High and Mighty wrote:
Ryan Foreman wrote:I'm shocked everyone is so shocked about this performance.
You're shocked that a marathoner took 20 seconds off his 5k PR and ran American Record after 8 weeks moderate speed training. Don't be a jackass. Yes, there were a few signs, but it's still a shocking performance that NO ONE expected.
Maybe no one "expected" it or would have bet on it. But that doesn't mean nobody thought it wasn't in the range of realistic possibilities. Moreover, get your facts right. He ran the London Marathon way back at the end of April. Took a brief rest, then joined Salazar in May and has been training for a good 4 months at these distances to peak for just this time of year. People are getting way too hung up on the technicality that he ran a competitive race during his base training phase when any runner training training to peak for the 10 and 5K at the end of the summer would be running very long distances anyway. The bottom line is that Ritz followed the same tried and true training routine that any runner has ever done who has turned in a great performance.
Also, running conditions play a big factor in time. I don't know what the temperature was for this race, but the conditions looked good and Zurich has a good history of recording good times.
Furthermore, if there is anything unusual it was the fact that he focused on the Marathon at a relatively young age when he was running great times in the 5K before that. Therefore you are comparing him to a bunch of older people who only took up the Marathon after they were past their prime at the shorter distances.
I don't blame people for raising their eyebrows a little bit at Ritz's time and asking themselves if it makes sense he could do that. But I do blame people for not then taking a closer look at the facts and concluding that 'yes, it does make a lot of sense'.