Ritz Says Alan Webb is His Biggest Competitor

orbitboy wrote:

word up wrote:

I thought A&M one won the other day.

"The other day"? No. Last year, yeah. But overall history is 73 wins for Texas, 35 for A&M, and 5 ties. For A&M, it's a big rivarly. For Texas, much less so.

Woosh...

went right over your head didn't it?

Wetmore gets it and got it. Ritz's lack of speed was an issue when he was with Wetmore at CU - Wetmore basically said that Ritz needed to focus on his 1500m speed because in a World Championship or Olympic type event for 5K - 10K if an athlete didn't have near 3:35 or better 1500m speed - or the potential - then there was no hope for a medal. Ritz insisted on focusing on cross country and the 10K in college - now we see consequences of his choice. He isn't fast enough overall to drop anyone; he doesn't have a kick; and he has some difficulty staying healthy long enough to train for a marathon - in addition to heat problems.

After watching that video, I get the sense that Hudson doesn't have the faintest clue about what he's saying. Moreover, he's really good at selling his nonsense to Ritz - e.g. the reference to Ritz bombing at USATF's because he was trying to be "too thin" in the week beforehand. Hudson then blames this on Ritz's time at CU. I'm not a huge Wetmore fan, but give me a break. Hudson has been coaching Ritz for 2 (?) years now and he still blames things on Wetmore.

Honestly, I think Ritz is a poor racer. This "no one pushes themselves as hard as Dathan" is total nonsense, a huge detriment to his career, and belies a high-school runner's mentality. Everyone on the elite level pushes themselves hard during the race. The fact that Dathan falls over at every finish line suggests to me that it's an act, or mostly a mental thing. Granted, if you try to run a PR in a 10k or (god forbid) a marathon in 90 degree heat, physiology takes over at some point and you simply can't run anymore. But Dathan seems to be bug-eyed, spitting on himself, and falling over at every finish line.

The person who raced well is the person who is focused for the whole race and comes in strong at the finish - look at Tegenkamp and all of the Africans - how many times is KB falling over at the finish (except in the 95 degree heat of Mombassa). Ritz clearly needs to get it through his skull that he is no different than anyone else in the race, and that there's nothing impressive (or noble!!!) about falling apart at the end of the race. It doesn't mean you're tough; it means you raced like crap!

If you have read through this whole diatribe, let me post-face my criticisms with a few disclaimers:

- No, I've never run at the Olympics, nor have I coached anyone who has. I have trained hard, been reasonably successful in college, and now I run 30 miles a week - and I love every minute of it!

- Ritz is an amazing athlete.

- I would agree that it is a bit unfair to make judgments about Ritz's training, his racing, and his coach on the basis of a couple two minute videos. Nonetheless, both Ritz and Hudson certainly realize that they are public figures in the running world and that whatever they say in these interviews will be LetsRun fodder. Hudson clearly wants both himself and the running community to think that Ritz bonking at USATF's is somehow connected to Wetmore and CU. That's absurd.

- I agree with the above poster, Muenster would have been strangled a long time ago if I owned it.

Coach D wrote:

Could Ritz beat Alan Goucher's wife in a 1500?

Or even Adam Culpepper's wife?

Sorry. I guess this was the part that threw me:

"Just substitute the words "Britney" with "Ritz""

ha... wrote:

I thought A&M one won the other day.

Woosh...

went right over your head didn't it?

Whatever... ;)

I thought "Spelling and Grammar was gone"?

Have to say that i am amazed that his coach would not be overseeing 75-90% of what this guy eats and drinks.

Same for Webb and any other elite runner. Unless they have proven themselves responsable for handling their nutrition in the past then i'd be there like they were a 6 month old infant.

Yes they have the physical ability and determination to do what they do but a large part of performance is also dependent on what your'e putting in your body.

Remember, i think it was 2005, when Webb had appendicitis and was running like crap. in one of his interviews he kind of attributes it to going to an extreme of monitoring what he was eating.

does adam goucher have a brother named alan that i'm not aware of??

Yes, You Dip Shit! You must be Death or somthing, or just your ordinary, think you know all about distance running self.

Lamine Diack wrote:

Webb undoubtedly has had a bigger impact on the world scene than Dathan has, but I'll point out that Webb was 8th at World Champs, while Dathan was 9th. Take that for what you will...

Ritz was 9th in an event that doesn't even let in some of the fastest people in the world with far less competitors....it's a pretty bad anaolgy.

I wouldn't have said that if I were Ritz.......

I'm not surprised at all that Ritz said it. If you've ever seen those two race at the same time, it's pretty obvious to me that Ritz wants to beat Webb.

I remember watching Ritz run side by side with Webb at the Pre 2 miler this past year and you could just tell that he was determined to beat him. As soon as he passed him, he made a move to distance himself. I'm guessing their lifetime record against each other is about even.

I also think some of you are exaggerating how far apart these two runners are. Could Ritz beat Webb in a mile? Never. Could Webb beat Ritz in a 10000? Sometimes. Could Webb beat Ritz in a half marathon? Less likely. Ritz finished 3rd at the Great North half last year, a major international competition. This is nothing to sneeze at and he also came within a couple tenths of a second of Webb's then 2 mile AR.

Webb is not light years ahead of Ritz.

Webb is on a whole another level. Rirz has never been a world leader in his event. Webb has the fastest 1500 and mile time in the world this year. Webb is worried about the Africans not Ritz!

Come on folks lets get some perspective here.

Bekeleman wrote:

I'm not surprised at all that Ritz said it. If you've ever seen those two race at the same time, it's pretty obvious to me that Ritz wants to beat Webb.

and that by itself can decide if it's a rivalry or not, at least for one person. Somebody you *really* want to beat, who you think about in the middle of winter when you're pounding out a long training run, is a rival. The desire to beat them motivates you.

I can have "rivals" whom I've never beaten yet. By calling somebody a rival, I'm telling you more about what my goals are than about where I think I am.

A lot of people don't like his answer, but really who else should it be? Galen Rupp? Ryan Hall? Teg? There's no clear obvious answer, and if any of you actually watched the video (I don't really recommend it, BTW), he says, "I don't know, Alan Webb, I guess?"

sweathog wrote:

A lot of people don't like his answer, but really who else should it be? Galen Rupp? Ryan Hall? Teg? There's no clear obvious answer, and if any of you actually watched the video (I don't really recommend it, BTW), he says, "I don't know, Alan Webb, I guess?"

Good point. He was put on the spot and smiled when he said it. Alan Webb is as good of an answer as any.

Wow, do American runners take themselves seriously or what? I find it shocking that this guy has the time (and ego) to put together this multi-media ode to narcissm. I can't imagine the young Ugandan guy who just got a 5k bronze at Worlds, or one of the two Algerians who handily beat Webb at World ever having such a slick display of "me, me and more me."

In other words, lose the embarassing self-celebration and actually compete well. Then, once you've done that, start to think about promoting yourself. The WC performance was a

study in mediocrity.

PS - love the soundtrack as poor Ritz circles the track. I felt really sorry for him.

i agree 100% with the above poster.

that's pretty sad if you think about it, because that means ritzenhein is wasting his time thinking about stupid sh*t and not focusing on who his biggest comp really is. i thought it was weird to hear them say that too.

ritzenhein's biggest comp is the marathon trials; i doubt he makes the team. top 6 yeah, but top 3? doubtful. and webb won't be moving up to the 10k anytime, so i see no reason why ritz should think webb is his biggest comp. and if its attention he's looking for than try beating some world class runners. mottram was a good start, now let's pick it up from there like usa's and osaka never happened.

Abdi

Hall

Meb

Culpepper

Ritz

Sell

Gilmore

Shay

Hartmann

Rohatinsky

Verran

Lemkuhle

Mbarak Hussein

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Deena Kastor

Fernando Cabada

prove me wrong cabadass, prove me wrong...