Stanford's Ryan Hall dropped out of the Olympic marathon Sunday with a hamstring injury dashing his hopes at a medal.
Hall dropped out around mile 11 Sunday morning.
Hall said he knew he was hurt when the race started, but said he tried to continue until his hamstring muscle got progressively tighter.
He talked about the painful decision to walk away from the race with NBC Sports.
Just had some hamstring tightness going into the race and it was something that was getting progressively worse as I was going, and I start to feel my stride start to alter. From the beginning, it didn't feel fluid ... I was trying to work through it the best I could, but it got to a point to where it wasn't going to let me continue. It was the first I've ever DNF'd in my life, so, ya know, it's a real bummer. I'm kinda in shock right now. It hasn't really hit me, what just happened. One of those things where it's going to take some time to get through. You gotta have big perspective, I guess, and know what your body can handle and what it can't and today it just ... wasn't ... wasn't in the cards.
(DNF stands for "did not finish.:)
The gold medal went to Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda, who finished in 2:08:01.
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Abel Kirui of Kenya won the silver in 2:08:27.
Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich of Kenya took bronze in 2:09:37.
