2009 World Half Marathon Championships!

irun wrote:

27:22 @ WC

12:56

60:00

I think all signs points to a 27 10k on the track and maybe sub-27. the kenyan who finished 1 second in front of him has a 26:59 10k pr.

Agreed. Given conditions today and a relatively slow start (14:28 first 5k), I would think Hall's HM record as well as Williams' 15k record are both in jeopardy the first time Ritz goes chasing after a PR.

considering ritz is planning on doing xc this winter, i wonder if he will try going for a spring marathon in 2010 or if he will stick to some road races and then maybe head back to the track.

i think a world bronze placing in 60:00 is far better and more meaningful than a planned time trial in sub-60.

i wonder how hall might've competed. it's realistic that there could have been 2 americans in the top 5. usa, usa, ...

tjefjeig wrote:

4.00 mile coming this indoor season.

Don't forget 7:30 for outdoors in the 3k next year......... Not joking.

they were consistent with that pace though because they went through 10k in 28:30, so they ran the second 5k in 14:32. then 42:30, which means ritz ran the 3rd 5k in 14:00(13:59 actually), and then 56:48 @ 20k means he (ritz) ran the 4th 5k in 14:19. so his 5k splits were

14:28

14:32 (28:30)

13:59 (42:29)

14:19 (56:48)

so yes, considering he had some strength to run 13:59 for the 3rd 5k, i would believe an argument that he could've gone out faster and ran more evenly (in the hypothetical context of a planned out time trial). ritz is a strength runner though. he has the confidence and knows that he can finish hard or make big moves toward the end of a race. his strength is looking really good right now.

Missed the race this morning, so I just went and watched the last 20 minutes on Universal sports.

It was a majestic, gutsy performance by Ritz. Not once did he seem the slightest bit cowed by the African competitors around him. Time and again he took the lead, made the move--blasting up the final hill, for example, and breaking Tsegay as he did it. That must have hurt. But if he hadn't done it, he might not have medaled; Tsegay might have hung in there and run him down at the end. This speaks to good work done during his time with Brad Hudson, frankly; a marathoner's deep base. It also speaks to Salazar's wisdom in allowing him to run that crazy-fast 10 mile tempo. That clearly gave Ritz the knowledge and confidence that let him push himself hard against the edge, knowing he had what it took.

Ritz was dogged for a few years by the sense that he'd underperformed, and this underperformance had something to do with fragility. He was like a thoroughbred race horse without enough calcium in his bones. He kept breaking down. That's NOT the Ritz we saw in this championship race. He looked strong, almost muscular.

Great stuff. Inspiring. The renaissance continues.

Instead of being an arrogant ass about it, which apparently comes rather easily to you, why not just say, "Yes, there was something defective, and this is what it is?" "Yes, the course was changed in 2008 because . . . ?"http://www.nyrr.org/races/pro/nychalf/07story.asphttp://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-239-399--12266-0,00.html

malmo wrote:

Montesquieu wrote:

Didn't Abdi run 60:29 in NYC against Geb? Is there something defective about the course?[quote]malmo wrote:

Duh.

Here are Ritz's official splits:14:2714:03 (28:30)13:59 (42:29)14:19 (56:48)http://www.iaaf.org/whm09/results/eventCode=4142/sex=M/discCode=HMAR/combCode=hash/roundCode=f/results.html#det

irun wrote:

they were consistent with that pace though because they went through 10k in 28:30, so they ran the second 5k in 14:32. then 42:30, which means ritz ran the 3rd 5k in 14:00(13:59 actually), and then 56:48 @ 20k means he (ritz) ran the 4th 5k in 14:19. so his 5k splits were

14:28

14:32 (28:30)

13:59 (42:29)

14:19 (56:48)

so yes, considering he had some strength to run 13:59 for the 3rd 5k, i would believe an argument that he could've gone out faster and ran more evenly (in the hypothetical context of a planned out time trial). ritz is a strength runner though. he has the confidence and knows that he can finish hard or make big moves toward the end of a race. his strength is looking really good right now.

yyy wrote:

Incorrect. It is still about genetics and distributions.

The depth of the kenyans and ethiopians will never be matched

by Caucasians, but there might be one or two who are competitive, i.e. a fluctuation. Ritz is such a fluctuation.

Great job!

No, there are far more than one or two Caucasians who could be competitive IF they were interested in the sport. The lesser depth of talent combined with little interest means we'll see few white guys, for now, at the top levels. If for example, Europeans were as interested in the sport as they were up to the mid 80's when soccer and other activities began to pull the kids away in droves, you'd see several guys in every distance event capable of winning medals, and Europeans would probably dominate the 800 and 1500. The Kenyans, Ethiopians and Moroccans would be the top dogs, but they wouldn't have the artificially large advantage in numbers you see now.

kudzurunner wrote:

He was like a thoroughbred race horse without enough calcium in his bones. He kept breaking down. That's NOT the Ritz we saw in this championship race. He looked strong, almost muscular.

And hopefully clean.

Indeed

Montesquieu wrote:

Instead of being an arrogant ass about it, which apparently comes rather easily to you, why not just say, "Yes, there was something defective, and this is what it is?" "Yes, the course was changed in 2008 because . . . ?"

You need a cold shower, buddy.

Downhill and point-to-point (NY is both) courses are aided.

irun wrote:

they were consistent with that pace though because they went through 10k in 28:30, so they ran the second 5k in 14:32. then 42:30, which means ritz ran the 3rd 5k in 14:00(13:59 actually), and then 56:48 @ 20k means he (ritz) ran the 4th 5k in 14:19. so his 5k splits were

14:28

14:32 (28:30)

13:59 (42:29)

14:19 (56:48)

so yes, considering he had some strength to run 13:59 for the 3rd 5k, i would believe an argument that he could've gone out faster and ran more evenly (in the hypothetical context of a planned out time trial). ritz is a strength runner though. he has the confidence and knows that he can finish hard or make big moves toward the end of a race. his strength is looking really good right now.

Gotta point out that that second 5k is actually 14:02.

Curious Chris wrote:

Gotta point out that that second 5k is actually 14:02.

And as I pointed out in another thread, Ritz's 15k split from 5k to 20k was two seconds faster than the American 15k record (42:20 v. 42:22).

mundus vult decipi wrote:

Curious Chris wrote:

Gotta point out that that second 5k is actually 14:02.

And as I pointed out in another thread, Ritz's 15k split from 5k to 20k was two seconds faster than the American 15k record (42:20 v. 42:22).

Great point!

God knows wrote:

Thanks to Salazar Kenyanizing Ritz. You have to be Kenyan to run with Kenyans. Means also you have to be black. With D. Ritz's performance, no American or non-Kenyan/thiopians should have excuse why they are not good... It is all in the mind. Great, impressive performance by Ritz...GO RITZ! GO RITZ!

DontFeedTheTroll wrote:

I thought Stefano Baldini proved that with Oly Gold and a few high finishes at majors and dos Santos proved this with wins at New York. Does stuff only count if an American proves them?

German Silva got nipped at the line by Skah in the World Half Champs back in 1993 I believe. But your right, thanks to Ritz getting 3rd we finally know that non-Africans can compete!

I'm no Ritz fanboy. But neither am I afraid to cheer a terrific performance in a championship race for fear of being called a fanboy. What intrigues me is how some kibbitzers keep raising the bar and shifting the grounds by which they adjudge various performances "nothing to get excited about." If he won the damned thing but didn't break the AR you'd be pointing THAT out, clearly.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Ritz's performance gives him the #2 all-time US half-marathon performance, one that puts him ahead of #3 by 55 seconds.

That's damned good.

In this particular race, he beat out a number of African born runners with notably faster PBs.

That's a great day's work, too.

He didn't fold in the final mile; he kept fighting to the very end, aggressively, and put himself on the podium--the first non-African runner to do that in quite a while.

Bravo.

On one pre-race thread, somebody said that if Ritz finished in the top 10, that would be excellent, and if he finished in the top five, that would be exceptional. He finished third. Exceptional-plus, I guess.

Oh, go ahead. Be impressed. It's really OK.

Exceptional-plus. Newspeak.

Amen. I just watched the Universal Sports live feed and that was an impressive performance.

As another poster noted earlier, the first half of that race had so many twists and turns it looked almost like a cc course. Fun racing, but definitely had an effect on final times - not a course built for speed/time-trialing. But who cares, it's the world's.

Bottom line is Ritz mixed up with the some of the best in the world and came up bronze. Kudos!

Ritz' previous PR was 61:25, so he also PRed by 1:25 today, which is huge. especially considering his previous HM pr also came from a high caliber race in England a couple years ago, so it's not like we're comparing two very different types of races. he was competitive in both, but in this one he's had improved some elements of his running/racing.