Ritz's Remarkable Race in Edinburgh

results?

Straight gangsta: http://cache1.gettyimages.com/xc/78904324.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1939DE8499A90908064E7025EDB699FDD5C

There are people on this board such as a # of those above who won't say ANYTHING positive about Ritz. This is a VERY impressive result - PERIOD!

Come on... wrote:

There are people on this board such as a # of those above who won't say ANYTHING positive about Ritz. This is a VERY impressive result - PERIOD!

Ritz usually performs well...this race though doesnt have enough data to say one way or another how much he has improved. This is not a very impressive result...its basically what he should be doing. Its very impressive if it was me or you, but not Ritz. This is what he should be doing.

I wouldnt be surprised though if he was ready for a huge breakthrough year finally. He's been healthy for a most of the past few years, and has much better alternative training techniques now if he does get injured. I hope to see a 1306/27:14/59:44/2:06:55 out of Ritz this year....

That a bit more positive?

njmatt wrote:

Yeah, except Bekele himself said described the race as "fast and tough".

I think Bekele is gracious enough not to finish a race and say "Well, quite frankly, that was a walk in the park". Which is exactly what it looked like.

ghost wrote:

Ritz has the potential to finish first non African in the world cross, with a place in the top 20.

Also, based on his cross performances, Ritz, if healthy, should be capable of approaching Meb's best 10,000 time of 27:13/10,000.

Correct on both counts. Ritz has more talent than Meb, so that 10,000 AR, assuming Ritz can stay healthy is his for the taking...easily too. That should just me a moderate step goal for him. He's got bigger fish than that to fry yet.

Well, we've seen this before. I can think of at least 2 other times when Ritz went over to Europe and ran some good cross-country races and all of his fans (me included) got all fired up about him making the leap and challenging for a medal at world cross (or at least top ten) and then.... he'd get blisters, or injured, or just get flat out blown away. And the other thing is Ritz always runs well when it's cold but is an atrocious high humidity runner. So he tears it up in winter cross races and then dies when we get to July track races.

He had a great race. I would have liked to see him beat ebuya .. that would be huge.

yawn... this poster is exactly rightwill it actually translate to faster times on the track...we haven't seen that happen before following a good cross result from ritz

YahooforPolitics wrote:

Well, we've seen this before. I can think of at least 2 other times when Ritz went over to Europe and ran some good cross-country races and all of his fans (me included) got all fired up about him making the leap and challenging for a medal at world cross (or at least top ten) and then.... he'd get blisters, or injured, or just get flat out blown away. And the other thing is Ritz always runs well when it's cold but is an atrocious high humidity runner. So he tears it up in winter cross races and then dies when we get to July track races.

I watched the race on TV. Ritz was tough and showed great character. He couldn't live with the surges of pace the Africans threw in but reeled them back in afterward. Apart from the end they threw in a sick last 1/2 mile up and down a steep rough hill.

As usual, the worse (cold, muddy, wet, hilly, slow) the conditions the better Ritz runs. Unfortunately, if it's dry, flat, warm, and fast, well, there is going to be some shoe, injury, blister problem.

I was the same way (loved cross country and steeplechase, hated the 5k). The guy is very tough but doesn't have the speed or multiple gears of Bekele.

anEconomist wrote:

yawn... this poster is exactly right

will it actually translate to faster times on the track...

we haven't seen that happen before following a good cross result from ritz

anEconomist,

Don't be too hard on Ritz. It's two steps forward and one and a HALF steps back with him, but that's fine. He's still young enough for that to be fine. The progress is definitely there.

He set PRs in 2007 in the marathon, the 2 mile, and the 3,000 meters. He's continuing to improve.

Oh, FW, I'm so disappointed, for you of all people should know that Ritz also had a PR in the 5,000 meters.

Flagpole Willy wrote:

anEconomist wrote:

yawn... this poster is exactly right

will it actually translate to faster times on the track...

we haven't seen that happen before following a good cross result from ritz

anEconomist,

Don't be too hard on Ritz. It's two steps forward and one and a HALF steps back with him, but that's fine. He's still young enough for that to be fine. The progress is definitely there.

He set PRs in 2007 in the marathon, the 2 mile, and the 3,000 meters. He's continuing to improve.

Mrr82 wrote:I hope to see a 1306/27:14/59:44/2:06:55 out of Ritz this year....

That a bit more positive?

2:06:55? 59:44? You've got to be kidding me. That's not going to happen.

There are about 30 Africans who could've done what he did at Edinburgh, which is why he could finish anywhere from 10th-30th at World Cross.

Stormin wrote:

I watched the race on TV. Ritz was tough and showed great character. He couldn't live with the surges of pace the Africans threw in but reeled them back in afterward. Apart from the end they threw in a sick last 1/2 mile up and down a steep rough hill.

How can you watch it on TV? I would love to watch races like this live!

youtubeit wrote:

How can you watch it on TV?

You move to the UK.

obvious pointerouter wrote:

youtubeit wrote:

How can you watch it on TV?

You move to the UK.

Damn.

How did Teg do in this race?

Teg don't run no 9k