Breaking: Dathan Ritzenhein Retires at 37

Retirement means he won’t run a step again, right? Wow how fat will he get

The last of the GOAT 3.

We’ve been discus’n the careers of these guys since high school. Now Letsrun is all that remains.

Hall wore out his testosterone? NO my friend let me explain. When you use synthetic testosterone as Hall more than likely did as his dirty doctor was the same guy Galen Rupp used, the outcome is that your natural testosterone levels become abnormally low due to playing with your bodies natural function.

Also, are we gonna act like Ritz is clean here? I understand he ran awesome but I mean what is it worth if he cheated? He for sure violated wada rules with the carn injections whether he "knew" or not. He tried to blame Salazar but let's be real, he knew. Also Salazar has a long career of cheating yet Ritz still signed with him. That's suspect in my book.

I don't recall too many runners, like Shorter Rodgers or Salazar, announcing a retirement. The chances of his returning to a national class level are the same whether he continued to train or retire. His body retired a few years ago.

Ritz was the running version of Job. Every time he had a big breakthrough he had a big injury. He seemed to withstand marathon training better than track, but had terrible problems with cramping in the marathon. But he always kept fighting and coming back. He was incredibly tough. I saw him run through bad cramping at the 2012 marathon trials and miss the team by a few seconds to Abdi. As devastating as that was, he just picked himself up and got on the track to make the team in the 10k and get the A standard at the trials. I have more admiration for that than I do for his sub 13/27.

Giles Corey wrote:

Amazing how he could come back from injuries.

Nice career.

Who had the best career of the Big Three?

Webb, Hall, or Ritz?

Definitely Ritz. Clearly the best junior career of the three, won a world medal (Webb - 0, Hall - 0). Great range, from 12:56 up to 2:07, beat Hall at the Olympics the year they ran together, no contest he had the best career IMO.

shootpost wrote:

Who?

Last of the American Greats from the Golden Age of American Distance Running (GAADR).

Now we only have vegan "professionals" who spend more time posting on instagram than training. What economic good are these people doing for Our Country? Get a life.

MAGAKAG

Like so many elites, immense talent but his body just couldn't handle the work load of high performance sport. It seemed like every year he had a new injury. I admire his heart; he always kept coming back to training and racing no matter how low he got. He was rewarded with three Olympic teams and a good set of personal bests. A pro career worth bragging about.

It seems like there is a cautionary tale to be learned from with the "Big Three", now that all of them are retired. Once in a generation talent as a youth is no indication of being able to succeed on the world stage. Factors like mental fortitude, training adaptability (physical and hormonal), dedication, and biomechanics are all too often ignored when a HS athlete runs a good XC race and mile time. We declare them world beaters by college without considering if their total body can handle it. Webb lacked the maturity to dedicate himself to one coach long term, always expected instant success. Hall had issues with his testosterone that were only made worse by high mileage. Ritz ran with obvious balance issues in his torso and seemed to "slap" his feet against the ground. All three spent their careers ravaged by injuries. Whatever genetic gift allowed them to run fast, it didn't allow them to have the adaptability to handle intensive work loads over a long period.

Darby wrote:

Amazing talent stuck in a body too fragile for it.

He achieved a lot, but could have achieved so much more.

Also gives impression of a decent human being.

Hope he will have a great success as a coach.

Full disclosure, I am from Michigan.

Many runners at his level and body type get injured, not just Dathan. He's an absolutely amazingly nice person and he ran some spectacular races that were simply a blast to watch, not just Zurich. In high school he flew by 2 miles at the state meet in 8:58 and went on to run 14:10!!! His 8:43 at the State Finals was done in way less than ideal conditions. I went to the Trials in Atlanta to of course, watch the race, but also to hopefully meet him and watch him race what could be his last race.

He's just super friendly and the kind of guy you pull for. When he started running for Kevin and Keith, I was super happy and hoping Dathan could pull another rabbit out of his hat as he's done before on both talent and true grit. Also got to watch him last year at the Crim!

All the best Dathan and best of luck if you decide to shoot for some Master's Competition in 2 and 1/2 years!

Are you saying Michigan creates flawed runners? I don't follow what being from Michigan has to do with this comment.

Giles Corey wrote:

Amazing how he could come back from injuries.

Nice career.

Who had the best career of the Big Three?

Webb, Hall, or Ritz?

Webb- 0 Olympic Medals, 0 WC Medals

Hall- 0 Olympic Medals, 0 WC Medals

Ritz- 0 Olympic Medals, 0 WC Medals (1 bronze in world half marathon champs which ehhhh)

More telling the state of USA running. How pitiful these are our "Big Three"

our analysis of his career is now up.

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2020/05/dathan-ritzenhein-hangs-em-up-we-pick-our-5-favorite-moments-from-his-career/

birdbeard wrote:

Giles Corey wrote:

Amazing how he could come back from injuries.

Nice career.

Who had the best career of the Big Three?

Webb, Hall, or Ritz?

Definitely Ritz. Clearly the best junior career of the three, won a world medal (Webb - 0, Hall - 0). Great range, from 12:56 up to 2:07, beat Hall at the Olympics the year they ran together, no contest he had the best career IMO.

Definitely Webb. Dude was actually a threat to win races on the track. But man that peak was really short. And road championships are a couple notches down.

You can really pick any of them depending on what you value.

Ritz

Please write a book. I want to know your takeaways from each coach that you’ve worked with.

HS —Rockford wa a great program

Wetmore—One of the best distance minds that our country has ever seen.

Hudson—Scattered but has had a ton of success.

Salazar—A legend even without the drug allegations.

Hansons—I think a better grasp of the marathon than any other current coaches.

All successful for different reasons. What are the major things you’ve learned from each?

I always liked him, and was sorry he was hurt so often. I agree with another post that the move to the marathon was probably a mistake; I just don't think his body could handle the added miles. Too bad he couldn't make more money doing 10k and XC, or just on the roads, the way many did in the 1980's (Jon Sinclair, etc.).

shootpost wrote:

Giles Corey wrote:

Amazing how he could come back from injuries.

Nice career.

Who had the best career of the Big Three?

Webb, Hall, or Ritz?

Webb- 0 Olympic Medals, 0 WC Medals

Hall- 0 Olympic Medals, 0 WC Medals

Ritz- 0 Olympic Medals, 0 WC Medals (1 bronze in world half marathon champs which ehhhh)

More telling the state of USA running. How pitiful these are our "Big Three"

Also note that none of them came anywhere close to OG/World champs medals. It wasn't like they spent their careers in the heart breaking position of 4th or lost medals to dopers. At no point did Webb, Hall, or Ritz have the ability to medal at a global championship. They were great HS and college athletes that had okay pro careers. People overvalue them way too much just because they broke a few American records. Medals is what matters.

No one is gonna care about Hall's 59:43 nor Ritz's 12:56 in 10 years, aside from statisticians and people born in the 80s still obsessed with HS track. In fact, them running some fast times only makes their pro careers look worse. "How can a man run a 3:30 1500m/3:46 mile and never get anywhere close to a medal or make multiple OG teams? What a shame." Imagine if a sprinter ran 9.8x for the 100m a few times over his career but never made an Olympic or World Championship final or made the final but finished dead last in a terrible time. We'd call him a disappointment of immense talent. This idolization of Webb, Hall, and Ritz is completely unjustified.

It's neither here nor there, but I love the time Ritz was running NYC, Jim Lampley was at the bridge turn at about 16 miles, and on the TV coverage talked forever about how Salazar had re-worked his form to be smooth, forefoot-ish, not pounding, soft, etc., how this had allowed him to turn the corner and be All That.

Then Ritz comes off the bridge destroying the earth's crust with his heels looking every bit like Salazar or Malmo back in the day.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, just saying.

Seems like he never had the kick to compete, but outside of injuries he got to incredible levels of fitness. A bit like Mottram, both comfortably under 13:00, but unless I'm misremembering both of them just never had the last lap or two to compete in the big championships.

Banana Bread wrote:

Bekele always was the greatest...still has the marathon WR to look forward to and Olympic gold

Really? I don't even think this deserves to be called trolling or shitposting. Unnecessary on this thread, and Kipchoge will crush Bekele. Once Bekele moved on from the track, he got injured almost as much as Ritz.