2009 World Half Marathon Championships!

so Ritz' 10k in the middle of that race (from 5k to 15k) was run in 28:02 (14:03/13:59). That's after opening in 14:28 and still being able to close in 14:19 + 3:12.

One thing I have been able to shake out of my mind is the supposed fact, and I believe it, that Ritzenhein did a 9 x 1600m @ 4:21 w/ 400m jog recovery workout leading up to his 45:03 10-miler. I thought that was so amazing because 6.2 miles @ 4:21 1600m pace comes out to about 27:10 for 10k, but Ritz did 9 miles at that pace and with a seemingly minimal amount of rest between 1600's.

Salazar mentioned in a recent interview that Rupp will probably try to jump into a fast 10k in early-mid spring (probably cardinal/payton jordan), and if Ritzenhein isn't training for any majors races, it would be pretty awesome to see what Ritz and Rupp could do together in a 10k. I think both were capable of breaking the 10k AR this past summmer, so I think it's just a matter of time. I still think it would be great of Nike could somehow get Rupp, Ritz, Teg, Webb, Fam, Abdi, Nelson, and Hall in the same 10k. But that would be an illusive dream 10k that will probably never happen.

just state the facts. that half marathon course in new york goes through the hills of central park before descending to battery park. it's not aided any more than boston is. and the weather as you know is hardly conducive to fast times.

With regard to the 5K splits, I ran the open race which began 30 minutes after the men's start. The 1st mile was very downhill - I went through in 6.15 when I ran a very sound/steady overall race and ended up with 6.35 per mile.

Therefore they really held back to run as slowly as 14.28.

Then, the last 2K were a return up the hill, so to hit a 14.19 5K indicates how much they'd held back prior to that point before tearing up the hill to the finish.

So the splits might indicate even pace, but they say nothing about the uneven effort.

In a thread from a couple of years ago I mentioned after Ritz's less than impressive NYCM and his spanking by Hall at the Olympic trials marathon that he will be as good if not better than Hall eventually. At that time Hall was on the top of his game and Ritz was struggling somewhat and people thought I was crazy. Remember, Ritz has been beating Hall since he was a HS junior, but in his early 20s, he had trouble staying healthy. Plain and simple, when Ritz has had sustained periods of being healthy, his results are always impressive. This was a great run, by Ritz and I think he is going to run much faster in his next half becasue he beat several sub-60 athletes and spent most of the WHM Championship reacting to the competition. In a less angled time trial type half, Ritz will probably run about 30 seconds faster.

you could definitely tell what kind of effort was being made when tsegay went ahead of ritz and kipyego by about 20-30 meters and then suddenly burned out after they went under that bridge because there was an uphill right there and tsegay was pushing it before he got to that but he just started pushing it too early.

plus, the fact that ritz and tadese ran the last 1k in 3:12 is indication that the last kilometer was uphill, because 3:12/km is about 67:12 HM pace where 60:00 HM pace comes down to 2:51/km.

Some ropey footage of ritz hanging with the big boys just after the 11km mark...which is about half a km after the first big move that drops all the Kenyans - if only temporarily for Kipyego.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM4lxybQfro

irun, I missed the entire race of course as I was out there running myself in their wake, but it's interesting to hear what you describe. I'd missed the 3.12 last K detail, too. That really tells a tale!

The US could win this thing. Ritz, Hall, and Rupp could all run between 59:30 and 61. It would be amazing for the US to win a major international team competition in distance! "USA Men Win World Half Marathon Championship," sounds good to me.

jjjjjjjjj wrote:

just state the facts. that half marathon course in new york goes through the hills of central park before descending to battery park. it's not aided any more than boston is. and the weather as you know is hardly conducive to fast times.

You obviously don´t know what "aided course" means. If the net drop is more than 1 meter/km then the course is aided according to the rules of IAAF and USATF.

sorry that this is so very delayed, but i am hoping you could list the top 50 American half marathoners of all time? or could you direct me to a resource that holds this data?