Best performance is not the same as best career.
Best performance is not the same as best career.
Only one of them ever ran a victory lap with Hicham El Guerroj.
None of the others ever did anything as impressive as Webb's high school mile. The American record was gravy.
Great thread! I read each response thoroughly.
I was in the same grade as Webb/Ritz/Hall and havefollowed all their careers closely. They're my top 3 favorite runners of all-time.
I don't think Solinsky, as much as I like him, should even be included in the conversation.
For me, the answer is easily Ritz.
-Amazing HS runner, the best I've ever seen
-2-time National Footlocker champ
-NCAA champ at Colorado
-National cross country champ (Multiple times)
-World JR Medal
-Insane range from 2-mile through the marathon
-Consistently a top runner in every race he ever enters, from xc races to random road races
-World bronze in the half marathon
-3 time Olympian is amazing. The fact he can make a 4th is remarkable. And don't count him out for 2020 for a 5th!
Ritz is the only one who can go to sleep at night knowing he accomplished almost everything he could as a runner.
The other three have to be haunted by what might have been.
Solinsky: AMAZING 2010 but it was non-championship year. Probably best American distance runner to NEVER make Olympic team.
Webb: Fell off the face of the earth starting with the World Championships in 2007. Probably has expressed more open frustration with his career than anyone else.
Hall: Never got that major marathon win. Always seemed to be almost.
rough and dirty count confused by some wishy-washy answers
Ritz 20
Hall&Webb 9
Solinsky 1
Psyched that people like this thread!
The question was originally just Solinsky, Webb and Ritz, but I added Hall in at the last minute. I think my mid-d background makes me biased towards the other 3.
Personally I'd lean towards Ritz or Solinsky, because of their college careers. My college running career was completely wiped out by injuries. Both those guys won team and individual titles, and I would love to have those experiences.
After that it comes down to Solinsky's awesome 2010 or Ritz's Olympic teams and longevity. I want to pick Solinsky so bad, but in the end it has to be Ritz.
1. Ritz
2. Solinsky
3. Webb
4. Hall
Webb- current AR record holder. Also, the mile is a bad ass event.
Solinsky's Dog wrote:
Iconic Performances
Webb - 3:53 and 3:46 - High school monster and super leet
Solinsky - 26:59 - First non-African under 27:00
Ritz - None
Hall - None
i consider Ritz's Zurich 5k AR & closing on Bekele in 2009 pretty iconic
Ritz's performance in that race slightly diluted by the fact he was in caboose position for 8 laps of that race. But there was a shot in the video of that race of Bekele coming down the backstretch with Dathan's face just off his right shoulder that was pretty neat. It was pretty cool seeing Ritz passing all of the Africans save Bekele and that one other who passed him back in the homestretch in the last few laps of that race
cio2o2 wrote:
Webb - 3:53 and 3:46 - High school monster and super leet
Solinsky - 26:59 - First non-African under 27:00
Ritz - None
Hall - None
/quote]
Ritz - that sub 13 5k performance was iconic.
For good measure, 2 other races came into my mind after that - his first HS national title in XC and his NCAA win were both awesome and popped into my mind, but obviously career wise, the 5k is better.
Hall - Sub 60 half marathon out of nowhere was iconic, his trials win is the most memorable and exciting trials marathon in US history and most dominate as win as well. His Boston race too.
Also - think about when you heard the result or read it on LR and think 'Holy Sht, did that just happen' and you have each runner's iconic moment.
Webb - 3:53
Solinksy - 26:59
Hall - Tie between sub 60 half and Boston.
Ritz - Sub 13 5k.
I'll jump on the Ritz bandwagon because he has longevity and seems to be the most at peace with his career. I too would want to be happy & satisfied with my results and not thinking about what could have been.