Ryan Hall and Kara Goucher are both kind of my running heroes. I can't remember ever being more excited to watch a Boston Marathon than this past year when both were true contenders to win. (Although sadly neither did.)

I was tickled pink when Kara won the Chicago Half Marathon a few weeks back. And not just won in the women's division, like won the entire race.

And it was super cool to see Ryan accept his award for winning the Philly Distance Run in September.

I think it's great that U.S. distance running has these two sort of iconic people championing the sport. And that's not to detract from any of the previous running greats. I'm just really keen on Ryan and Kara.

So anyway, I was super excited to get my November Runner's World in the mail yesterday and find that not only is Ryan Hall on the cover, but they've got a sweet story about him and his hope of winning the NYC Marathon next month. (I don't think RW has the link up on their Web site yet, sorry guys!)

I love the way the guy comes across in every interview I've ever read with him. He's humble, not your typical hot-shot athlete, and he respects the 26.2 distance. He wants to do big things and he's confident that his day will come. I think my favorite part of the story though was when he said if he never won a major race he'd be okay with it, because there's more to running than winning races.

As a middle of the pack runner, I can completely relate to that.