Dathan Ritzenhein Getting Ready to Take on the World
February 10, 2006
LetsRun.com

The US Cross Country Championships are next weekend at famed Van Cortlandt Park in New York City, and Dathan Ritzenhein will be on hand to defend his 12km title. Although Ritzenhein, who spoke to the media via teleconference on Thursday, is not looking past the US Championship, it was clear his focus is further down the line to the World Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka, Japan where Ritz wants to make amends for his 'disappointing' performance in 2005.

Ritzenhein entered the 2005 Worlds with much fanfare. He was a close 3rd in the Bo Classic in Italy on New Year's eve, then he picked up an international xc win in Belfast, Ireland. A Sports Illustrated profile then followed, and Ritz, who had received a bronze medal as a junior at the 2001 Worlds, entered the senior worlds with as much fanfare as a male US athlete in the last decade, perhaps two decades. His race in St. Etienne, France, at Worlds was a disaster.

Ritzenhein started out with the leaders and faded throughout the race, ultimately finishing 62nd, as the third American. But for a former medallist at the junior level, who had finished 24th at World seniors as a freshman in college, the race was a bitter pill to swallow. Ritzenhein said it was the first race in his life where he had run poorly when he was not injured. "That was pretty devastating. There were a lot of things that went wrong in that race. I went into with a lot of hype and there was a lot of buzz as to how I was going to do. It was disappointing. It was the first time when I really had a bad race when I shouldn't have...(his other bad races were at the 2004 Olympic Trials and Olympics where he ran poorly due to injury). I learned some things from that race that I'm going to take to heart this year," he said.

Last year's setback at Worlds, has not limited Ritzenhein's goals for Worlds this year, as he still believes he is one of the best cross country runners in the world. Ritz said, "I really have something to prove this year to myself as my performance in France (last year) was not indicative of my ability. So I'll take those lessons and hopefully on April 1st or 2nd (at Worlds)... I can prove that I'm one of the best cross country runners in the world."

And while much of the talk explaining Ritz's poor performance at World's last year centered on the blisters Ritzenhein developed, Ritz suggested on Thursday that mainly the suicidal opening pace he tried to follow, along with the heat, not the blisters, was his biggest problem at Worlds. "Last year I had it in my head I was going to go out with (World Champion Kenenisa) Bekele and I did... (Ritz said he went though the km in 2:35). It was kind of suicide. I was feeling it by 2, 3k already. And that is something that would not have been so bad for me if it wasn't for the conditions it was in (the 85 degree heat he said)... but when you're not ready for that (the heat).... it's a recipe for disaster. Between that and I had some problems with my feet in the race, I'll take those lessons and go into this race and hopefully improve drastically on last year's performance."

Ritz indicated he will be a bit more cautious at World's this year, not trying to stay right on the leaders early on in the race, but not as cautious as he was in 2001. "When I was 24th as a freshman in college, I ran pretty conservatively, and I would (this year) try and mix the two races (2001 and 2005)... I'll try and keep the first pack of people close enough so that I'm not in no man's land."

Heading into nationals this year, Ritzenhein, says he is at a higher fitness level than last year. "I'm definitely at a better fitness level (than last year)...Aerobically I'm much stronger than I was. I had a very large chunk of training last year that was completely uninterrupted."

Ritzenhein, under the tutelage of coach Brad Hudson, says he has changed a few things in his training this year to focus more on his endurance. While running cycles between 95 and 100 miles a week, he says, "I've been doing a little different training. I've been doing a lot more threshold stuff, whereas last year I was starting to get into some hill running, some shorter stuff on the track, not really speed work, but something to get used to 5k, 10k pace. This year I've been really just doing all threshold stuff. I've been doing 8 to 10 miles of work in my workouts. I think I'm really strong, I'll be really strong in the middle of the race."

Ritzenhein seemed to be more focused on his own preparations for USAs and Worlds, than worrying about his challengers at US Nationals. Nonetheless, he mentioned Abdi Abdirahman, who has been 11th at World Cross Country before, Jorge Torres (one of just 3 Americans (Torres, Ritzenhein, and Adam Goucher all of the University of Colorado) to win NCAA XCs since Bob Kennedy), and miler Alan Webb, as people he expected to do well at Nationals.

As for Webb, the media darling among distance runners since his amazing 3:53 mile in high school, Ritzenhein was glad to have him in the race due to the added attention (and competition) Webb will bring. He said, "I don't think its important for me he's in the race. It's important for running.. Alan is a great runner. If I ever underestimate him in a race it would be a big mistake, but I'm not going to overestimate him either. I'm going to go in thinking about how strong I am, not how strong he is or how weak he is. I think he'll do great and I hope he runs the World Cross if he makes the team, but at the same time I won't base my race off of him. I'll be careful to watch everyone else in the race as well.... I think Alan will do really well. 2 years ago people forget he was 4th in the 12k (at Nationals). People think of him as a good miler, but I think he can hold on in the longer distances better than they think."

No matter who challenges Ritzenhein at nationals, Ritzenhein's main priority is that they all run the World Championships so the United States has a strong team (the US men's team got a bronze medal at worlds in 2001). In most recent years, quite a few athletes have run USAs and skipped the Worlds. The New York Road Runners Club, the host of this year's Nationals, has restructured the prize money this year, so the bulk of the prize money is in the form of a bonus to athletes who actually run the World Champs). Ritzenhein said of the US chances in Japan, "We might be able to send a really solid team to Japan...I'm really going to try and persuade anybody who makes the team, assuming, I make the team, to do the race because I really think its important. It's not something that should be taken lightly. If you are going to come to the US Championships, I feel that you should come with the intent of running in the World Championships if you make it."

And for Ritz, Worlds definitely is the focus. He has shown a tremendous ability to run cross country in his brief career and knows he has a knack for its intricacies. As he said, his past successes have "helped my confidence a lot because that I think I know how to run cross country in a way that is really smart. It (cross country) is a little bit of an art form, it's a little different". But the one blemish on his artist's palette is the worlds last year, which Ritz is well aware of. "I'm very consistent with the exception of World Cross." Assuming all goes well next weekend in New York, Ritzenhein will get an attempt to rectify that in April in Japan.

More News and Tidbits from the Teleconference:
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Ritzenhein was asked why in the past two years he has gone over to Europe to race around New Years and early in January and then returns stateside. As he pointed out, although he is now a professional runner who runs for Nike, he still is a student at the University of Colorado, so that is the only time in the winter he can race in Europe without missing school.

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Ritz said he often trains alone but also sometimes with his high school teammate Jason Hartman, and former collegiate teammate, Jorge Torres, both of whom are in his Brad Hudson coached group. He said he enjoys training with both, but said of his former "Fight Club" (the name of their house) housemate, Jorge Torres, with a slight chuckle in his voice, "Although sometimes Jorge talks non-stop, and it is kind of annoying". LetsRun.com will sponsor a real Fight Club between these too, so our sport will have a male complement to the Tamsyn Lewis, Jana Pittman catfight.

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Mary Wittenberg, head of the ING NYC Marathon and the NYRR, talked a little bit about the course selected for this year's nationals. The course at Van Cortlandt Park features a 2k loop that is repeated various amounts of times for the 4k, 8k, and 12k races. Some have been critical because it excludes the backhills and Cemetery Hill, two of the most famous parts of the storied Van Cortlandt course that is used for collegiate cross country.

Wittenberg said the backhills and Cemetery Hill were excluded for two main reasons. First, the course for Worlds is a fairly flat course on a golf course, and secondly because a 2k loop is more fan friendly than running into the backhills. She has valid reasons on both points, but to us running Van Cortlandt without either Cemetery Hill or the backhills is like running the NYC Marathon without running the final miles in Central Park.

While we disagree with the total exclusion of the backhills, we agree with Wittenberg about wanting to spread the greatness of cross country to the masses. As she said of cross country which she called the "best kept secret" in the sport (thanks to Gleukos the XC nationals will be on ESPN2 for the first time) she said, "There is something so special about cross country, its a real man against man competition...out in the rough, without water, without pacing... without some of the niceties our sport offers"

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Wittenberg also confirmed some of the entrants and withdrawals for the races. (The current status of entries can be found here).

The notable withdrawal was NCAA XC runner-up and Columbia star, Caroline Bierbaum, who has a hamstring problem.

In the other races she said:
Ryan Hall, Ian Dobson, Adam Goucher, Jorge Torres, and Anthony Famiglietti are among the entrants in the 4k (we don't see Dobson on this entry list so this one may not be 100%). The 4k for men is the day before the 12k, so if Torres does the both races he'll run the 4k first.

Former Stanford teammates, Sara (Bei) Hall and Lauren Fleshman are in the women's 4k, along with new training partner, Missy Buttry. (All 3 are also entered in the 8k (which is on Day 1 for the women) according to the entry page, Sara Slattery is entered in both races as well).

Lindsey Scherf, the junior American record holder at 10k, is running the 8k. And let us not forget Colleen De Reuck, who is amazingly going for a 3 peat age 41.

In addition to the12k entrants mentioned in the article (Ritzenhein, Webb, Torres, and Abdirahman), she confirmed Ritzenhein's training partner Jason Hartman is running, along with Liberty University star Josh McDougal.

(Thankfully for the purists) this is the last year the 4k will be contested at the Worlds or US Nationals.

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