Ryan Hall is the fastest American distance runner competing in the London Olympics and he says he owes it all to his omnipresent coach who has been there with him every step of the way.

“I’ll just be straight forward, my coach is God,” the 29-year-old Hall told CNN.

Last year, after finishing second in the 2011 United States half-marathon Championship, Hall was told to do a routine drug test. The form with the test had a space to fill in the name of the runner’s coach.

“I saw the line, it said coach, it was blank, and I said, ‘Well you know I have to be honest,’ ” Hall said, “So I put ‘God’ down and it turned into a big controversial thing.”

“Now whenever I see that line I just leave it blank. I’ll just let it slide by,” he added.

Hall calls his method of training “faith-based coaching.” In London, he’ll be putting his training to the test in the men’s marathon.

Instead of running with a trainer, he runs alone. While he runs, he prays. On some days Hall says he will ask God, “How far do you want me to run today?”

“I’m still figuring this thing out myself,” Hall told CNN’s Kyra Phillips.

Hall counts himself a Christian and attends Bethel Church in Redding, California, a non-denominational evangelical church with roots in the Assemblies of God denomination.

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