73.9% of Letsrun.com voters are more impressed by sub-13 than bronze

Anything done on the track is greater than a road race.

The half marathon is not a championship event otherwise that race would have been held at the real World Championships in Berlin.

He is 20th on the world list in the half. How many of those guys were in this race?

He is 5th in the world in the 5000.

I am more impressed by the 5000m time than the half marathon performance.

I am also more impressed by his 6th in the 10,000 at the World Championships than the 3rd at the World Half Marathon Championships.

That bronze medal was still very impressive and gives him three great performances in one year.

Everyone knows that we have extremely low standards for American distance runners. It's been 20+ years since the US received a medal in ANY distance event at the Olympic games. We are still wasting time applauding sub 4 minute milers...

track4lyfe wrote:

Everyone knows that we have extremely low standards for American distance runners. It's been 20+ years since the US received a medal in ANY distance event at the Olympic games. We are still wasting time applauding sub 4 minute milers...

Wrong. Meb K. and D.K. just a few years back to name two.

I'm just glad we actually have someone talented enough running in the USA to finally have a debate like this.

racetraining wrote:

It is pretty strange that the runners here get so caught up in time only.

Weather / course conditions and real competition is what racing has always been about.

Records will be broken championship medals last forever.

A 60:00 flat on a less than perfect day and course, beating some guys that have gone sub 59 was very impressive.

The time trial 12:56 was unexpected and great too, but I just have to give a bigger nod to the half marathon.

I completely agree. I also agree with the poster that said he now had pressure to perform well after the 12:56, and he did.

The way Ritz raced that half was great to watch. He pushed the pace and really spear-headed the break away pack. Just when you thought he would get swallowed by a few of the East African studs, he surged by them again. The course was wet with a lot of tight turns. To only be 25 seconds behind arguably the world's best road runner, (under the marathon), is pretty sweet. It was not like he finished a distance 3rd either, he went neck and neck with Kipyego all the way to the wire and missed the silver by less than half a second.

People keep calling his 5 k a time trial. It wasn't, sure he ran pretty even splits, but kept in contact with the leaders the whole way, then started picking off people at the end. If it had been a time trial with no one in front of him, or so far in front that they were gone, I don't think he would've ran nearly as fast.

In both races he was racing for a top spot.

The real "test" will be in World XC. Possibly his best event, and top competiton. I think top ten is possible. Top 5 would be another level.

My gf has a Whooty! wrote:

track4lyfe wrote:

Everyone knows that we have extremely low standards for American distance runners. It's been 20+ years since the US received a medal in ANY distance event at the Olympic games. We are still wasting time applauding sub 4 minute milers...

Wrong. Meb K. and D.K. just a few years back to name two.

And Shalane!?? She took bronze in the 10k in the last Olympics. Then there was Lagat technically (and illegally)

Track4lyfe...more like has no clue for life.

Wrong. Meb K. and D.K. just a few years back to name two.

And Shalane!?? She took bronze in the 10k in the last Olympics. Then there was Lagat technically (and illegally)

Track4lyfe...more like has no clue for life.

Original Statement: "73.9% of Letsrun.com voters are more impressed by sub-13 than bronze"

This post seemed obvious to me that we were talking about American MEN Distance running. So obviously you "have no clue for life." Especially since you threw in the lone male (Lagat) and he has never won an Olympic medal as an American. He's won a Silver and Bronze with "KENYA" on his chest!

Lets do a medal count boys and girls... This has been the most underachieving group in all track & field events at the Olympic games.

NEVER- Race walk medal

NEVER 10k- USA Medalists (1912-Lewis Tewanima- Hopi Indian) (Mills 64' Sioux Indian)

1964- Schul- Last 5k medal

1968- Ryun- Last 1500 medal

1976- Shorter- Last Marathon medal

1984- Diemer- Last Steeple

NO MEDALS IN THE LAST 6 OLYMPICS!!! You'll need a calculator to figure out the other events...

This is why 73% of people are so happy to see a sub 13. Sorry folks, this just is not good enough...

Good point about the pacing. Shalane earned her Bronze the same way. And I'm glad someone mentioned Kennedy. Geez 1996 was a LOOOONG time ago. The 5000 is clearly the bigger deal.

And someone mentioned the performance list and the parity of rank there- well I don't even have to look to know that his rank on the perfomer list will be way better than in the half. I mean, just think how many of those 117 times are owned by Geb or Bekele or Komen.

Man this isn't even close. The poll shows that LetsRun is sane after all.

I will throw Johnny Gray (one my all-time favorites) for his 92' 800m Bronze and PR of 1:42.60. That's if people want to consider it a distance event? I'm fine with that...

*Earl Jones also... 88' Bronze medal in the 800 (another all-time favorite).

Once again... Sub 13 is not a huge milestone at the international level, compared to bringing home medals when it counts. Sorry!

Adam R. wrote:

Interestingly enough, Ritz's 5000 m time was the 117th fastest ever run while his half-marathon time puts him into a six-way tie for the 113th-best, i.e. 113-118th. The 5000 m got him an AR while the half got him a bronze medal. Looks pretty the same.

Since there are only 16 bronze medalists in this event it does put him in a more exclusive club. Plus, in the IAAF half there are specialists at 5km, 10km, roads and marathons.

The bronze rules.

Meb won the silver in Athens in 2004.

maybe because nobody gives a shit about road races, marathons or half-marathons. track is where its at, anything else other than it and cross is just boring

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Meb.

the best runners in the world were not in the half...i dont know if there are are many 5k runners in the world who could beaten ritz when he ran 12:56 who werent already in the race, there are def more half-marathoners who are training for the marathon who would have been him if he was in it....geb, bekele, wanjiru...possibly hall all could have taken him if they entered

The question should be:

Are you more impressed with Ritz's 5K AR or Hall's half-marathon AR?

precisely wrote:

I completely agree. I also agree with the poster that said he now had pressure to perform well after the 12:56, and he did.

The way Ritz raced that half was great to watch. He pushed the pace and really spear-headed the break away pack. Just when you thought he would get swallowed by a few of the East African studs, he surged by them again. The course was wet with a lot of tight turns. To only be 25 seconds behind arguably the world's best road runner, (under the marathon), is pretty sweet. It was not like he finished a distance 3rd either, he went neck and neck with Kipyego all the way to the wire and missed the silver by less than half a second.

I agree with you and the OP. I think most will agree it is much easier to have a breakthrough performance when its unexpected. It came out of left field after a recent coaching change and no one expected it THAT soon. Also, I think the impact of the 12:56 was diminished when Teg did it a week later. However, with the 12:56 under his belt and news coming out of the AlSal camp about his monster workouts, I think you have to say that Ritz at least met, if not exceeded expectations. Admit it... most of you expected him to fade at the end. I did.

In response to the folks who keep bringing up the lack of competition at this race, Ritz beat two out of the six humans who have ever run a sub-59 half marathon (Kitwara and Kiprotich, the other four being Wanjiru, Makau, Geb, and Tadese) and probably would have given Haile a run for his money if he had been in the race.