself as one of their top shorter distance runners and has been on a world ekiden team that was very competitive. Ryan hails from the same college as Brian Sell, St. Francis University, and has the same hometown as the Super Bowl Champ Pittsburg Steelers. Read on to find out more about Ryan and his running. 

RM:   How was the Chiba Ekiden? Obviously you ran a great last leg to help Team USA finish 3rd, but what were your thoughts on the race, competitors, the nightlife, the culture and the atmosphere of the fans there?

RS: The Chiba race was a great experience for me, it was my first time on the
team and my first time to Japan. My leg specifically went pretty well, it
was pretty hilly and ran into a pretty stiff head wind. I was by myself the
whole time except for all the Japanese spectators lining the course. They
were 4 deep the whole 7.2 k stretch and all of them were cheering and
yelling for me. But the race itself was pretty much decided by the time I
got the sash so I just had to not really mess up for us to finish third and
second was way ahead. The competitors were tough, we had Jon Brown who
finished 4th in the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Marathon. The second fastest
marathoner of all time that came along with a great lineup for the Kenyan
team. And the Japanese team was solid as they normally are. We didn't really
see too much of the night life in Chiba except for the last night there
which was fun hanging around the rest of the teams from the race. But the
city of Chiba itself was really nice, especially being right along Tokyo
Bay.

RM: How is your current training going and what are your upcoming racing plans?

RS: My current training has been going well. All of the guys team is
gearing up for the US Half Marathon Championships in Houston on January
14th. This will be my longest race yet, the only one close was the US 20k
championships but my training so far for this has gone much better. It
hasn't gotten too cold yet so we have still been able to get some quality
training time in. After the Half Marathon I will be getting ready for the
USATF XC champs in Boulder.

RM: Everyone knows that the Hanson/Brooks Distance Project is a marathon powerhouse. The question is - when will you take on the marathon and why?

RS: Before I joined the team, I made sure that it was not just going to be
about marathoning for me right when I joined. I feel like I have to work on
some other areas of my running before I will be able to train properly to
tackle that distance. I feel like I still need to improve my strength and
that's something that can be done but it just takes time. So I do plan on
taking on the marathon just not at this time.

RM: How did you become a runner and what do you want to accomplish in running before you are done competing?

RS: I did a couple races with my uncle when I was younger, I think I was 2nd
in my 11-12 age group at the Pittsburgh Great Race 5k when I was 12 the one
year. From there it basically really started in 7th grade running in middle
school till now. Before I'm done competing I just want to make sure that I
improved as much as I possibly could and had fun doing it along the way.

Thanks for the great interview Ryan! (Interview conducted by Nick Cordes)

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