RITZ TO DO 2014 BOSTON MARATHON (debut)

Hey Ritz, have a great day and run a PR

Not Ritz. I do see other DNF's however.

BTW, has any uninvited elite won by running with the regular runners? Someone that pays their own way, lines up with the scrubs, and ends up winning?

I don't understand why people on LetsRun always go on predicting times when you don't even know the weather forecast. Ideal marathon weather rarely happens, even a 10 degree or 10 mpw swing can have an effect. Yet people on here start guessing finishing times down to the second, months in advance.

They should forget to invite the top africans one year

Hardloper wrote:

I don't understand why people on LetsRun always go on predicting times when you don't even know the weather forecast. Ideal marathon weather rarely happens, even a 10 degree or 10 mpw swing can have an effect. Yet people on here start guessing finishing times down to the second, months in advance.

+1 Most of those people have never run a marathon before and can't appreciate how much those factors can swing a marathon time either way.

It's just a shot in the dark and all for good fun. It's like the guy who put 100 USD on Auburn for the Nat'l Championships this year (before the season started) and ALMOST ended up with 50,000 USD. As the race approaches and we know more about the weather and Ritz's training, we can all make more educated guesses -- but now the only reason to make as prediction is to say "look what I predicted on day one."

Dennis Reynolds 2.0 wrote:

Stupid race, lots of $$$

You are seriously one of the dumbest posters on this board. Should Ritz skip Boston and try to time trial Berlin and lose by 3-4 minutes? I'm a huge Ritz fan but he will never run 2:05.

And if Boston is stupid what about New York? There's too many turns, too much elevation change, it's not fast course blah blah blah.

Depending on the weather conditions I think Ritz can be competitive.

SMJO wrote:

Kara has realized that she needs to be in her sharpest shape and hope the race is tactical.

She is not good enough to win a fast 10k or a fast Marathon so she needs to be in her best 5 and 10 shape and gamble that nobody else is.

When Kara lost in the sprint to the finish in 2009, I believe she had the fastest track times of the three she competed with. In LetsRun's analysis of the finish and on the boards - the brojos noted that the fastest track times don't correlate to likelihood of success. What matters is how much you have in the tank.

I have to find the "left in the tank" comment - but it's out there. Rojo, Wejo ... know where it is off the top of your head?

agree with DNF. The downhills will wreck his legs. Does not do the required training as do the kenyans, hence their success even though Ritz is approx. the same physical size and weight.

I have never run Boston, but if I had I would be much more knowledgable on the subject matter.

runnerboy1 wrote:

agree with DNF. The downhills will wreck his legs. Does not do the required training as do the kenyans, hence their success even though Ritz is approx. the same physical size and weight.

I disagree with this completely. Salazar is quite familiar with the hill work that will be required. I'd be willing to bet that Dathan will be doing lots of training on Wildwood (at least when he is in Portland), which is more-than-adequate preparation for anything that Boston has to offer.